Henry Lien’s new book is coming out. It is, disappointingly, not about Peasprout Chen. Instead it’s about how to tell stories (I think, pre-ordered but haven’t received it yet) and OMG he knows how to tell stories. The stories he tells are absolutely overpoweringly insane and incredibly multi-faceted. Here are some reviews that are funnier than anything I’m likely to write AND CONTAIN MASSIVE SPOILERS SO DON’T READ THEM IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS about the outcome of Awesome Ice Skating Martial Art Battles in a Manga School and politics and deep heavy teen relationship drama: https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/tag/henry+lien
I’d just like to note that these two books about Awesome Ice Skating Martial Art Battles in a Manga School can ALSO be read as:
- A sensitive bildungsroman that accurately shows the inside experience of being a certain kind of teen
- A deep psychological exploration of the effects of parentification and totalitarian government on a child, in the vein of Gaidar and Kassil (but with more martial arts! and magic! and ice skating! and no actual real-world children being killed)
- A relationship drama in the vein of Princess Charskaya (but with more politics! and ice skating giant MegaZord! and martial arts!).
Did I mention multi-faceted? Henry Lien’s writing has more facets than dragonfly eyes do. It is round, it is firm, it is fully packed, and it is enormously satisfying. Can’t wait to read the new book.