The Order of The Pure Moon Reflected In Water by Zen Cho

A bandit walks into a bar… and of course a fight ensues. However, this fight leads to the bandit’s group gaining a nun as a new member. In this wuxia fantasy, the nun Guet Imm is center stage with bandit Tet Sang at her side, while the gang as a whole faces the possibility of death from both sides of a secret war ravaging the land.

This is not an intense, fast paced samurai read. It is at times ruminate, more about the characters than the job the bandit group is working on. There are fights, but only a few. More consideration is given to building a character driven tale of brotherhood (and sisterhood) in the face of a world where someone is always out to get them. 

Zen Cho is Chinese and Malaysian, so both cultures dance in harmony on the pages of this story. Some terminology and names are Chinese, while others Malayasian. However the seamless mix never breaks immersion. On top of the cultural mix, there is a mix of sexualities and genders represented. There are multiple women in meaningful roles including the nun who is celibate so never takes on a romantic or sexual role despite being in a group of all men. LGBT representation is included as well. Another bonus is that this book does not focus on homophobia towards them and, in fact, they are rather accepted by those that know their LGBT status. 

The only problem I found is that there were many times it felt translated poorly into English. An article would be missing from a sentence that would otherwise provide clarity or a word was used that made sense but broke immersion. On top of that, the phrase “giving face” was used many times over, so it began to break immersion in the second half of the book. This was all especially noticeable at the beginning of the work. 

The dialogue was especially well written, totally immersive in the way the men spoke to each other in the group. That was easily my favorite part, personally. This is well worth a read if you are into Eastern literature, samurai stories, or experience gaming hangover from the recently released Ghost of Tsushima. 

Overall Rating: ★★★★