NEW RELEASES
The Mystery Planet Gan by Unno Jūza
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Vol. 5: The Sleeping Dragon by Eiji Yoshikawa
THE MAN WHO WOULD WAKE THE DRAGON
Three times Liu Bei rides through the snow to a thatched hut in the mountains. Three times he is told the master is not at home. His brothers think it is beneath a man of his rank to beg at the door of a provincial recluse. His advisors think the young scholar’s reputation is inflated. Liu Bei goes back anyway.
Because the man for whom he is searches is Zhuge Liang, known to the very few who have heard of him as the Sleeping Dragon. Konming is but twenty-seven years old. He has never held office, never commanded troops, never left the hills around his farm. He sits in his hut and reads and waits, and the men who know him best say he is the most dangerous mind alive.
The Sleeping Dragon, Volume Five of Yoshikawa Eiji’s epic retelling of the Chinese classic marks the great pivot of his Three Kingdoms saga. The age of the warlords is ending. The age of generals is about to begin. Before the Sleeping Dragon descends from his mountain, Liu Bei is a wanderer with nothing more than a reputation. Soon after, he becomes the architect of a kingdom. But this volume is not only about the Dragon’s awakening. as it also follows Guan Yu’s legendary thousand-li ride through enemy territory, the bloody struggle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao for supremacy in the north, and the gathering of the companions who will carry Liu Bei’s cause into the battles ahead.
This is the fifth volume in the first complete and unabridged English translation of Yoshikawa’s Sangokushi. Now available on Amazon.
Excerpt
After leaving Hu Hua’s house, the battered curtained carriage pressed on day after day through the autumn wind. Before long, on the road toward Luoyang, they came to a pass.
A partisan of Cao Cao named Kong Xiu held the gate with more than five hundred cavalry.
The foremost strongpoint of the three provinces. He would have to pass through without incident if he could.
Guan Yu halted the carriage, rode forward alone, and called out:
“A traveler bound for Hebei! I ask passage through your gate.”
Kong Xiu appeared in person, one hand on his sword hilt.
“Is the General not Yunzhang — Guan Yu?”
“Indeed. I am Guan Yu.”
“You escort the two ladies’ carriage. Where are you bound?”
“Need I say it? I am returning to my former lord Xuande, who I hear is in Hebei.”
“Then you carry a warrant from the Chancellor?”
“My departure was urgent. I neglected to bring one.”
“A common traveler needs a tally at any pass; an official on public business cannot pass a gate without the Chancellor’s warrant. You know that well enough, General.”
“When the day came to return, I should be free to go — that was the understanding between the Chancellor and myself. What need have I for regulations?”
“No, no. Yuan Shao of Hebei is the Chancellor’s mortal enemy. I cannot let a man pass into enemy territory without authorization. Wait here outside the gate. I will send a courier to the capital and seek the Chancellor’s instructions.”
“Every day weighs on me. I cannot idle here while a courier goes and returns.”
“Say what you will, General. Until I receive the Chancellor’s command, this gate stays shut. In a time when rebellion threatens every border, how should I treat the law of the land lightly?”
“Cao Cao’s law was made for Cao Cao’s subjects and his enemies. I am the Chancellor’s guest, not his vassal, and neither am I his enemy. If you insist on barring my way, I will force it open, and the calamity will be yours, not mine. Let me through.”
“I said no, and you try my patience. However, if you leave behind the carriage and every one of your attendants as hostages, I will permit you alone to pass.”
“That is something I will never allow.”
“Then turn back.”
“At any cost?”
“Enough!”
He snapped the word and ordered the guards to shut the gate.
Guan Yu’s brows rose in cold fury.
“Blind fool. Can you not see what this is?”
He leveled the Blue Dragon blade at Kong Xiu’s chest.
Kong Xiu seized the shaft. He was a man who knew nothing of his opponent and still less of himself.
“Insolent dog!” he snarled, and wheeled to bellow at his garrison troops: “Seize this ruffian! Take him!”
“So be it,” said Guan Yu, and drew back the blade.
Kong Xiu, who had been clutching the shaft like a fool, threw himself back in the saddle with a cry and clawed for his sword, but Guan Yu roared, and the crescent edge swept through him in the same instant. His body came apart in two halves, and what fell from the horse struck the ground in a burst of crimson.
The garrison troops were not worth counting. Guan Yu cut through them at will, drove the carriage forward through the gate, and as he cleared the pass called back in a voice that rolled like a temple bell:
“On Baling Bridge I took my leave of Chancellor Cao Cao himself, and I pass through here in the light of day. Why should any blame attach to you? Send word to the capital afterward — say that Guan Yu crossed Dongling Pass this day!”
White hailstones rattled against the carriage canopy that afternoon. The next day, and the next, the wheels drove on without rest along the imperial highway.
Luoyang. The walls of Luoyang had come into sight on the horizon. Here too the Chancellor’s writ held sway. One of his lords, a man named Han Fu, commanded the garrison.
A DISTRESS SIGNAL FROM DEEP SPACE
The Queen of Space, humanity’s first Venus expedition, has vanished forty million kilometers from Earth. And something is coming the other way.
When young Mineo Yagi hears the emergency broadcast on the tele-radio, he knows his uncle, the brilliant detective Homura Soroku, will be at the center of whatever comes next. Within hours, they are aboard the Silver Cat, racing toward the last known position of the lost ship as part of an international rescue fleet.
But the rescue mission becomes something far more dangerous when the fleet encounters Gan, a rogue celestial body of impossible origin that burns with a sickly amber light and is on a collision course with Earth. The lost crew of the Queen of Space may hold the only clue to stopping it, if they can be found alive.
First published in 1939, The Mystery Planet Gan is a classic of early Japanese science fiction by Unno Juza, the father of the science fiction in Japan. Never before translated into English, it is a breathless adventure in the tradition of Heinlein’s juvenile novels, a story of a brave boy and a mysterious uncle facing a mysterious threat from beyond the stars. Now available on Amazon.
Excerpt
When the emergency broadcast ended, Mineo turned to his uncle with desperate eyes.
Homura had moved away from the cipher machine at some point and was sitting on a small stool with his legs crossed, a notepad open on his knee and a pencil in his hand. When Mineo looked over, Homura was studying the shorthand he had scribbled on the pad with fierce concentration.
“Uncle, something terrible has happened, hasn’t it?”
Homura said nothing. He stood, notepad in hand, and set it quietly on the desk. As he did, his lips pressed together into a tight, hard line. It was a habit of his, something the great detective did whenever he seized on a critical lead.
“Uncle. What is it?”
Mineo asked even though he expected to be scolded for it. He couldn’t help himself.
“Yes. This is a serious matter indeed. It’s like someone touching a match to the corner of a straw barn. The whole thing will go up. Mark my words: before long, the entire world will be in an uproar.”
“But it’s already a worldwide incident, isn’t it? They interrupted regular programming to broadcast it.”
“No, no. Right now the match has barely caught the first bundle of straw. Soon enough, people all over the world will come running out of that barn like human torches.” He caught himself and smiled ruefully. “Listen to me, making predictions. Your uncle hates making predictions, you know.”
And that was the truth. In his investigative work, even when all the testimony and evidence lined up and anyone could have said “he’s the man,” Homura would never say it. Not to anyone. If he knew a suspect would appear at a certain place the next day, he would never breathe a word of it. He would simply go to that place on the appointed day and wait. When the culprit finally showed himself, Homura would murmur, as if to himself, “Yes. That’s how it had to be.” That was his way.
So the fact that Homura Sōroku had gone so far as to predict that the wreck of the Queen of Space would grow into a crisis threatening the entire world told you just how deeply the affair had shaken him.
Or perhaps his uncle had been waiting for something like this all along. Perhaps when the emergency broadcast came through, Homura recognized it for what it was, and the shock hit him all at once. The shorthand on that notepad was surely a transcript of the entire broadcast. At least, that was what Mineo thought.
“You said the whole world would be in an uproar. What exactly is going to happen?”
“Well now, we’ll just have to watch and see.”
And just like that, his uncle had retreated behind the careful, measured manner of the professional detective.
That was when the telephone shrieked to life.
“Ah. Here it comes.”
Homura muttered something only he could have understood and strode to the telephone.
The instrument he switched on was the international line, a videophone model with a television screen that showed the caller’s face.
The screen lit up with the ruddy complexion of an American. Behind him, a chart of the cosmos was visible on the wall.
“Hey there, Mr. Homura. I’ve been handed the job of dragging you into this. My paper wants to put you on the payroll and send you on assignment. Destination: the middle of outer space. You heard that emergency broadcast just now, I take it?”
The man who launched into business without preamble was Kirkham, a well-known reporter on the city desk of the New York Gazette. He and Homura Sōroku had crossed paths on two or three cases over the years.
“You’re dragging me out on short notice. What exactly do you want me to do, Kirkham?”
Homura’s voice carried its usual calm, unhurried tone.
“Early tomorrow morning, ten rescue ships are launching from here to go after the Queen of Space. You’ll be aboard one of them. I’ve already cleared it with Dr. Ted, the rescue team commander. You’ll conduct an investigation of the Queen of Space and file every story through us. We’ll distribute it as exclusive coverage through our newspaper, radio, and television networks, not just in America but worldwide.” Kirkham paused. “You’ll take the job, of course.”
“Any other conditions?”
“None. Let’s hear yours.”
“No conditions to speak of. Oh, hold on a moment, Kirkham.”
Homura broke off and craned his neck to the side. Mineo was standing right there, jabbing a finger at his own chest.
“You want to come along? Hmm. But don’t come crying to me if things get rough. You’re sure about this? Absolutely sure?”
Homura had a quick, hushed exchange with his nephew, then turned back to face Kirkham on the screen.
“One condition. I bring my nephew, Yagi Mineo, as my assistant. Agreed?”
“You got it. Then we have a deal.”
Kirkham broke into a grin.
“Come see me at the office no later than one hour before the rescue ships launch. We’ll have everything arranged and all the paperwork handled by then.”
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