Japanese flavoured or inspired

[Katsunami]

Hm, OK. Then I'll describe it more accurately. They should be labeled 18+. Some parts could easily be considered pornographic.

(Damnation. I'm missing one in 5 N's in my words. I think my keyboard is starting to go...)

[Dr. Drib]

If you will consider a fantasy trilogy in a China that never was - and with a touch of humor that makes these so wonderfully delightful - then I HIGHLY recommend Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, located at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chronicles...hughart+kindle

These are wonderfully entertaining books.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

If you will consider a fantasy trilogy in a China that never was - and with a touch of humor that makes these so wonderfully delightful - then I HIGHLY recommend Barry Hughart's The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, located at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Chronicles...hughart+kindle

These are wonderfully entertaining books.

Njaargh.... Asian Fantasy... 45 rave reviews...

I just had to get this one.

I don't know if I should thank you for pointing me to this book, or hate you for adding three more books to my already lenghty TBR pile.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Njaargh.... Asian Fantasy... 45 rave reviews...

I just had to get this one.

I don't know if I should thank you for pointing me to this book, or hate you for adding three more books to my already lenghty TBR pile.

These are some of my favorites. I actually had, at one time, the uncorrected proof, which is now worth hundreds of dollars.

These are wonderful books. Check out the comments on both Amazon and Goodreads. (Ah, I see now that you saw the reviews from Amazon.)

Let us all know what you think of them.

Also (don't hate me! ), you may enjoy the Kai Lung novels from Ernest Bramah. They were published in the 20s.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

These are some of my favorites. I actually had, at one time, the uncorrected proof, which is now worth hundreds of dollars.

These are wonderful books. Check out the comments on both Amazon and Goodreads. (Ah, I see now that you saw the reviews from Amazon.)

Let us all know what you think of them.

I will, after I get to them, in... uh... a year or two. Three. Next decade...

Also (don't hate me! ), you may enjoy the Kai Lung novels from Ernest Bramah. They were published in the 20s.

Hm... Nah. I'm not even going to look them up. Can't chance it

If you like this sort of setting and you're someone to play video games, check out Bioware's Jade Empire, from 2005 (XBox) and 2007 (PC, Special Edition). As long as you don't install the Windows-version into \Program Files, it runs fine in Windows Vista, 7 and 8.

It is set in a fantasy China, and one of the main characters is (also) called Master Li. I wouldn't be surprised if this game happens to have some similarities with these Master Li novels.

Anyway, it has a beauty of a story, worth to be made into a book. (Which is true for most Bioware games before EA bought and gutted them, to get a hold of their name and properties.) It has some epic, more than awesome plot twists.

[DiapDealer]

Robert Shea's Shike.
(sometimes sold as two volumes: Time of the Dragons and Last of the Zinja)

In the year of the Dragon, while Japan shudders beneath the hoofbeats of the great battling clans, Jebu, a young monk of the awesome breed known as Zinja, leaves his mountain temple to escort Taniko, a beautiful and headstrong noblewoman, to her wedding at the capital. During the journey their fate is sealed. The warrior who knows ten thousand ways to kill - and to love - pledges his life to Taniko. But again and again their karma will sweep them apart. He, to serve the outlawed Muratomo family. She, to be possessed by the heir of the enemy Takashi clan...even as Kublai Khan and his wild Mongol hordes eye Japan like a coveted jewel. The splendid tale of SHIKE is told in two volumes. TIME OF THE DRAGONS is continued in LAST OF THE ZINJA. Novelist, Journalist and former Playboy editor, ROBERT SHEA was the author of the Illuminatus! trilogy (with Robert Anton Wilson); All Things Are Lights; Shaman; From No Man's Land, To Plaza del Logo; The Saracen; and many other works.

[Dr. Drib]

The Kia Lung books should be free.

There are some here at Mobileread, but they were assembled years ago, so I can't vouch for their quality.

Here's a bunch of titles by Bramah:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...%20in%20kindle

[BenG]

Mobilereads member pdurrant has a link to the Kai Lung books in his signature.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by BenG

Mobilereads member pdurrant has a link to the Kai Lung books in his signature.

Yes, he has one for sale on Amazon, I think.

[pdurrant]

The original Kai Lung books by Ernest Bramah are now out of copyright in Life+70 countries. The volume I publish includes some posthumously published works that are still in copyright in the UK and some other countries.

I meant to get out copies of all the books, but had some trouble with finding suitable covers and with the Estate of Hilaire Belloc, which wanted far too much for including his preface to the second volume. (You can tell that still rankles!)

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Robert Shea's Shike.
(sometimes sold as two volumes: Time of the Dragons and Last of the Zinja)

The first book (there are two) is available as a free Creative Commons release, thanks to Shea's son.

Here's the link:

http://manybooks.net/titles/shearother08shike.html


Both books, however, are available for purchase from Amazon, if that is one's wish to acquire a matching set.

[Katsunami]

Most of the books at Manybooks.net are crappier than reading a text-file. This one as well. I'd rather pay the $8.49 price per part at Amazon. I've been unable to find them anywhere else, by the way.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Most of the books at Manybooks.net are crappier than reading a text-file. This one as well. I'd rather pay the $8.49 price per part at Amazon. I've been unable to find them anywhere else, by the way.

I just looked at the first book in the series from Amazon, and it looks HORRIBLE. Right there on the first screen (in preview mode) are some different sized paragraphs - for no reason at all.

I would avoid buying this, unless one wants to fiddle around with it using Sigil.


----ADDED------ I'm seeing $6.49 for each volume.

[Katsunami]

The on-screen look is often NOT the same as the one in the real book. I've often seen left-justified "Look Insides", while the book itself was perfectly justified.

By the way: this guy, together with someone else called Robert Anton Wilson, wrote The Illuminatus! and Shrödinger's Cat trilogies. I've been reading about those. That is some WEIRD shit, in the vein of Trainspotting and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Even the TOC of those books is weird. This stuff messes with your head.

I like it

[Dr. Drib]

I read the Illuminatus trilogy when it first came out. Crazy stuff!

Check out, in preview mode, the first Shike book. What do you think about this one, regarding those different font sizes?