"The Girl From Wudang" by PJ Caldas is a novel that delves into the merging worlds of martial arts, advanced technology, and artificial intelligence, framed within a speculative fiction narrative. While the premise holds significant promise, the execution leaves much to be desired, particularly in the portrayal of its female protagonist and the overall coherence of the plot.

One of the novel's standout elements is its ambitious blend of traditional martial arts with futuristic AI concepts. The protagonist, Claudia Yang, also known as Yinyin or the Tigress, is depicted as a master of Tai Chi who moves to America with the intent of teaching women self-defense. This setup provides a rich backdrop for exploring themes of empowerment, tradition, and the clash between old and new paradigms. The detailed descriptions of martial arts techniques and the philosophical underpinnings of Tai Chi are immersive and well-researched, adding depth to the narrative.

The speculative fiction aspect, particularly the integration of AI and nanotechnology into the storyline, is both intriguing and timely. The footnotes referencing real-world AI developments add a layer of realism and immediacy, grounding the otherwise fantastical elements of the plot.

However, the novel is marred by several critical issues. Firstly, the portrayal of the female protagonist through a male lens often feels uncomfortable and inappropriate. Instances such as the overly sexualized descriptions of mundane actions, like eating a peach, detract from the character's depth and reduce her to an object of the male gaze. Such depictions are not only unnecessary but also undermine the book's broader themes of female empowerment and resilience.

Additionally, the narrative suffers from an inconsistent pacing and a fragmented structure. The timeline jumps and disjointed scenes make it difficult to follow the plot, often leaving readers disoriented. While some disorientation can be a stylistic choice in speculative fiction to reflect complex realities, in this case, it feels more like a result of poor narrative cohesion rather than a deliberate artistic decision.

Character development is another area where the novel falls short. Claudia's character, while initially compelling, is inconsistently portrayed. Her motivations and emotional responses often seem at odds with her experiences, particularly her traumatic past and the ethical dilemmas she faces. This inconsistency makes it challenging for readers to fully invest in her journey.

"The Girl From Wudang" is a novel with a fascinating premise and moments of genuine brilliance, particularly in its exploration of martial arts and AI. However, these strengths are overshadowed by problematic character portrayals, uneven pacing, and a disjointed narrative structure. The book could benefit significantly from further editing to address these issues and provide a more coherent and respectful portrayal of its characters.

For readers interested in speculative fiction that tackles themes of AI and martial arts, this novel offers a unique perspective. However, it is essential to approach it with an awareness of its shortcomings, particularly in the depiction of its female protagonist. With more refined storytelling and sensitivity towards character portrayal, PJ Caldas has the potential to craft truly compelling narratives in future works.

The sci-f elements in this novel were excellent. I loved all the ideas concerning how future technology might allow humans to understand and manipulate consciousness, become a hive-mind, and even achieve a form of immortality. The way the ancient spirituality of the Dao was woven in provided a beautiful counterpoint to the futuristic tech. The action and fight scenes were fun to read, and easy to follow, but the pace of the story was, at times, too rapid, leaving me a little confused about what was happening. The characters were underdeveloped, the book lacked emotional interiority, and it was difficult to form connections with any of the characters.

DNF at 16%. It was an interesting premise, a martial arts sci-fi about a young woman named Tigress on a quest for immortality by creating a new school of martial arts. (That part of the description is misleading: it claims that she's already immortal, but instead, she seems more to be becoming immortal. Whether that's literal or figurative, I didn't stick around for long enough to find out.) It follows her in California, trying to achieve her goals, being a cage fighter, sometimes a vigilante, sometimes experiencing weird slips of consciousness.
That was one of my biggest issues: the fluidity between the plots. I often found it jumpy and confusing, in a way that didn't encourage me to keep reading. It also was headed way more into AI and futuristic tech than I felt like dealing with.
Finally, despite having a lot of action right from the start, the pacing was a little slow. It was taking too long, in my opinion, to get to any answers about what was going on and the breadcrumbs weren't enticing enough to keep me reading.

a fun martial arts read, with scifi thrown into the mix. this reminded me a lot of some certain korean webcomics (manhwa) with a sort of martial arts setting, commonly known as “murim”. sci fi isn’t my usual thing, but i do give it a go when i think it looks interesting, which this did, and i quite enjoyed it. the female lead was strong and driven, and the action scenes flowed seamlessly. i was pleasantly surprised but also sort of “aaaah that’s why” when i read the blurb at the end of the file where it states the author as a martial artist with numerous black belts, because the fight scenes felt natural and fun to read. a problem with a lot of action books is that authors have no prior experience with fighting, and it either sounds awkward or strange when they write scenes like that. this was not a problem with the girl from wudang at all.

i’d recommend this to anyone looking to start scifi, or just wanting to pick a cool new book up in general. thank you for the arc!

The cover of this book caught my eye so I decided to give it a go. This book has a lot going on, it centers around Martial arts and the history behind that as well as incorporating modern technologies. I found it hard to follow along at time but the author does provide footnotes that does give much needed context. And even though I was a little confused I flew through the last 50 or so pages.

Being a practitioner of tai chi and knowing the importance of Wudang as a learning center, I was intrigued to read this novel.. The author has obvious knowledge and experience regarding the martial arts aspects and the Daoist aspects of tai chi and other martial arts. The scientific aspects of AI pretty much escape me, but the author documents his information extremely well. The science is where it bogged down for me, but it was worth staying with it for the surprise (or not so surprising) conclusion.

The subtitle of this book had me hooked from the beginning. Artificial intelligence, martial arts and immortality combine in this exciting, action-packed novel. I enjoyed reading how the main character, Tigress, develops over the course of the story and how artificial intelligence might impact the world in the future.

First of all the cover draws my eyes since I first saw it. The picture make me wondering, what's story the girl hidden behind those fierce eyes and bloody appearance. So I basicly read this book with going blind and trust the author to guide me into this girl life story.
And I am glad I did that.

Claudia's story is amazing, emotional rollercoaster and unique. It give me action packed scenes, conspiracies and material arts adventures with so much twist and turn in the plot. The writing is promising but the narrative isn't easy to swallow. It need more depth into the AI world and character development.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tuttle Publishing for providing a copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very different genre for me. Different, and very clever. Recommended.

I wish the arc had been edited a little better? But I understand that's the reason for them. At times I was confused if quotation marks were missing or if our main character was really just having conversations in her head (and that was before the nanobots). On paper this was my perfect book but it just didn't do it for me sadly. I think this would be a good intro into scifi though if you can get into the writing style and the footnotes of real life AI tech were a fun choice.

I enjoyed the blend of sci-fi and martial arts, With a strong start, Claudia's story was exceptional. I'm not a huge science buff so the middle wasn't my favorite. The ending picked back up and closed things nicely. I'm not sure the footnotes were necessary, a bit distracting.

personally, the book was not as interesting as I expected it to be. The characters did not have any depth, and quite often, I found myself skipping pages and just looking for footnotes.

Perhaps, The Girl from Wudang was not for me. It may appeal to some readers, but not for everyone.

This is more of 2.75 rounded up to 3 stars.

<b><i>The Girl from Wudang</i></b> fits squarely both in books I would absolutely read and really enjoy, and books that are frustrating for me to read and I want to give up on.

The premise is a exciting combination of martial arts, AI, shady scientists, women who kick-ass, conspiracy, spiritualism, cybernetics, master-apprentice relationships ... there are tons of really incredible ideas and themes all thrown into the blender that is <b><i>The Girl from Wudang</i></b>. It reminded me of <i>The Matrix</i>, <i>Snow Crash</i>, <i>Altered Carbon</i>, <i>Fight Club</i> - just to name a few - all at some point during the story, but yet was so completely different from all of those as well. My favorite parts were when the story explored how all of these pieces that may seem totally unrelated could influence each other to form a new way of thinking and experiencing the world, but can also be manipulated to very evil purposes. All of this is filtered through the lens of one young woman from China and how her life is turned upside-down by experimental technology.

However, the style of this novel was a huge turn-off for me. It is 100% stream of consciousness first person. It made some parts really hard to follow, other parts repetitive and boring, and sometimes it was just freaking confusing.

A choice that really had me scratching my head was the inclusion of footnotes. At first, since this book is so stream of consciousness, I thought they were footnotes from the main character's point of view. However, just recording footnotes would have been <i>extremely</i> out of character for Tigress/Claudia/Yinyin. Every time there was a footnote, it wrenched me out of the story. I finally realized that they were strictly footnotes from the author and had to do with his research during writing and tidbits he found interesting. That didn't help and I ended up skipping over almost all of the footnotes. Those needed to be at the end or in a separate document or something. I do want to mention that I am reading an eARC through NetGalley, so maybe there will be changes before publication.

Tigress/Claudia/Yinyin was a fairly one-dimensional, not very likeable main character, which made the stream of consciousness challenging to read. A nod to the author though - her inner voice was very consistent. She just wasn't a character that I particularly enjoyed.

What does come through in the writing is how passionate the author is about all of the topics being brought up during the story. It is especially evident closer to the ending. Without any spoilers, I was genuinely surprised at how emotional I was after the climax. But in the totally contradictory style of this book, I also thought the resolution was a cheesy cliché and ruined the falling action portion of the story.

Unless first person stream of consciousness stories are your style, I'm not sure I would recommend this book. It certainly has some cool ideas, and I actually think it would make an amazing movie or TV series, but it was just not enjoyable for me to read. I really had to power through this one, and I did not look forward to picking it up each night.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Tuttle Publishing for providing a digital review copy of <b><i>The Girl from Wudang</i></b> in exchange for my honest review.

This is something a bit different. A fast paced fantasy that mixes elements of science and martial arts, and with a very strong female character lead. I found the paving to be a little slow in the middle of the novel but generally I really enjoyed it, and I always appreciate something a little different from the norm.

This was quite an enjoyable read for me. Right away it starts with action, but in the middle there was a ton of science and it started dragging for me, but then it picks up again.

There are footnotes that explain a lot, which is great, but they are in the middle of the story…so it pulls you out of the action because you have to pause to read it. I think the footnotes would have been better placed at the end of the story.

The passages about spiritualism in Dao and Tai Chi towards the end of the story are beautifully written and almost reads like poetry.

I would love to see this as a series or movie.

Tigress is an indomitable fighter seeking immortality who catches the eye of tech nerds looking for a way to optimize the human brain. Her dream is soon subsumed into their mission to outpace and outgun a terrifying AI presence that threatens all of humanity.

I started reading with an expectation that this was yet another science fiction tale of malevolent AI, but the novel is so much more. After the final page I was left with a quiet discontent, unsure as to what was real or imagined.

Tigress is an incredibly skilled fighter and Caldas (an expert in martial arts himself) conveys her movements with fluid and expert prose. He writes action sequences with the expert eye of someone who has actually taken a punch and the movements and actions of Tigress and her many opponents take on a dreamlike quality, especially in the latter half of the novel. I also loved how the story used a combination of fantasy & mysticism to explain some of the characters skills, without taking credit for all their expertise.

The AI creatures are an ominous and indistinct threat lurking in the wings for most of the story. I wished they’d taken a more central role but they still proved to be an effective portent of humanity’s doom. Although her mission is her driving focus, Caldas builds a world of camaraderie and companionship around Tigress. She is not an aloof master, rather she is enmeshed in her world and the relationships she forms fuel her passion to succeed.

Readers who dream of or dread our future AI overlords will enjoy this bloody, tech-fueled, very human story of life and death.

This was a book with an interesting and very timely premise. I'm not sure the footnotes and overall aggression of the main character came across exactly as the author was intending but it was still a thought-provoking idea. It felt very Predestination where the book would likely benefit from at least one reread once all the details are revealed. The main bulk of the book reads a little like a stream of consciousness from a generally unreliable narrator and when the pay off finally comes it feels like it makes sense but doesn't entirely redeem all the time spent in the spaghetti tangle of narration and migraine fueled delusions. The set up is promising but the impetus for the main character to come to the research facility where all the action begins is paper thin at best. The academic style footnotes have no real context and feel somewhat out of place and I eventually stopped reading them to maintain the momentum of the story.

If one could over look the limited character development during the first 30 percent of the novel and the very obvious antagonist introduced nearly immediately, it can be an interesting exploration of the subject of Artificial Intelligence, what makes a human mind, and what constitutes true immortality. Just be ready to squint a little when the main character uses the word "nerd" for the 10,000th time.

The Girl from Wudang by PJ Caldas

352 Pages
Publisher: Meryl Moss Media Group, Tutle Publishing
Release Date: October 17, 2023

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Multicultural Interest, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Artificial Intelligence

Yinyin, also known as Claudia, is The Tigress. She is a fighter and undefeated until she wasn’t. She suffers from a concussion and is taken to an acupuncturist for the pain and headaches. She eventually ends up at an AI (artificial intelligence) research facility. The doctor discusses nanobots and how they can give her relief from the suffering.

She meets Simon and Dr. Lambrecht. They convince her to try the nanobots and shortly after, her mind links with Simon. They feed off each other and feel complete. When government representatives come into the scene, Claudia balks. She never agreed to teach men how to fight. Now she must tap into a legendary skill with her old mentor to break out.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. There is a lot of cursing and random sexual encounters. The author includes footnotes which reference real-time AI events that are occurring now. It is scary to think how close the AI in this book is to reality.

“They think you are either crazy or are hiding something. I am both. Crazy and Hiding.”

This book was… very different from what I was expecting. And honestly? I’m not sure what I even expected when I requested this ARC. I like to be pleasantly surprised, but unfortunately that isn’t the entire story when it comes to how I feel about this story. Or at least what I managed to read.

For me, it’s actually just about the way it’s written. The premise and what the author was aiming for is epic to say the least, and I do believe the bones and structure are there.

The explanations of martial arts are so detailed in a Wikipedia type of way, so it actually made me feel like I was read a comprehensive history in some spots and not a sci-fi story. Interesting choice and it could be stylistic! Whatever it is, it’s clear the author has passion backing it up and it shows.

There’s also the aspect of female rage that’s addressed pretty early on and very consistently. I love a story about female rage, so do not get me wrong here.

Women’s rights = women’s wrongs lol

Where it loses me, though, is that even if I put aside Claudia’s character development and who she is, I’m still bothered by her descriptions of her rage, view of men, and life in general. This is a part where I think more effort could have been put into making it feel more genuine and like these words would have actually come from a woman’s mouth. I think that’s overall a struggle I have with male authors when they’re writing from the perspective of a woman. And maybe women would say those things and I just don’t know what I’m talking about lol.

I won’t touch on some tropes that are used on behalf of other characters and cultures that feel stereotypical to me, partially because I’m not in a place to say if it’s offensive or not. All I know is that some things were just… odd to me.

There’s not much more I can say other than the fact being I DNF’d this. I don’t like DNF’ing books, especially arcs, but I know that based on where it was heading even after just 20%, I was not going to want to continue. It makes me sad because the premise is really cool and awesome but I think some more editing could have really made this story work in a more well rounded way.


Thanks so much as always to netgalley and the publisher, Tuttle books for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review :)

First I would like to give thanks for the opportunity to read this. The Girl from Wudang had me intrigued at the idea of a bad ass female lead in a martial arts and sci-fi blended world. What it didn’t have was my kept attention. Tigress was not a character I cared much for nor did the author’s prose help. It was confusing, choppy and not for me.