I feel this one could be an acquired taste, or at least appeal to a minority of readers. It’s a set of stories, mostly comic, set in a fantasy version of imperial China and written in a highly elaborate, circumlocutory style. That, for some readers, seems to be the equivalent of saying it’s in code,

Pretty enjoyable and humorous

This shouldn't work. You shouldn't be able to make a collection of stories with forgettable plots, a vaguely defined setting, and non-existent characterization be interesting. Because to do that, you'd have to make it compelling purely on the level of the individual sentence, and that is a ridiculou

An ornate molasses of finely crafted words poured over deft, spritely, witty tales. Old school fantasy writing with nary a monster to be seen.

This book contains many hilarious laugh-out-loud passages, but is also somewhat difficult to read due to the sentence structure and the 'stilted' language. I found it highly enjoyable, but this is not an easy read; you need to concentrate to make sense of the often very long and roundabout sentences

I am both a confirmed Sinophile and a rabid lexiphanicist (i.e., I take unholy glee in big words) but I found this book to be a disappointment. Bramah does an incredible send-up of genteel Edwardian perceptions of Old Cathay, but a parody of a counterfeit just doesn't float my boat. Yes, Bramah's de