This is a really great read! For those who enjoyed She Who Became the Sun and The Poppy War- I highly recommend this book. S. L. Huang has created another world for me to be obsessed with. The story is about a group of fierce, women bandits surviving and trying to thrive in a very patriarchal and unjust society. Get out your "I support women's wrongs" shirts everyone!

I thought the idea of Gods' Teeth that give the wielder powers during a fight to be a really unique power system (there are so many elemental magic systems out right now that this different take was refreshing). The characters were well developed (I love getting close to the villain to get a fuller picture).

I really enjoyed the narration. Emily Woo Zeller is a great narrator who brings characters to life. I admire how she creates distinct voices for the many characters. She has narrated a ton of books, including The Poppy War audiobook, for those who have listened to that, you know you're in for a treat.

Quick note, please mind the trigger warnings (violence, SA). There is an on page attempted SA that was jarring because I did not pay attention.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, Dreamscape Lore for providing an ARC of this audiobook.

Here's the deal: I loved these characters and this story overall. That being said, I felt like the pacing was off. There were times that I was VERY bored and others when I was on the edge of my seat. I feel like maybe removing the chapters from the chancelor's POV would have sped the pace a bit without sacrificing any of the plot. After all, we are all here for the Bandits of Liangshan, not the powerful and corrupt officials that lead them to become bandits in the first place. Other than that small pacing issue, I LOVED this story. The characters were amazing, and the action was enthralling.

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang was utterly mind-blowing and I cannot stop recommending this book now I've completed it. I do understand it may not be a story for everyone, but it had all the elements of what makes a powerful novel that will linger long after the final pages. The characters are strong and fierce in their friendships and their convictions. They are flawed but they are determined to survive and for those around them to survive as well.
This story is inspired by Water Margin which according to the author is a Chinese tale which has been around generations longer than Robin Hood. However, since the English speaking world has had little exposure to Water Margin, the best comparison I can offer is Robin Hood and his Merry Men meets King Leonidas and his Spartans at the Hot Gates. There is blood and there is carnage because these women fight for what they love. They do not pull their punches and there are some fairly graphic scenes. I applaud the author for not toning it down as one might expect with a book lead wholly by a cast of females, gender-fluid individuals, and gender-bending bandits. I cannot wait for our podcast episode to be released for this book on August 22nd on the podcast Books are Magical so more people can hear all about what we think about this phenomenal novel.

The Water Outlaws
S.L. Huang
Fantasy, Action, Wuxia

I loved how easy it was to get into the story. The writing itself was lyrical and well paced. The worldbuilding was beautiful. The fantastical elements were incredibly unique, well developed and a lot of fun. Completely action packed and plot driven, I whipped though this audiobook.

This is a very progressive story and for that I adore it. We are thrown into a story about injustices and cruel systems of power, with courageous and sensitive women navigating it. It was empowering at some times but again at others I felt drawn out of the story and back into my own life.

Here's what I didn't love though:

The author was very direct with telling us what and and why instead of showing us throughout the story.. Her writing was vey confrontational and left no space for subtext. It's reminiscent of the footnotes in Babel, almost too straightforward. Of course this progressiveness is so valuable in fantasy with so many outdated ideas being trendy right now but I felt the author could have done it with a little more tact. I'm definitely a read to escape type of person so these opinions are from that perspective.

Aside from this, The Water Outlaws was full of representation of queer and trans/non binary side characters,
I do recommend this story for everyone, but please mind the content warnings.

This epic fantasy is full of nonstop action and strong female characters. It follows the journey of a band of outlaws as they fight against a corrupt government. The characters are robust and it's easy to root for the bandits. The focus is on the plot, but there is a lot of character development.

There is a content warning in the beginning of the book and it is no joke. There is an attempted sexual assault. There is movie-level violence. There is cannibalism (although it felt like comic relief to me and made me chuckle).

The middle of the story was slow for me but it picked up in the last third. The ending was all I could have hoped for.

I was given this ebook free to read in exchange for an honest review thanks to the publisher.

This book of bandits vs society is such an immersive listen. The narrator Emily Woo Zeller has a great soft voice to listen to, easily speed up about x2 as my preference tends to be. The world building is cinematic due to the vivid descriptions. The fight scenes are intense, the language profane and there’s a magic system that means anything can happen.
There’s a representative cast of likeable characters that suffer social injustice. We also have some villains (I loved to hate) dealing out that social injustice. It’s feminist, an underdog story and a found family, what is there not to love. A great modern take on a classic.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an Audio ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

This reads like a gender swapped version of The Legends of the Condor Heroes. I love that traditional story but it has a notable male cast. Instead this one is far more feminist energy.

The narrative is quite fast paced and action packed, feeling reminiscent of the Wuxia tradition of martial arts. I wished the characters had been more fleshed out but the story didn't provide much time for that. I do prefer more character driven stories, but I recognize that it wasn't the focus of this one.

I wished the story had leaned into the more humorous side of martial arts that we often see in Shonen manga. Instead this has a more serious tone, which is clearly an intentional choice but made for a dryer read.

Overall, I found this to be a solid Asian inspired fantasy story that I would recommend to readers looking for a non-western setting. I especially appreciated how this one pulled some much inspiration from cultural traditions of storytelling.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Absolutely incredible. Full disclosure, I had received and already read the digital arc of this, but was curious how the audiobook would sound. I sometimes enjoy re-experiencing a book through different formats, and this is the perfect example of why. Emily Woo Zeller is a fantastic narrator and brought these characters and epic action scenes to life! I also really enjoy getting to hear the correct pronunciation for names and places I would do my best guessing at otherwise. Highly recommend experiencing this book via audiobook!

If you’re looking for the rebelliousness and cultural atmosphere of The Poppy War, but with the gratuitous violence and complexity scaled down. This may be the book for you…except for the cannibalism

That’s not to say there is not violence in The Water Outlaws. S. L. Huang delivers found family Robin Hood-esqe bandit story set in the ancient Chinese Song Dynasty.

This book was engaging with the atmosphere and the plot are what really keep you drawn into the story.

The characters are decent but probably the weakest part of the book, Huang delivered a likable group of protagonist but we honestly don’t get to know them as well as I would’ve liked. The antagonist pretty standard bad guys, and I mean that literally there was not a single male character that wasn’t a POS.

But honestly the story and vibes were enough for me to enjoy it overall. The magic system is soft but used really effectively never taking over as the main highlight of the story which at the end of the day is about fighting for people to be treated better.


Lastly I just want to note that Emily Woo Zeller does an excellent job delivering the narration for the audiobook. I listened at 1.7x


Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to this book early; I received this ALC in exchange for review, however this does not affect the outcome of my review in any way.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I want to preface this review with the fact that I am not familiar with the original classic book, Water Margin, that this was based on. However, I did not feel that this decreased my enjoyment of this novel at all.

I loved following the protagonist Lin Chong. Athough I think her personality could have been a little more exciting, her character arc was incredibly satisfying to read. Lu Da was a great foil to her; while Lin Chong was reserved and serious, Lu Da was loud, boisterous, and came out with some one-liners that had me laughing was listening. I also enjoyed reading about all of the other bandits that Lin Chong joins; they all had distinct personalities that really added to the story.

The plot was extremely unique. The main gist is that there are these artifacts called Gods' Teeth that give humans supernatural strength while fighting. The antagonist of the novel is trying to create an artificial God's Tooth through alchemy. I absolutely loved the themes of this book, the main one of which is of course strong women fighting against a corrupt patriarchy. I loved the fact that we were following female and queer outlaws, some of whom committed heinous crimes in the past, but I still felt like I wanted to support them. I saw another reviewer say that this is a book for those who support women's rights and women's wrongs, and that's so true!

My main gripe was that this book was advertised as queer, and while there are queer side characters, they are glossed over. It's great that they are there, and even better that they are trans and nonbinary - but I was expecting queerness to be a bigger part of the story. In my opinion, if a book is advertised as queer in this day and age, then a MAIN character should be queer, and that was unfortunately not the case here. The first part of the novel was also a little slow compared to the last two thirds.

The narrator, Emily Woo Zeller, did a wonderful job as always. Her narration is strong, emotional, and always adds to the stories she reads.

8/10

The inspiration for this book was a nice change of pace from many other similar titles. The story was told well, and included a lot of representation for women and queer people (side note "One who rides the 16 winds" is now my absolute new favorite way of saying someone is gender-fluid). This novel included lots of social commentary, both for the time the story is supposed to take place, and even modern day. The good news is that this was handled well and didn't feel like it was being "shoved down your throat."

Overall the story was really entertaining as well. The different schemes and plans throughout were revealed to the reader in good time, and the combat scenes were well executed. Cover art is also GORGEOUS.

Speaking strictly for the audiobook the narration was done extremely well. Emily Woo Zeller is one of the best in the audiobook narration game and she displayed that once again here.

Rep: Asian cast, sapphic, gender nonconforming
Rating: 3.75

This book is a genderbent feminist version of the Water Margin, a classic Chinese book. I have no knowledge of it, so I can’t comment on how it was done. This book is very plot and action-centric. There’s a lot of world building and politics. Can’t forget a bunch of badass powerful women fighting against the oppressive patriarch. This is perfect for those who support women's wrongs and women's rights. Because some of these women have done bad things, but in the end, they just want to survive and stand up to injustice.

There’s a lot of POVs and characters, so it takes a bit to get into and to get used to. The characters who did get POVs made sense for the story. It helped us understand things and pushed the story along.

Lin Chong was a great character to follow. I really liked her and felt her injustice. She was super badass. My next fave was Lu Da. I saw another reviewer call her the female version of a himbo, and I just can’t stop thinking about it. It’s so true. She’s super buff and badass, yet she has a tender and sometimes almost child like side to her. She was great.

The villains were done very well. Having a POV from a villain really showed us how terrible of a person he is. His temper and arrogance, along with his title and ability to ruin others, was very frustrating. It makes you hate him the more you read. Meanwhile, he thinks he’s doing something for the greater good of the empire.

This is by no means a romance. There may be some queer characters, but its pretty on the down low. It’s not really explored. They’re just there. Which can be good. Especially for the time period this is set in. None of the main characters pursue any relationships. I was expecting it to be a bit more explicit with the queerness. It’s so subtle, that I don’t even remember which ones were queer. Some of them did play with gender a bit and were gender nonconforming. Some leaders are women, but act as men in those roles. But as for outright lesbian characters or couples, it wasn’t really shown. Maybe just hinted at. So I wish we could have gotten more of that.

This is not a light read. There’s lots of content warnings that you should check out before starting.

The narrator did a great job. They really gave life and emotions to the characters and the story. It was nice that they pronounced the names correctly, not in a western style. I like the cover as well. It fits well with the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book

„The Water Outlaws“ is a book that I have been waiting for a long time and a book that I somehow had extremely high expectations of. Expectations that it unfortunately could not fulfil ...

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor; training soldiers and women from the empire for years and thus earning rank and status.
Through injustice and abuse of power, however, she loses all that and is now on the run from the very system in which she has placed her „blind“ trust all these years.

A book about precisely those injustices and that abuse of power - about delusions of grandeur. What happens to people who are elevated to positions for which they are simply not made? What happens to a country (a monarchy) that by doing so spits on the feet of its citizens? Exactly, it chops off people’s heads when they bend down to wipe that spit off their feet.

Lin Chong gets involved with a group of bandits who no longer want to put up with all this. They want to change the empire, and if necessary, with violence.


Do I like the basic plot?
Oh yes!
I liked the drastic portrayal of the abuse of power and how it was presented as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Yes, perhaps I even liked the antagonists best, they were the most exciting to follow in my opinion.
I just couldn’t connect emotionally with any of our protagonists, which made the book very ... emotionless for me. I couldn’t sympathize, suffer or be happy with them.
Where the antagonists were brutal and repulsive, the protagonists were just dull „heroes“ to me. There were one or two characters (the crazy alchemist) that I found exciting, but in my opinion, the potential was not fully exploited. Or not fully explored in the beginning. Lin Chong ( probably our main protagonist) got on my nerves and I just didn’t warm up to her .... ugh.

I found the fantasy aspect in the story intriguing and exciting and I would have kind of liked to know a lot more about it. :‘D
The writing style was pleasant (as far as I can judge from the audiobook) and I also found the pacing very well chosen, because after all such a plot needs time to unfold. In the end, however, the book, unfortunately, couldn’t excite me because I just wasn’t invested enough.
It is definitely a good book, but not one that could carry me away.


Even though the book is shelved under „LGBTIAQ+“ / „QUEER“ / „LESBIAN“, don’t be fooled. You won’t find a love story here and you won’t find romance either. I think that’s just important to say, as some people might certainly be disappointed if they pick up the book especially for that reason.
It’s primarily about politics and injustice; about not wanting and/or being able to put up with it anymore. That one wants/must change something.

Unfortunately, the epilogue was just too much. Too much information and too many future plots. It felt like an ending you might write in a children’s book or a fairy tale. Like an extended and detailed „Happily ever after“.
Personally, I didn’t need it, it didn’t complete the book (for me).


The audiobook was really, really good!
Emily Woo Zeller read as if her life depended on it. When the characters screamed in the book, she screamed. When the characters whispered, she whispered. She cried and was distressed and confused and skeptical and happy. She put so much emotion into the audiobook that it gave me goosebumps.
Also, I love that she didn’t pronounce the names in the „western style“ but in a way that made me feel like I was really in the Empire. Of course, this way it was sometimes hard for me to tell the characters apart and understand who is now interacting with whom, but you definitely get into it; you just have to keep going and engage with the world of „The Water Outlaws“.
I think the audiobook offers a very special experience, (especially for people who have trouble pronouncing the names properly and feel like they’re missing out) because Emily Woo Zeller has brought each character to life as much as possible.

This story seemed to drag for me. The audiobook narrator did a great job of telling the story and vocalizing each character. I think the pacing was a bit off, and it took me out of the story multiple times. I also felt the characters were a bit distant from the reader. We see a lot of action and omniscience, but I never felt connected to anyone.

The Water Outlaws is a martial arts political fantasy inspired by a classic of the wuxia genre, but centering mostly women and quite a few queer characters. It follows a band of outlaws, a military trainer who joins them after being falsely accused by a corrupt official, and people being pushed to develop magical weapons.

It's pretty entertaining and has interesting fantasy elements while commenting on corrupt government and patriarchy. I liked a lot of the characters, but I wish we got to know them in a deeper way. They feel a bit at arms length, perhaps because the focus is really on the action and plot points. That said, there are some fantastic badass and smart ladies in this book. The middle portion dragged at times, but overall I enjoyed the ride. Note that there are content warnings for sexual assault, violence, and cannibalism. The audio narration is well done! I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

HOLY CRAP - Emily Woo Zeller brings this book to life.

I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book and loved it - however - I did have a difficult time differentiating the differences between some of the side characters. But, Emily really gives them a life of their own in this audiobook. I cannot say enough good things,

This book will make you viscerally angry with the injustices our FMC experiences right out of the gate. A woman who has kept her head down, gown with the grain of the empire, dutifully executes her duties without fail day in and day out all for a greedy, malicious, childlike-tantrum-throwing-piece-of-garbage throwing high ranking official to take all of her hard earned accomplishments away from her in the blink of an eye. The hardships following made me want to burn the empire down myself.

on the flip side, the plot continues to be intriguing with going back and forth from a side character in the empire and our FMC who joins a band of bandits and how her story evolves from there. I really didn't want to put this down and I highly recommend pairing this story with the audiobook. You'll enjoy it even more if you have ever participated in martial arts.

I finished this up in one day listening to it at work. I liked the book but didn't love it. Alot of exposition without dialogue and it dragged on very much. It is an amazing story with a great cast but it you could fit so much more if it just wasn't 90% exposition.