Pet Monkey of the House of Tang (Любимая мартышка дома Тан)
by Master Chen (Dmitry Kosyrev)
Synopsis
Set during one of the most turbulent moments of Chinese history, 755–756 AD, this novel tells a taut and compelling story of the sudden and still unexplained rebellion of a prominent regional commander of the Tang Empire. The uprising toppled the emperor and caused the death of the most famous woman in all of Chinese history, Yang Guifei. These events had a drastic impact on the history of Chinese civilization, as the empire was cut off from the Central Asian overland trade route known as the Great Silk Road.
Writing with convincing authority and imagination, Master Chen expertly reproduces authentic locales of medieval China with a restrained profusion of engaging facts and vivid details of the time. The author’s greatest accomplishment is the introduction of a new super-spy hero to vie with much-loved predecessors of the like of James Bond. A Sogdian (the contemporary term for Uzbek) by origin, Nanidat Manyakh seems larger than life. He is an expert in business, war, medicine, and diplomacy, a lover of poetry and women; he is here to twist the politics of the empire for the needs of a shadowy organization that hides behind an all-powerful and cash-laden silk-trading house. The Emperor’s concubine Lady Yang, an infamous beauty and an authority on the art of love, falls for Manyakh, and the master spy’s involvement threatens someone dear to him. The realisation comes too late – Manyakh loses control over the plot which seemed to have been so carefully designed.
An avalanche of revolt and bloodshed ravages the empire, sweeping away the hero’s own life with it.
This fiction debut is a literary accomplishment that commands attention. Characteristic genre components – explosive action, fierce confrontations, ingenious sex scenes – combine in the novel with a daring treatment of well-documented historical facts and famous personalities, evocative fragments of Du Fu’s poetry and Shaolin philosophy, to result in a powerful and engaging must-read for espionage professionals, experts on China, and general readership alike.