[dendol]

Hey guys, not sure if this question has been asked before, but i was just wondering if anyone has ever read a good fantasy based on ancient asia as opposed to medieval europe.

Not that Im sick of the knights and mages and castles stuff yet, but i was thinking that i would love to read maybe some ninja or samurai type fantasy. Any suggestions?

[kassimir funk]

No but damn if that's not a great idea. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Barbarossa]

Well there is Barry Hughart's brilliant Master Li series, which is set in China no Japan.
It's both hilarious and original. Tje books are told by Ox number ten, assistant to the 130 years old scholar Master Li who has a minor character flaw.


There is also the "Empire trilogy" by Feist and Wurts, which is set parallell to Feist's Riftwar (and in my opinion far superior to riftwar) and takes place in Kelewan which reminds me of Japan a lot, including Ninja- and Samurai-alikes.

[Mithfânion]

Aside from the two that Barbarossa mentioned, which are certainly good bets, there's also "the initiate brother" by Sean Russell, about a Chinese warlord. The setting seems to be what you're looking for. There's a sequel, Gatherer of Clouds. I've not read them but they get good reviews and I'll read Initiate brother in times to come.

[Llama]

Yes, it has been asked, and answered at length. Check in the December 2001 archives for a thread called "Is there any fantasy book based on Oriental World?" by someone with the very intriguing name of "Anal Fantasy Fan".

[Mithfânion]

Hahahaha!

[Hawklan]

Dave Duncan's "The Seventh Sword" series is samurai type fantasy to some degree, at least to me. With great fencing and names like Shonsu, Nnanji, Honakura and Katanji it felt like an old epic samurai adventure.

Definitively one of my favorite fantasy series.

[Radthorne]

I need to chime in, of course, with my title, The Road To Kotaishi. It is set in a mythical land strongly suggestive of medieval Japan.

The print edition of the book is being revised, and should be re-released this summer (although I believe Amazon still has at least one copy in inventory). The e-book edition is also still available.

Kevin Radthorne
www.kevinradthorne.com (http://www.kevinradthorne.com)

[Qin]

It's not fantasy, but it might be what you're looking for (and at least it's 80 % factually correct): Shogun by James Clavell. It's thick and it has sequels, and it's not quite fantasy. Three out of three isn't very bad.

[milamber_reborn]

Empir Trilogy is brilliant, but not a lot of actual fighting. More about stragety and plotting with a bit of action mixed in.