***COMRADE BRODSKY REPORTS THAT THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC WILL ATTACK ASEAN***
The Chinese intelligence agency received this message from a trusted asset. He had just completed the sale of MANPADs, manually portable anti-aircraft devices, in Macau. His customer was Carlos a.k.a. Hashim. Why buy arms for the rebels in the Philippines? What else lurks unseen?
This is, as the cover indicates, volume 2 of The Chinese Spymaster. It is neither a sequel to the first nor the prequel to the (forthcoming) third volume. I set off on this series to see if I could write without something already written to translate or adapt or retell.
The book may be purchased from Amazon (print and Kindle version).
It is also available from Apple/iTunes and Barnes and Noble/Nook (epub format).
It is available in any eformat from Smashwords (link).
A giveaway of the print version is still available at Goodreads.com (link via following widget).
Agamemnon Must Die
To sail against Troy, Agamemnon sacrificed his virgin daughter Iphigenia. Ten years later, he returns victorious, hoping that Queen Clytemnestra has forgiven him. He is so wrong.
The royal family of Mycenae has a bloody, monstrous history. Agamemnon returns with his war trophy, the Trojan Princess Cassandra, whom he unthinkingly flaunts before his queen. After an epic sword fight in his own banquet hall, Agamemnon is killed. Cassandra has her nightmares/visions of the gory and unspeakable deeds of the House of Atreus; she is led away to be executed. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus have their respective reasons, but this regicide must be avenged. Or so say the voices in Orestes' head. He must avenge his father. He must kill the regicides. He must kill his own mother.
But killing one's own mother would break the greatest of ancient taboos and would result in even more voices in his head. Are they just voices? Can they be placated?
COMMENTS FROM EARLY READERS
“Read this and your life will be enriched.”
Darius Stansky, author of The King’s Jew.
“To tell part of an epic that has been told for two and a half thousand years requires ambition. Hock’s telling ambitiously alternates between the poetic flow of the classics and a more standard narrative style. And this works.”
Raymond Holland, author of The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing.
“As massive as the scope of this story is, the small details are not neglected and add to the pleasure: ‘Around her wafted a light fragrance, her favorite summer flowers simmered in oil by an ancient apothecary.’ Anyone who appreciates good writing and Greek Tragedy will enjoy this.”
Sly, author of Stonefish.
"A superbly-written retelling of the tale. The author combines verse with narrative in an effective way that is relatable to 21st Century audiences."
Piper Templeton, author of Rain Clouds and Waterfalls.
"A superbly-written retelling of the tale. The author combines verse with narrative in an effective way that is relatable to 21st Century audiences."
Piper Templeton, author of Rain Clouds and Waterfalls.
PRINT VERSION
$8.88
158 pages
Available from Createspace or Amazon.
Kindle version
$2.99
Available from Amazon.
Epub versions available at
$2.99
Available from Smashwords, Apple, Barnes and Noble and many other stores.
If you are a member of Goodreads and would like to add this book to your shelf, just click on the widget below.
The Ingenious Judge Dee
Judge Dee deals with these cases with his usual investigators and with his customary aplomb, even though he is himself under investigation by an Imperial Censor. He is unorthodox in his choice of investigators (former bandits and a female ex-cat burglar) and one of his suspects is a voluptuous woman who alleges harassment on the part of the authorities. He may also have stepped on some toes of the local gentry.
What is an upright civil servant to do?
This is now available as a paperback and in Kindle format from Amazon.
It is available in other e-book formats from Smashwords.
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The Chinese Spymaster
Chinese Intelligence uncovers a North Korean trying to sell a nuclear device. Then they find
Is this a "Pashtun Spring"? A realignment of geopolitical power in Central Asia? A resurgence of Islamist terrorism?
In order to anticipate and confront these threats, Spymaster Wang must negotiate through bureaucratic rivalries, as well as personal ambitions, at home and abroad. He reaches for ancient insight into strategies and unorthodox alliances. But the struggle he must undertake cannot cease, and the outcome always remains in doubt.
The Spymaster must also confront a vendetta within the Party as well as the determination of his Old Friends and their wives to make him a match.
From the back cover:
"...Fascinating, a true Smiley for current times and troubles. It has all the hallmarks of a literary thriller." Kay Christine Fenton.
This book was reviewed on March 23, 2017 by Judi Moore (link).
It is available as a paperback and in Kindle format from Amazon.
It is available in other e-book formats from Smashwords.
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Heaven is High and the Emperor Far Away, A Play
This is the story of Shopkeeper Wang and the friends, the regulars, and the transients who visit the Yutai (Abundant Peace) Teahouse, a Beijing neighborhood institution, during the decades of the early twentieth century. The setting is intimate and the atmosphere, action and themes, Dickensian. The play is adapted from Teahouse by Lao She (Shu Qingchun) Chinese original published in 1957.
The original has been reduced from three acts, set over fifty years, with nearly seventy characters to a play in two acts set about twenty-five years apart with a cast of twenty (some multiple casting). It tries to reproduce as much as possible the characters and actions that Lao She created for a world of those living at the bottom edge of civility and into which corruption and exploitation roughly intrude. This is a world of the poor caught up in the spin-cycle of world historical change.
From the back cover:
"I recommend it for people who like plays, or like China, or just really want to read something good." Jo Grix, Author.
This is now available in print and in Kindle format from Amazon.
It is available in other e-book formats from Smashwords.
Requests for performance rights should be addressed to tjoa.books@gmail.com.
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THE BATTLE OF CHIBI
Long ago, along a stretch of a river deep and wide but far away from the consciousness or imagination of anyone outside All under Heaven, a battle was fought that determined the fate of its people for the next four hundred years.
The Battle of Chibi vividly retells selections (translated by the author) from the great Chinese classic, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This novel combines fascinating characters in action as well as ideas in conflict and battle scenes, deception, and earnest debate; there is even a marriage arranged for the purpose of entrapping of the Loyalist leader.
It weaves together stories, drama, poetry--events and episodes that have engrossed Asian readers and listeners for the last seventeen hundred years. Above all, the warriors and leaders in this retelling, their loyalties and conflicts, show why this classic has been valued as the best introduction to Chinese thought.
From the back cover:
"Fascinating insight into a whole new world of thought." Hasan S. Padamsee, Professor of Physics, Cornell University.
Both print and electronic (Kindle) versions of The Battle of Chibi are now available at AMAZON.
EVERY electronic version (including Kindle compatible format) is now available at SMASHWORDS . This will make the e-book available to Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc.
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