Water Outlaws

Looks like it could be a fascinating story in the mode of Ken Liu's "silkpunk" stories and R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy (the author of which whose name was mangled with S.L. Huang's in the Hugo controversy "report", I just thought that was hilarious), but as with the a previous work by this author I found the prose too herky jerky, long stretches of action with some dialogue but it doesn't really convey atmosphere and character to me, reads more like a screenplay, so I set it aside after the first chapter.

...As far as I can tell. I watch a lot of kung fu movies, but I know little about actual Chinese history/lore. Still, worth the read and I found it easier to get through than the Legends of the Condor Heroes.

A mostly female, partially LGBTQ cast (on the hero side anyway) sees a former arms instructor in ancient China join a bandit camp in the vein of Robin Hood. Quite a fun read! Much adventure and swashbuckling as well as fighting for justice from oppression, sexual assault, classism etc.