Monkey King

Journey to the West

By: Wu Cheng'en, Julia Lovell - translator - editor - introduction, Gene Luen Yang - foreword

Narrated by: Robert Wu

A Chinese Lord of the Rings and one of the all-time great fantasy novels - which Neil Gaiman has said "is in the DNA of 1.5 billion people" - now in a thrilling new translation

A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Monkey King is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature. High-spirited and omni-talented, he amasses dazzling weapons and skills on his journey to immortality: a gold-hooped staff that can grow as tall as the sky and shrink to the size of a needle; the ability to travel 108,000 miles in a single somersault. A master of subterfuge, he can transform himself into whomever or whatever he chooses and turn each of his body's 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven's Orchard of Immortal Peaches and gorges himself on the elixirs of the gods, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain, freeing him only 500 years later for a chance to redeem himself: He is to protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his 14-year journey to India in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire.

Joined by two other fallen immortals - Pigsy, a rice-loving pig able to fly with its ears, and Sandy, a depressive man-eating river-sand monster - Monkey King undergoes 81 trials, doing battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards, and femmes fatales, navigating the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand, the Water-Crystal Palace, and Casserole Mountain, and being serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed, and liquefied, but always hatching an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam.

Monkey King: Journey to the West is at once a rollicking adventure, a comic satire of Chinese bureaucracy, and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault and unerring sense for fun, into the hearts of millions of Americans.

©2021 Julia Lovell, translation (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A Fortune Best Book of the Year

“A breezy, action-packed narrative.... Rich with imaginative world-building that evokes the best Pixar films.... The book is also quite funny.... With this new readable version of Monkey King, Western readers will also have plenty of fun.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“A fun, accessible book that will attract readers to a text that may otherwise seem obscure and imposing.... The jokes hit every register, from slapstick and toilet humor to dryly delivered drolleries.... The literary analog for the gonzo humor is Rabelais and the fight scenes are the stuff of superhero comics. But the comparison that kept coming to mind is with the irreverent, twinkling humor of Looney Tunes cartoons, with Monkey King a cross between Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil.... A rollicking work of high buffoonery.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“Exhibit[s] a rollicking exuberance.... [It] has long been - and will continue to be - a rewarding and enjoyable reading experience for many people.” (The Washington Post)

Great narration

I think there is a lot of people who had problems with Monkey's voice but I personally loved all of the narration. There is no monotony and you can easily identify who is saying what.

Fun and hilarious story

Had a great time along the journey with monkey and company, very fun and funny story

Really good and funny

I really enjoyed this story and it's genuinely funny. I laughed more at the scenes in this book than any other I've read. Its a pretty wild and crazy story and the Monkey and Pigsy characters adds a lot of humor with their antics.

The translation and voice actor are excellent. I can't be sure how accurate it is the the original archaic chinese, but it's been translated into quite modern English which flows well and the narrator does and excellent job with many distinct voices.

Great story

Facinating tale of a monkey and his friends seeking enlightenment. Great character growth and plenty of good humor.

DragonBall Z and ABC

Really enjoyed this! The foreward is very good, the introduction is very educational, and the story has the base plots for several current series (American Born Chinese and DragonBall) and some classics. It is a fun story, well paced, with a good plot.

Weird but funny

Going through this story was a wild ride. I had a lot of belly laughs and WTF moments when the story got to the more weirder parts. I think my only critique is when the narrator was explaining the story reveals a lot of spoilers up to the late part of the story

amazing story, even better narrator.

this book is well known in popular for a reason, it has a great story, amazing characters and the narrator who reads this book for you is just amazing. he makes great voices and really brings the book to life. 10 out of 10, must buy.

I couldn't find a translation for years

It was great to experience a version of the original story that Sun Goku (Dragon Ball) and Monkey (Enslaved: Journey to the West) came from.

I now recognize what was taken from this story and used as a tribute to enrich the other stories.

That said, I gave the performance a 1-star because this narrator has about as much character range as I do and, at the time of recording, should never have attempted to voice a story with such a huge cast of characters.

I think, in time, I will get other versions of the story to see the differences between them and try other narrators of this great story.

Enjoyed every bit of it. Translation🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Translation was excellent. Voice work brought each character to life, 10/10 would recommend. TY.

God I love this book

I swear this is my favorite religious story ever. Monkey is the best character ever.