China, present day and past, is still so mysterious and inviting. Sinologist Edward C. Patterson has written a masterful epic in The Jade Owl that will not only have you glued to this 595 page book, but have you before you are half way through the book, ordering book 2 of this series, The Third Peregrination!

Patterson's masterful story deals with an amazing 'work of art' The Jade Owl, commissioned by Empress Wu, and with its charmer/creator, became the stuff legends are made of from the Middle Kingdom on in China's impressive legends. It is not only a magnificent piece of art, but a metaphysical power that can enchant and destroy.

A group of Sinologists from San Francisco become part of The Jade Owl's destiny, including Dr. Rowden Gray, and Nick Battle, son of Grey's former mentor. Nick takes Dr. Gray to Chinatown - the ancient relic The Jade Owl still exists! Battle takes Gray to a club and Gray meets Nick's love, Simone DeLefleurry, or Simon as some may call him. So starts the beginnings of great friendships that encompass continents. The China Hands that were born to find the stuff of legends and must right the laws of ch'i before the Jade Owl and its destructive power literally change life as we know it.

Patterson is a well known sinologist who has taken the legends of China and breathed life into them in a non-stop Indiana Jones meets the Great Wall of China type of adventure. It is an amazing trek into the world of China and its people and history, and a series of love stories.

As a fledgling writer, I am always amazed the brilliance of someone's writing where a complex story is not only told with beauty, but each sentence seems touched by a poetic gleam.

The Jade Owl, like Gary Val Tenuta's The Ezekiel Code, is riveting and unforgettable.

Mr. Patterson is a prolific writer, and those works I have been honored to read so far have been told with grace and power.

May The Jade Owl hoot in your ear and have you ordering your copy.

The book, the Chinese mythology, the friendships are all truly magical. You will be recommending Edward C. Patterson's books to anyone asking if you happen to know any good books to read -

Patterson is a literary force to be reckoned with - much like his metaphysical forces - ethereal as the wind, yet as powerful.

The characters and dialogue make this book. Every conversation just sparkles with wit and energy. The characters are genuinely funny, even if their mission and the story itself are not.

The author also has a clear love of place and does a wonderful job describing the settings vividly. He doesn't merely stop at physical descriptions, either, managing to even capture the essential culture of a place.

While there are a number of plot twists, the arc of the story is ultimately predictable. It's a fun ride, but you can see where it's going.

The author sometimes gets a bit carried away with his own cleverness. To a certain extent, those knowing winks to the reader really define the voice of the story, but a few more murdered darlings would have made the story leaner.

If PG Wodehouse decided to write a French farce that took place in contemporary San Francisco and contemporary China, it would remind me of this book. The Jade Owl is a lively romp with words and characters that barely miss being caricatures There is absolutely nothing compelling about this book; pick it up for ten minutes and giggle quietly to ones' self, pick it up for an hour and you still won't be overly involved, but you will enjoy it.

The plot is easily summarized. An "old China hand" -- Professor Rowden -- takes a group of characters to contemporary China, attempting to return a rather annoying piece of Jade (the Jade Owl of the title) to it's proper place. That the Jade Owl doesn't really belong to the "hero" -- Nick Battle -- adds some excitement and lots of spice to the story.

This book is not for those who are easily shocked, or anyone who holds academia as sacred. In this book, "surprises flew like pigeon crap from a gargoyle." and a "high fashioned chanteuse" is almost normal, even though the chanteuse is very gay. When I reached the end of The Jade Owl I was very surprised to realize how much I cared about the characters. I was also surprised to discover I had been following the plot from the very first page! (Actually, I was surprised to realize it had a plot...) The Jade Owl challenged my prejudices and enhanced my vocabulary while providing me with many hours of small giggles. I will be inflicting The Jade Owl on several of my stodgy friends this Christmas!

I purchased all 3 in the series (Kindle) thinking that Fantasy/Science Fiction based on China would be an interesting twist. Sadly, these hardly qualify as fantasy/science fiction. They're not bad if you're into Chinese history and Gay lifestyles. I got the idea that the author interjected Fantasy when he back himself into a corner or ran out of ideas. Each book got a little better but even the 3rd wasn't worth my time.

I loved this book so much I bought it for my grandson. The character development was outstanding. How they can fit this cynical museum curator into a story with a gay guy, his drag queen wife, a Cherokee warrior, San Francisco’s high society ladies, the Chinese mafia, spirits from the Wan fu empress is quite captivating.

I enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco’s China town and China itself.

The main character had a droll sense of humor that had me laughing. The characters were all intriguing and I felt like I actually knew them.

Great writing with lots of unexpected twists and turns. No way you can predict the outcome of this story like you can with most novels.

Great read!

The only good parts of the book concerned Chinese mythology, culture and history.

An Old China Hand Rowden meets his mentor's son Nick Battle and the adventure begins. A mystical Jade Owl who occasionally comes to life, a Cherokee who has a connection with the Owl, Nick's SO Simon (aka Simone) are all off to China. Mayhem, magical legends and a mystery to be solved.

I can't wait to start the next book!

I MADE myself finish reading this book. Not only were there a great many typos (please learn the difference between past and passed), it was just too long and meandering. It needed to be shorter and more tightly plotted. I would give it another star if it had been reduced by at least a third. (And believe me, I will and have read MANY long books from Les Miserables and War and Peace to The Stand and She's Come Undone. So I don't stay away from long books, just those that keep losing my interest.)

The other problem with this book is the main character, Rowden Gray. One minute he would come across as a prim bookworm; the next minute he'd say or think the crudest things. And his "relationship" with Audrey seemed very disjointed and unrealistic in its progression.

I did like the characters of Nick and Simone, though, and their relationship seemed much more believable. And I did enjoy the basic premise of the book. But, overall, it just didn't work for me.

It surprised me was way more enjoyable than I thought

As a lover of "relic hunter" type stories I really enjoyed this adventure - the characters were charismatic and the action was interesting and moved quickly. The book was most entertaining - I couldn't put it down. I'm really looking forward to reading the others in this series.

Not a bad premise, but in need of a good editor. The story was lost amid to many misapplied metaphors. The author may also want to put away the thesaurus - many of the sentences became disjointed due to poor word choice. As well the overall wordiness, rather than helping the story along, actually bogged the story down.

Interesting tale of fantasy and China fokelore