Why don't we get enough Gu Long threads?

[Dennis Chen]

There are a few major good guys with their own multiple books. Who is your favorite?

[Ken Cheng]

I like the LUK SIU FUNG series the best, but that's more because of the supporting characters than the main character (although Luk is cool too, but I feel his co-stars overshadow him most of the time).

My second favorite would be the DAGGER LEE series of stories. Lee Chum Foon isn't quite as overshadowed by his co-stars as Luk Siu Fung is.

I've never quite warmed to CHOR LAU HEUNG for some reason. I don't hate it; it's just not as interesting as the above two for some reason.

I've barely explored the rest of the Gu Long canon.

[mawguy]

what a misleading title! here i was, curious to see what explanations would be given for the lack of GL threads here...

anyway, i chose LXF for the series more than the actual character. i agree with mr. cheng that the secondaries are far more interesting. XMCX (sai moon chui suet) and HML (far moon lau) absolutely steal the scene when they're present, and i'm definitely more partial to the stories that feature them.

there are a more than these "few good men" in the GL universe, you know. ye kai (yip hoi) and shen lang (sum long) come to mind. and the ones that aren't so obviously "happy", like fu hongxue (fu hung suet) or xie xiaofeng (tse hiu fung) are still interesting and memorable. and that's just scratching the surface, since i'm still ignorant of a majority of his stories.

and you can hardly lump X11L & LXH into the category of "good guys with a series of books" because they don't. X11L has one story in two parts. LXH has one story, even though that story spawned a series of interrelated ones. yes, yes, semantics, but those out there not familiar with GL's works would be totally mislead by your categories.

and yes, the bracketed cantonese is my own shout-out to that poor, abused, minority dialect. :P

[Han Solo]

I don't know why we don't have more GL discussions.

If you look at the completed translations.
http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=6435

We have 9 completed JY works.

We have 15 completed GL works (unless there's more at wuxiasociety, mawguy??)

Han Solo

[Cesare]

I can compare only Li Xun Huan and Lu Xiao Feng - but frankly, I can't decide between the two characters.
And - as Ken Cheng and Mawguy - I like the "supporting cast" somewhat better. Master Li is a very cool character, but Ah Fei - to me - is cooler. And while I quite adore Lu Xiao Feng, his friends indeed steal the show from him when they make an appearance.
I also very much like Ye Kai and Fu Hong Xue - though I've yet to finish Bordertown Wanderer...

As for the stories - I haven't read enough of them. But I very much liked the tone and mood of Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword and out of those LXFs I've read so far, only Before And After The Duel can compare.

[mawguy]

We have 9 completed JY works.

We have 15 completed GL works (unless there's more at wuxiasociety, mawguy??)

sadly, no. it seems translating is on hiatus for all the stories. more's the pity.

[bliss]

I think most interest in wuxia spawns from TV series or movies, and there are simply much more Jin Yong based series and movies than Gu Long, hence the lack of general interest in Gu Long compared to Jin Yong.

[Bei Rongkun]

i love LXF and CLX at same passion. both have great supporting characters. i only able to read GL novel via translation on net, and somehow many incomplete, i wish there is more thread for GL.

[forgot password]

imo gl novels are teh suck!! there s almost no gradual development in main characters' martial arts, if any. 5 pages into any novel and you ve already seen dudes killing gods!! even worse is the way gl depicted his female characters. ok, women are hardly 1 tenth as saintly as princess xiang xiang was, but really, reading books with 99% of female characters being biatches is just too much for my fragile and sentimental heart.

[kidd]

imo gl novels are teh suck!! there s almost no gradual development in main characters' martial arts, if any. 5 pages into any novel and you ve already seen dudes killing gods!! even worse is the way gl depicted his female characters. ok, women are hardly 1 tenth as saintly as princess xiang xiang was, but really, reading books with 99% of female characters being biatches is just too much for my fragile and sentimental heart.

How many Gu Long novels have you read?

[Ren Ying Ying]

what a misleading title! here i was, curious to see what explanations would be given for the lack of GL threads here...

I know! I thought it was going to discuess why there arn't more GL discussions. I guess Gu Long stories are more difficult to discuss b/c since there are so many of them, most ppl arn't always familiar with the stories. Also, while some of his stories are pretty good, there are quite a few distasteful ones out there that kinda just makes you go WTF for the plot. And if you happen to hit the bad ones first, it leaves a pretty bad impression of GL in your mind.

But on topic, I've never actually seen/read any of the Flying Dagger series, so I can't say much about LXH. I choose Xiao 11 Lang in the end since he's quite a sympathizable character. CLX & LXF are a little hard to connect with.

[forgot password]

How many Gu Long novels have you read?

13 or so, and finished reading none but duo qing jian ke wu qing jian (aka xiao li fei dao), mostly giving up after the first 5 chapters.

[Ren Ying Ying]

imo gl novels are teh suck!! there s almost no gradual development in main characters' martial arts, if any. 5 pages into any novel and you ve already seen dudes killing gods!! even worse is the way gl depicted his female characters. ok, women are hardly 1 tenth as saintly as princess xiang xiang was, but really, reading books with 99% of female characters being biatches is just too much for my fragile and sentimental heart.

If you haven't already tried, you should try out Legendary Siblings (Jue Dai Shuang Jiao). there is some martial arts development for the main character and nice women floating around .

Though, just for as a comment, wuxia stories doesn't always necessarily need martial arts development of the protagonist. It really depends on the style & plot of the story. Not all of them have to be "zero to hero" style (in fact, it would be quite boring if all of them followed that fomula).

[Han Solo]

Forget password,

Read Ming Jian Feng Liu (TSATE) translated by Athena.

If you still think that GL is bad bad at character development, then i got nothing else to say.

Han Solo

[timeless]

...And if you happen to hit the bad ones first, it leaves a pretty bad impression of GL in your mind..

It's not so much as leaving a bad impression ( not since Gl was ever written for young female readers, pardon me) , and it stand to reason that Gl was not as consistent as Jy in writing a story at least where consistency in quality is being measured, even if it is a much shorter story. There are stories that have excellent plots and ideas but certain chapters tend to spoil it- the starting ones mostly and sometimes the middle chapters, but getting to the end is rewarding.

Sentimental Swordsmen (DQJK WQJ) is a must read for one to truly appreciate Gl. This is the Heroic Books of all Heroic Wuxia books.

Its good enough that Gl stops writing LXh after DQJK, or else the great Lxh would end up like Clx. Yeah the quality of martial arts elements rose sharply in books like New Moon Story but Clx becomes less and less believable as if Gl is writing him based on that 70s-80s Adam Cheng personification, and all his character niceties seems to become all too artificial. That really ruin the character in the later books as compared to the earlier books. Nevermind some of the later works have excellent plot elements and martial arts concepts, wherein the main character's personality is marred, no good storylines could ever remedy.

[timeless]

While Gl was truly a great wuxia writer, i just hate it when he unwittingly destroyed Clx one of his best wuxia concepts- an elegant superhero with that Xiaoyao grandeur and that crusading Batman like independence. I suspect Gl was either dead drunk or semi-drunken some of the time when he was writing the later Clx books, else it was his overly commercialised approach. Its such a pity with those lame turn of events concerning the character's personality and decision as seen in Peach Blossom and Midnight Orchid.
Esp. Peach Blossom, that left me with a bad aftertaste for the character though i won't want to spoil it any further by going into too much details. But here's some

Can you believe it, Clx supposedly possessing superhuman qinggong & speed and yet couldn't catch up with a horse drawn carriage...by the by mostly Clx becomes transformed into the tv Adamc version in behaviour and actions and from someone who used to have a strong personality, Clx became a weakling and then some.