[caladanbrood]

Chris Wooding's "Braided Path" series is in a far-eastern setting, and a very good read, imho

[stone monkey]

You could try Barry Hugharts "Master Li and Number Ten Ox" series set in a Land-Of-Fable version of Ancient China. They are: "Bridge of Birds", "The Story of the Stone" and "Eight Skilled Gentlemen." They're gently amusing books and I really rather like the first two.

Theres's Sasha Miller's "Ladylord" and its sequels (which I haven't read), which wasn't all that good iirc. Set in a an otherworldly version of China (complete with Great Wall)

Ashok Banker's Ramayana series that starts with "Prince of Ayoddha"(I think) is set in ancient India.

[gyrehead]

S.D Tower's The Assassins of Tamurin has a strong Asian influence; albeit a generic one. I liked the book very much and it seems to be overlooked quite a bit.

[Imperial Historian]

quote:

Eddings and someone else's Empire series. Set on a pseudo-Japanese planet. Slightly less horrific than Eddings by himself.

Do you mean Feist and Wurts empire series? as far as i'm aware eddings hasnt done a collaboration.

I read the tales of the otori recently... picked them up in the library, can't say I was blown away by them, but they were above average reads in my opinion.

[McLovin]

The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell. They're loosely based on feudal Japanese culture.

[McLovin]

I read Banker's "Prince of Ayodhya." Not great. Rama is portrayed as so super-duper-powerful you never believe he's ever in any danger, so there's no suspense. Plus the author rather pointlessly inserts Hindi names for common things - it makes sense when there's no simple English equivalent, but don't do it for things like "dining room."

Banker is also hilarious for posting rebuttal reviews on Amazon - he can't stand when someone gives him a negative review...

[Paran]

I liked 'Across the Nightingale Floor' - it has a certain something to it that defines magical. 'Grass for his Pillow' wasn't as good, and I haven't got around to reading my copy of book 3.

[Abyss]

Chung Kuo series by Wingrove. Asia/China-based future world sf, some fantasy elements. Read the first six books. Pretend 7 and 8 never happened.

- Abyss, thread necromancer.

[polishgenius]

Since Abyss has performed his dark magic, this thread can't go without a mention of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. I've only read the first two but they're very very good and the second two are meant to be even better (which would make the series a serious contender for best recent fantasy series- which to be fair seems to be the opinion of a lot of people who've read the whole thing).

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

James Clavelle's Shogun is historical fiction, not fantasy, but other than no magic, it might as well be. Ninja, samurai, white boy stuck in a culture he doesn't understand, in depth look at a strange different culture, killing people with various types of bladed weapons, it's got everything fantasy would have other than magic and monsters. I would bet money that any fan of good fantasy would love this book.

[Pig Iron]

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa is epic, with arguably the best duels ever written. Musashi is of course a historic character, but I'd say the novel is very close to what you'd consider fantasy.

Lone Wolf and Cub by Koike and Kojima is a comic, but reads as a novel if you get the whole series. Just incredible, and definitely fantasy.

The novels about Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik about a judge in 7th-century China are also great. Detective stories of a sort, but so much more and you have to call them fantasy (sword-fights, magic, larger-than-life characters etc).

Shike by Robert Shea about a member of an order of fighting monks (close to but not quite traditional ninjas) at the time of the Mongol invasion of Japan is another epic that I remember as quite fun when I read it a long time ago, also more fantasy than history.

This post has been edited by Pig Iron: 29 July 2009 - 09:00 AM

[Use Of Weapons]

Alma Alexander's _The Secrets of Jin-Shei_ is set in a fantasy equivalent of China. Excellent read, tightly plotted, though perhaps less action-oriented than some might prefer. (No ninjas, in other words.)