A Past Unearthed

Return of the Condor Heroes Volume 1

By: Jin Yong, Gigi Chang - translator

Narrated by: Daniel Loh York

THE CHINESE "LORD OF THE RINGS" - NOW IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME.

THE SERIES EVERY CHINESE READER HAS BEEN ENJOYING FOR DECADES - 300 MILLION COPIES SOLD.

"Western fantasy has JRR Tolkien, but we Asian fantasy authors have Jin Yong's stories in our DNA. The debt we owe him is immeasurable" SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN

"If you haven't read Jin Yong's work, you haven't yet fully experienced the fantasy genre" FONDA LEE

CHINA , 1237 A.D.

Genghis Khan is dead, but the Mongolians, led by his son, continue their assault on the Central Plains.

A new generation of martial artists has emerged to face this threat, foremost among them Guo Jing and his wife Lotus Huang. And a new danger stalks the land, with all the fury of a woman scorned - Blithe Li, the Red Serpent Celestial.

It is an encounter with this pitiless foe that reunites Guo Jing with Penance, the son of his treacherous sworn brother, Yang Kang. He resolves to lift the boy from a life of vagrancy and initiate him into the martial world.

Placed under the care of the Quanzhen Sect at their temple in the Zhongnan Mountains, Penance stumbles across the mysterious history behind this most respected martial school. What he uncovers sends him on a journey that will force him to come to terms with his father's past and the secrets of his own heart.

Translated from the Chinese by Gigi Chang

(P) 2023 Quercus Editions Limited©2023 Jin Yong

Critic reviews

[Jin Yong's] work, in the Chinese-speaking world, has a cultural currency roughly equal to that of Harry Potter and Star Wars combined . . . With his combination of erudition, sentiment, propulsive plotting, and vivid prose, he is widely regarded as the genre's finest writer . . . Holmwood's translation offers the best opportunity yet for English-language readers to encounter one of the world's most beloved writers (Nick Frisch)

The most widely read Chinese writer alive. His books have been adapted into TV series, films and video games, and his dense, immersive world inspires the kind of adoration bestowed on those created by writers like western worldbuilders such as JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling and George RR Martin. (Marcel Theroux)

This publishing phenomenon comes to us in a brisk and thrilling new translation . . . The tale is like every fairy tale you're ever loved, imbued with jokes and epic grandeur. Prepare to be swept along. (Jamie Buxton)

Another great Wuxia by Jin Yong

I can not recommend these books enough. Give them a chance. Legend of the Condor Heroes is a timeless read.

Great continue of the story.

Amazing, the story just keep going without stopping. No fillers at all. Amazing story telling. Love it, can't wait for the next book. Wish I can preorder it.

I enjoyed this book

Audible, this is ridiculous!!! I just wanted to rate this book and not write a review. Having to write reviews in order to rate has prevented me from rating at all. I just want to give props to enjoyable reads . I will just copy and paste this "review" going forward.

I already can’t wait for the next volume!

I can’t even put into words how grateful I am that Jin Yong’s works are finally getting some long-overdue attention in the Anglophone world. I have already come to cherish this man’s works as dearly as many of my favourite English novels.

At this rate, it will take several more years for the translation of the whole Condor Trilogy to be completed, but the fact that we’re already partway through the second book now is more than I’d ever hoped to see in my lifetime.

Simply put, if you’ve ever enjoyed wuxia movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you owe it to yourself to see the genre’s origins in the work of its seminal master. Jin Yong has often been called China’s Tolkien, and the comparison is indeed a fair one—not because the two men produced similar work (in many ways, they did not), but because each occupies a comparable role in the history of his own culture’s fantasy literature.

It’s worth pointing out that this volume is very much a continuation of the four which preceded it—it’s definitely best to start with ‘A Hero Born,’ and move forward from there. Wuxia novels, unlike the movies they’ve inspired, are immense, sprawling affairs, often serialised in newspapers when first written and taking place over generations and involving very large casts of characters. The commitment is definitely considerable, but I can assure you—if you like this sort of thing, Jin Yong will reward you richly for your time.