Reading Gu Long's "流星•蝴蝶•剑"

[roddy]

Not sure if this is the best topic to bump or not, but does anyone have a *decent* electronic copy of this? I found a few online but it's all the same version riddled with 已/己 OCR errors and the like. I can keep looking, but it's a bit of a thankless task. If you're not sure if your version has similar errors, try looking for 慢谩 and 自已.

[Tomsima]

I got half way through the version that was on haodoo a few years ago and dont remember it having any issues (try this?) But there were a few different versions floating around before I found the one I ended up reading in the end from what I remember

[Luxi]

I assume you're after a text version for flexibility, and there are many to be found though offhand can't think of any to recommend. But I want to put a good word for the published digital version of Gu Long's works:

古龙经典作品集(套装共72册)电子书

I bought mine at 40元。 It's now selling at 69.99 in several places including Dangdang, all 72 volumes and 1220 万 子, nicely formatted and by now quite well edited - I haven't seen any odd characters yet (not that I've read that much of it). The individual novels are also very cheap and easy to find.

[roddy]

I'm on a bit of a reading spurt at the moment, and thought this might be a nice one to start with. It was more for plugging into CTA and having a quick look at it, if I was going to actually read it I'd be getting an actual book, most likely. But that makes me think of a question...

[roddy]

15 hours ago, Tomsima said:

I got half way through the version that was on haodoo a few years ago

That looks much better, on first glance. Thanks!

[PerpetualChange]

I just got first the first volume (I have a set from a HK publisher that contains Xia, Zhong, and Shang volumes). 

 

Pretty good! The plot is not difficult but there are intricacies that blow right by me (mostly when they are talking about techniques and also I consistently fail to remember who is aligned with who and what their motivations are - I guess it goes back to reading speed still being a bit too slow to not forget some of the details). 

[Tomsima]

No joke, when I'm reading wuxia or detective novels I gradually make a list or mind map of who's who as the story develops, helps a lot! I recently finished the Chinese translation of 湖畔 by 東野圭吾, not being used to Japanese names my who's who saved me in the first half of the book

[PerpetualChange]

Finished 中集 today.

 

The reading experience went much more smoothly than 上集. I made up cards for only 190 words, which is down from needed 250 for the first volume. And honestly... I probably could have understood it fine without any word lookups. 
 

The story is much more streamline now, with almost every chapter about either 老伯，孟星魂，or  律香川。 There are so many redundant expressions that it almost feels like a graded reader. The worst part is probably just along those lines, how drawn out and repetitive it can be. But I definitely like it enough to see it through to the end. 

[PerpetualChange]

I finished this today. 

 

I think 中集 was my favorite part, where I was finally aware which characters were important and which weren't, and interested to see where the story went next. 

The last 集 was OK but felt a bit like chore territory. So many scenes of just 老伯 and the other characters droning on and on in dialogue that seems to work against the increasing stakes of the novel. 老伯 himself is kind of an annoying character, who everyone else just worships and reveres him.

 

Maybe I lost some of the nuances but it all felt kind of strained and anti-climatic. Then again, maybe I wouldn't have understood it as well at all if it wasn't so redundant. In this way, I thin Gu Long's simplistic style is a double-edged sword. This novel really felt like a mid-level graded reader at times, which even its more unique words being repeated in close proximity to one another. That made it highly readable but also felt a bit flavorless...