S.L. Huang retells the story of Water Margin, a tale described as a minor classic of martial arts literature in their 2023 novel, The Water Outlaws. While retaining the setting and shape of the source material, Huang gender-flips many of the characters, creating a narrative that embraces the tradition while simultaneously resisting it.
On the whole, it works, providing an engaging outlaw narrative with strong female leads and relationships. It’s a bit of a page turner, and is full of scenes that you can easily see in a wuxia style (if unfamiliar with the term–and I’m by no means an expert on it–think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). So there is violence, but it is both highly stylized and overly extreme, which serves to make it more recognizable as fiction than horrifically grotesque.
If there is an issue with The Water Outlaws–and perhaps the genre in general–it is the moral ambiguity that creeps into the work. The protagonists are guilty of many of the same actions as the villains, and the ethical rationalizations occasionally lack conviction. But, whatever: if you just root for the underdogs, and let them be as violent as the oppressors, it’s all a good ride.
Recommended, given the above.