Did everyone else see this?
Yeah the news came out last year. Not sure if itās good news for us. We might have to take down our version of the translation. Looking forward to see how the official translation is.
Why do we have to take down fan work? 
I hope it doesnāt come to that. They might flex their copyright muscles but we are doing fan generated content for the community. That should fall under fair use.
Iāve seen that. The names the author chose are horrendous. Fan translation wins, at least in terms of getting the names right. Forget trying to make the name so that English readers can get it. Thatās just bastardising the names and then when they try to read the original they get confused.
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Well, Iāve got hold of a copy now. Iāve only flipped through it but the writing seems adequate, though not sublime - itās not better than the fan works, just better edited (since it has a whole publishing house behind it).
The translated names isnāt as annoying as I feared, except that Huang Rong is called Lotus, whichā¦ I really donāt like.
Thereās an insipid introduction from the translator which comes across as embarrassing. Sheās trying to get across the grandeur of Jin Yongās work, but, 1) just get on with the story, it should stand on its own merits, and 2) a constant theme running through Jin Yongās stories is the puncturing of āgrandeurā and the promotion of hard work by humble characters.
She has also put in an afterword explaining why she decided to go with ācondorā rather than āeagleā - the fans wouldnāt recognise it otherwise, apparently (but obviously theyāll be fine with calling Huang Rong āLotusā). And - she reasons - the birds are mythical, since Guo Jing and Huang Rong can ride them, so naming them after a South American bird makes complete sense. Surely she could see that the eagle has more mythic resonance in both Eastern and Western cultures than the condor?
The other thing that really irritates me is the constant comparison of Jin Yong to Tolkien in all their promotional materials - itās even on the cover of the book. I canāt see any points of contact between the Lord of the Rings and The Eagle Shooting Heroes. I guess they travel around? But thereās no One Great Desperate Quest or all-powerful Dark Lord threatening to rule the land. Anyway, I find it lazy and annoying.
When I have time I will read it through properly. As I said, the writing style is pedestrian but seems perfectly acceptable. And it is nice to have another published work I can mention to non-EPUB people when recommending Jin Yong.
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Keep us updated on the book! It is positioned as a Chinese fantasy, hence the comparison with Tolkien I suppose.