looking for Japanese flavour

Post by **Usivius** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:05 pm

Hi, y'all. Looking for a recommendation. I am looking for a fiction / fantasy book with a Japanese flavour. Something along the line of feudal Japan, whether it be 'reality' based or total fantasy.

muchos gracias amigos...

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:36 pm

Usivius wrote:Hi, y'all. Looking for a recommendation. I am looking for a fiction / fantasy book with a Japanese flavour. Something along the line of feudal Japan, whether it be 'reality' based or total fantasy.

muchos gracias amigos...

Well, first of all, that's Spanish, not Japanese.

Have you read Clavell's Shogun?

Are you familiar with Miyamoto Musashi?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi
Eiji Yoshikawa wrote a fairly big book on him:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/4770019572/sr ... oding=UTF8
I think it falls in the historical-fiction category.

Post by **Avatar** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:28 pm

For sci-fi, not really Japanese though, more Chinese actually, but pretty good, Chung Kuo Book 1: The Middle Kingdom, by David Wingrove.

Not for some, but I liked the series.

Patrick Tilley's Amtrack Wars have several books set in a post-apocalyptic Japanese society, notably The Iron Masters and Blood River, but they're not the focus of the story. (Excellent books though.)

I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting...will think about it.

--A

Post by **Ainulindale** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:56 pm

The Japanaese have arrived!

Here are some excellent books IMHO, highly recommended:

Tales of Genji

-The obvious choiec some regard it as the oldest/first novel credited to Murasaki Shikibu. Essential read for anyone no maer what their interests are.

Not feudal but excellent:

-Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

Surreal, absurdist work that is criminally not included enough when speaking of one of the great novels in the history of fantastic fiction.]

-The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murkami.

There are others but they are more literary fiction or at least in mdoern times and I don't want to go off on a tangent.

Post by **Usivius** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:48 pm

thanks for the tips, Ainulindale. It's funny, I have had 'Tales of Genji' on my bookshelf for so long, unread, I totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder! I think the reason I didn't read it in the first place is because the prose in translation I have seems a bit stifled... But I will dust it off and have a go!
Thanks.

Post by **taraswizard** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:44 am

bump, bumpity, bump.

Genji Monogatari, which translation is the one you're talking about. I have and I'm reading the Seidensticker (1921 - 2007) one and I've found it pretty good. There's a new translation by Ryall Tyler (?) and it's supposed be excellent.

Post by **stonemaybe** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:37 am

I'm in shock, someone asked for fantasy with a Japanese feel, Avatar replied and didn't recommend the Empire series by Wurts & Feist.

So I will.

You're slipping, Av!

Post by **Avatar** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:27 pm

I knew I was missing something. Although technically IIRC, Feist drew the inspiration from stays in Korea, but it certainly does have a Japnese feel to it.

--A

Post by **danlo** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:05 am

I love The Tales of Genji--and, while Chinese, Ernest Braham's Kai Lung stories (1900-1940) are spellbinding fantasy Kai Lung .

Post by **Vraith** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:53 pm

A guy named Lustbader? Von Lustbader? has a bunch of hi-tech/martial arts/thriller books, mostly set in modern Japan, if you're into that kind of thing...ran across them house-sitting in the boonies for a friend a few years ago...not exactly my cup of tea, sort of Ludlum-ish, with more grit/tech, a dash of the mystic, and no Nazis...
I think he's done some fantasy and sf, too.

Post by **Avatar** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:36 pm

Seen a couple of his books, never read them.

Never considered them fantasy though. Otherwise we might as well mention James Clavell as well.

--A

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:57 pm

Vraith wrote:A guy named Lustbader? Von Lustbader?

Eric van Lustbader?

Looked it up to check: knew I knew that name from somewhere - he wrote the Bourne sequals after Ludlum died.

Post by **Vraith** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:25 pm

Murrin wrote:
Vraith wrote:A guy named Lustbader? Von Lustbader?
Eric van Lustbader?

Looked it up to check: knew I knew that name from somewhere - he wrote the Bourne sequals after Ludlum died.

That's the guy..looked it up myself afterwards...he's written a lot more than I would have guessed.

Post by **stonemaybe** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:50 pm

Otherwise we might as well mention James Clavell as well.

I like his books! Though Shogun, the japanese one, is my least favourite.

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:52 am

That's only one of a series of Japanese books, IIRC.

--A

Post by **stonemaybe** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:15 am

He wrote one other based in Japan, Gai-Jin, about 20 years (RL, hundreds of years book-time) after Shogun. It's Ok.

King Rat was based in a Japanese POW camp in Changi but i don't think that counts!

Tai-pan and Noble House are Hong Kong. (They're my favourites)

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:45 pm

Ah, I was thinking Tai-Pan was Japanese as well. Will probably be reading Noble House soon...picked it up at a book sale the other day.

--A

Post by **stonemaybe** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 5:34 pm

Make sure you read Tai-pan first! Noble House is great, and would probably stand alone ok, but it's so much better when you know the histories of the feuding families.

Post by **Avatar** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:02 am

I would, but I don't have it.

--A

Post by **stonemaybe** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:09 am

Clavell is one of those authors, like Julian May, whose books seem to be in every secondhand bookshop in town.

Obviously not in SA though.

Kevin's Watch

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looking for Japanese flavour

looking for Japanese flavour

Re: looking for Japanese flavour

Tale of the Genji