There were some mystery novels written in the 40’s by a Dutch author (name escapes me now), who was a law and history scholar who lived and studied in China…The stories are based on the real life and legends of a Chinese court judge in the Ming (i think…its been a while) period, named Judge Dee.
One of his best books was: ‘The Bell Murders’ …very cool stuff, lots of kung fu (this guy must have been exposed to quite a bit and trained, cause he has great descriptions), wacky characters and great depiction of life in that time period.
Another fave i mentioned to you in another thread awhile back is called ‘Chronicles of Tao’, by Deng Ming Dao, a biography of a monk thats heavy on the fiction, but entertaining reading with lots of good Taoist philosophy. If you didnt get around to reading that, I’d recommend it.
Check out the “Quiller” books by Adam Hall, especially “The Mandarin Cypher”. They all incorporate martial arts within the plots–usually when Quiller is in a fight for his life.
Unfortunately, I am incapable of posting a link, so you’ll have to click and paste, unless someone can explain it to me in very small words, very slowly.
“Another fave i mentioned to you in another thread awhile back is called ‘Chronicles of Tao’, by Deng Ming Dao, a biography of a monk thats heavy on the fiction, but entertaining reading with lots of good Taoist philosophy”
My sifu trained in Qigong under Kwan Saihung. That book does have allot of fiction, I’d actually like to know how much. I all I know for sure was that he was a monk on Huashan other than that I don’t know.
Mutant,
I haven’t read that book yet, but thanks for the repitition(not sarcastic, seriously, sometimes these things need to be pounded into my brain). I’ll have to check it out.
I’m pretty partial to the Wing Chun history story. I know its fiction but it had some truths and that was way back when everyone actually believed it. I think it had around 13 chapters? and i dont remember what site i read it on but it was truly entertaining. Went through all the successors from Nun Ng Mui through to Yip Man.
check out Samurai Jack on the cartoon network. It is a little series of cartoons about a great warrior fighting evil. Cool plot and extremly funny moments!
Kabuki from Davi Mack…especially “Circle of Blood” or “Masks of the Noh”, since the others are less martial and more psychology oriented (well, from the middle to the end of metamorphosis it gest quite nice, there’s even some savate in it!!)…and you just can’t beat the artworks and incredible levels of complexity in the storyline…the guy’s a genius, with too many gimmicks, but still…
As for the rest, I like any Wu Xia Pian with people flying or wielding impossible weapons like it was feather light…
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms was great too, and Outlaws of the Marsh.
Mutant W, I know the guy you’re talking about…nice pieces indeed…grrr, his name ludes me too at the moment, it’s Van something…
AHHH. Who can forget the Fist of the Northstar.? Especially with Showtime still running the cartoons. Man, I even enjoyed that live action version with Gary Daniels. But then how could I not? Still wish they’d worked out some way to do the walking through a building as it falls on your head.
Is there any martial arts fiction (written, not those supa-cewl Shaw Brothers flix) being published these days?
Side note: There any translated copies of the dime-a-dozen martial novels that went around China, etc? I think it’d be interesting to read of the cowboyish martial exploits of MA characectures (sp).
if you like those kungfu comics, see the source @ comicsone.com, there’s one I like called Saint Legend, where the 8 taoist gods are a super hero team.
if you’re looking for novels, look up Louis Cha on amazon.com, he wrote the story for the Swordsman movie trilogy and a couple of the comics in the above site.
Roger Zelazny edited a book called, “Warriors of Blood and Dream”. It leans toward sci-fi martial arts, but some of the short stories were pretty straight-forward fiction too.
have you read “Iron & Silk”?..it’s martial arts fiction…i’d heard of it for some time, but happened to see it yesterday in the bookstore so i bought it…haven’t really read alot yet, but the first 10 pages were entertaining..only $12.95
I’ve written a 375 page book entitled Evolution Fist: Revelations from the hidden garden.
You can’t believe how hard it is to find an agent, let alone a publisher. Not given up though and working on a more main stream book that may help my breaking into the industry.
There is a great book, something or other Tao. Or Tao this or that. I forgot it. Will post it tomorrow. Pretty good.
