Three Kingdoms Volume 03: To Pledge Allegiance (Legends from China: Three Kingdoms)

Good graphic novel.

Continuing on in the same format as the previous volumes, the story in volume three is very political centering around battles and scheming between the various warlords. Warlords Bu Lu and Cao Cao are the central figures in a myriad cast of uncountable numbers. Characters are labeled with their name upon their first appearance and usually more than once before it is assumed you have recognized who they are. This is *very* helpful when dealing with this number of characters, with non-English names and often similarly written names such as Bu Lu vs Bei Liu. On the whole I really enjoy this series as I love Chinese history but this volume was pretty heavy going as I'm not a military-minded person. I prefer the personal stories over the military planning and battle action but it is of course an important part of the story and the main characters' personalities are developing for the worse as power takes a hold of them. This volume has none of the romantic or violent graphic scenes found in the previous two volumes but I'm keeping my age recommendation the same as unless the child has an intense interest in ancient military strategies the reading will be too dense for youngers. I enjoyed the first two volumes best, but at this point I'm still eager to read on.

Lots of fighting, but little violence in this book. I would recommend this book to younger readers. 👏👏👏Very good book

The Legends From China series comic and text version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, is a masterpiece of (relatively) simple storytelling, with great visuals. The only confusing point at times is the similarity in appearance of the many, many burly and bearded ancient warriors we are following, mainly because there are so many of them and most of them are quite invincible. But after a while the maze of characters starts to become clearer, and it's easy to become immersed in this amazing tale.Each book of about 170 pages is broken up into three or four individual tales, or adventures, mostly following our three heroes - Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei - as they go about their sworn mission, but also breaking away from time to time to tell someone else's tale (usually someone that's doomed to failure or death). Each section begins with an overview of what's to come (i.e. forecasting and spoilers), a map of the vicinity of China that is covered, as well as the odd box tale or illustration of a hero or two. Curiously, the text follows a western convention of family name last, inverting names like Liu Bei as "Bei Liu" (Liu is the family name), seemingly pretending that English convention is to do the same with all Chinese names, like Zedong Mao (Mao is the family name), or Kai Shek Chiang (Chiang is the family name, etc). Oh well...The third part of the story gets briefly into the indecisiveness of Shao Yuan, and the emergence of Guo Jia as an advisor to Cao Cao. The rest of the story concerns itself with the fate of Xu province - first under attack by Cao Cao as a way to get revenge for his father's death (his father was murdered in Xu, but Cao Cao probably cares more about power than revenge), and how different betrayals tossed the fate of Xu back and forth like a cork in stormy water, with Lu Bu turning on nearly everyone at some point or another; here the sworn brothers help defend Xu from Cao Cao's troops, even though they are later to ally with him, then oppose him again (I'm getting dizzy).This tale shows a lot of great action scenes, with Guan Yu pitching into the battle, and Zhang Fei roaring like a lion and going crazy! Lu Bu, talking to his advisors, is at his cockiest and most arrogant, goofing his long-suffering advisor Chen Gong - who does help him avoid being destroyed in a sneak attack, nearly killing Cao Cao in the process (twice!), then turning Cao Cao's own trap against him. But, as we're to find out in Part 4, Lu Bu's accidental victories can't last forever, and Cao Cao has a few tricks of his own. The final chapters show Cao Cao returning to politics, allying himself with the emperor - it's nice to see his noble spirit in the story, and the scenes with Emperor Xian are somehow peaceful, just as the other warlords are buffeted around again by the currents of history. There's a very strange scene at the end when Lu Bu and Liu Bei are friends... but this won't last.The art, as always, is stunning, even if the warriors are a bit too pretty-boy sometimes (still, plenty of ugly brutes). Very cool medieval armour and scary bladed lances!!