Saints

The genius of this duology isn't apparent until the end of the second volume and I think it a shame this wasn't published as a single book.

The biggest wow moment for me was seeing the Righteous and Harmonious Fists in battle from Vibiana's perspective. They appear as men, and not as gods. It creates the sense that the Fist members are driven by faith in their cause (which I never totally agreed with while reading Boxers).

I was not a fan of the epilogue here... I didn't think that Bao deserved to survive, and especially not due to the prayer that he learned from the girl that he murdered. I didn't feel it was just; Bao was the instigator of violence, and he ends up being victorious, in a way.

I read these back to back as I feel that I would not have noticed the crossovers in the books had I read them apart.