The Years of Rice and Salt

I've read a few more chapters. Remember the little African boy I mentioned before? I thought he was going to be a bit player but he turns out to be a major character. Kyu ends up wreaking havoc in vengeance for being made into a eunuch. First, after much planning and thought, he kills his "owner", steals money from him and sets fire to the city to facilitate his escape (when his fellow slave Bold is shocked at the fire, Kyu replies rather callously that "They are Chinese, there's more than enough to take their place"). With forged papers and his friend Bold acting as his owner, Kyu decides to travel to the Chinese capital to kill the Emperor because,

They'll conquer the whole world, cut all the boys, and all the children will be theirs, and the whole world will end up Chinese.

It made me laugh. Next, after arriving at the capital he causes all kinds of problems for the emperor and his heir, which ends with the death of both Kyu and Bold. But no fear. Apparently there's an afterlife and Kyu is confronting the Lord of Death for judgement in the current chapter. Knowing Kyu, it's the Lord of Death who'll have to justify his actions.

The novel is written in a sort of Asian style. There are impromptu little poems when plain prose won't do justice to the descriptions. Chapters end with personal invitations to continue:

We are as shocked as you are by this development, and don't know what happened next, but no doubt the next chapter will tell us.

It was a little jarring the first time, but one gets used to it. Plus it's a little entertaining and occasionally foreshadows nicely.