Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

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Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Trick on Fri Feb 12, 2021 4:03 am

Looking for Crime/thriller novels set in present time revolving around Japanese MA’s culture(or Chinese). I’m currently half throu ‘The 47’th Samurai’ by Stephen Hunter which is good......
More than 30 years ago I read Lustbader’s ‘Ninja’ which I thought was good back then, I’ll try to get my hands on that one again for a reread
Anyone here know of anything similar...?....Much appreciated !
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Finny on Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:10 am

There's not much that is actually good writing, but there are a few..
John Donohue has a series (not my favourite, seems formulaic and pretty stodgy to me, but something to read..) - 'Deshi' 'Tengu' 'Kage' etc
Barry Eisler's 'Rain' series features a half-Japanese half-American ex Marine/CIA hitman who uses Judo and Jujutsu techniques..
EV Lustbader had his NIcholas Linnear 'ninja' series, and a couple others.
There's an American kempo guy who's a former cop and writes similar books, I forget his name gimme a minute. They're all similarly poorly written and fairly predictable.
Then there are a raft of other. even worse things.. which I've forgotten they're so lame. Something like 'white tiger' by a Ms Chen of some sort.. ugh.

Oh, and not modern, but infinitely better is our own Ellis Amdur's 'Girl With the Face of the Moon'. Great book. And he has a new novel out I need to get.
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Graculus on Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:25 pm

I can recommend Barry Lancet (he has written a few although the only title I recall is Japantown). Well-written and fast-paced but less formulaic than some. The author lives in Tokyo, I believe, so quite accurate in that respect. The Japanese characters are well-rounded and not just foils for the non-Japanese (half-Japanese?) hero.
Shibumi (Trevanian?) is a kind of classic in this genre (although it's not a favourite of mine). It's a bit old, but he wrote a follow-up which featured baji not so long ago.

Tan Twan Eng (The Gift of Rain, Garden of the Evening Mists) - these are literary fiction with extensive flashbacks to the Japanese occupation of Malaysia and both feature martial arts as integral to the plot (especiallythe first). Good writing, quite heavy, dealing with a variety of themes that I couldn't do justice to here e.g. betrayal, collaboration, friendship.

Yours truly also has a series (crime) I'm hoping to bring out later this year set in 1930s Japan. 1&2 are complete, but I want to get no.3 (80% done) finished before releasing them. Obviously, they will be worth reading, too :) .

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https://ichijoji.blogspot.com
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Trick on Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:51 pm

Thanks guys I will look up the suggested books’n authors....The cheesy, easy and really good ones, all appreciated
Last edited by Trick on Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Trick on Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:57 pm

Graculus wrote:Yours truly also has a series (crime) I'm hoping to bring out later this year set in 1930s Japan. 1&2 are complete, but I want to get no.3 (80% done) finished before releasing them. Obviously, they will be worth reading, too :) .

Graculus
https://ichijoji.blogspot.com
that sound really great, hope you’ll lets us know when they’re out....I myself have a couple of half baked plots/stories I’m still molding and will try to put in writing(no not in English 8-) )
Last edited by Trick on Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Finny on Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:37 am

Finny wrote:There's an American kempo guy who's a former cop and writes similar books, I forget his name gimme a minute. They're all similarly poorly written and fairly predictable.


Loren Christensen. His protagonist is IIRC a vietnam vet who gets caught up in mischief.
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Trick on Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:19 am

Cool, I’ll look it up
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby greytowhite on Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:17 pm

If you're OK with a semi-modern fantasy I found these to be fun.

https://www.fondalee.com/books/jade-city/
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Re: Novels involving East Asian MA’s action

Postby Trick on Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:24 am

Thanks, since one of the stories I’m working on(slooowly) dwells into the areas of fantasy/supernatural I will sure have look at Fonda’s books...and she’s an blackbelt martial artist so the action should be good
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