Most of all, however, the author uses the experiences of his own family, members of which, he states, have now been living and working in China for five generations. "In the afterword to my first novel I wrote of how my ancestors would be rolling in their graves if they knew what I had done to them in my fiction. They will continue rolling through this book."
The action certainly embraces many of the main political events of the era -- the Fengtian-Chihli Wars of 1922 and 1924, the Northern Expedition of 1926 to 1928, the Nanjing Outrage and the Shanghai massacre of 1927.
The Emperor's Bones can be thoroughly recommended. It's not Tolstoy, but it does have some of his more easily assimilated virtues -- events ranging over a wide historical panorama, real characters from history conversing with imagined ones, and so on. Moreover, it doesn't claim to be anything it isn't. Many swashbuckling historical narratives conceal a cynical manipulation of the allure that scenes of sex and of brutality have for many readers. For some reason Adam Williams, for all the violence and unashamed eroticism in his two books, doesn't feel like that. There is an almost school-boyish innocence about him, making these romances akin to Rider Haggard's 100-year-old adventure stories, or John Buchan's of a generation later. Altogether, it feels a very English approach -- relishing high-spirited forays into distant lands without looking over-closely at the darker motivations that more skeptical souls would readily perceive as lying beneath them.
This, then, is a rollicking, action-packed, lusty tale of adventure. It's certain to be very successful, and it deserves to be. It would make an excellent film. Anyone who wants many hours of none-too-taxing thrills will enjoy it. But it's also very well-researched, and readers will receive a painless education in the politics of China in the 1920s while relishing the rolls in the hay, the grand set-pieces, and the rapid movement of characters and events across the landscapes of eastern China.
RSS