Mountain Light by Laurence Yep

Laurence Yep is so weird in such a good way. Who else thinks it's a great idea to set up a romantic comedy in the middle of a genocidal rebellion/uprising and resolve all loose ends by undertaking a dangerous journey to America to meet the beloved's brother who must also resolve his feelings about the paramour being from an enemy family? Somehow it all works. 

Also the cover is so misleading - it shows Squeaky in a protective stance in front of Cassia, but in the book Cassia is basically a resourceful wuxia heroine who saves and protects his dumb ass multiple times, and a lot of his journey is about becoming less of a coward so he can become worthy of Cassia's love and affection. 

I really appreciated all the background about Chinese politics. American politics and perspective take a complete backseat in this particular novel. It's kind of amazing how calm the later books are - in this book they are beset by the dangers of violence everywhere they go, even from their own kinsmen, and in Thief of Hearts, the big issue centers around finding someone who ran away because she was accused of petty theft. 

It brings to mind Octavia Butler's Kindred - where the modern-day protagonist finds herself time-traveling between the present and the past into a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation and gets forced into slavery. 

Anyway in my quest to find more information about Laurence Yep, I came across this partial Locus interview with him, where he mentions that one of his series, The Tiger's Apprentice, is becoming a TV show. I checked IMDB and it is slated for 2022.

Also features this great quote:

“I must seem like a dinosaur, but I really believe that in storytelling there are things that pull people along a certain path with you. I learned how to write from two science fiction writers, Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. I loved how in three paragraphs Heinlein could create a character you wanted to travel across the galaxy with, and I loved Andre Norton for the worlds she could create – especially worlds on the edge of change. So I like the old-fashioned story arc.

“I say this despite having studied with John Barth, writing experimental pieces in a seminar. I did my dissertation on William Faulkner, so it took me years to learn how to put in commas again! But eventually I realized I didn’t belong in the avant garde. There’s a story by John Fowles called ‘The Ebony Tower’, in which he talks about art: he feels that artists have moved into a dead end. (One young critic goes to meet a Picasso-like artist who is very modern and yet somehow manages to link to the energy and vitality of the past, and this young guy is trying to understand how he did that.) I was feeling that way about a lot of experimental fiction, so I started getting back to my roots, which was traditional storytelling.”