James’s Comments (group member since Nov 10, 2011)

James’s comments from the Q&A with James Lande group.

Hello Fans - Yang Shen eBooks are here!

Formats for Kindle and Nook are now available - you'll find them on the eBook page at the Yang Shen website, www-yang-shen.info. Other formats are a-brewing.

The Kindle and Nook formats have both Chinese and non-Chinese versions all in the one eBook.

Even if you have no eReader, you can still read a Yang Shen eBook...for pennies to the pound! Readers worldwide who are not able to order the book in print can now order the eBook version, and for less cost as eBooks are not nearly so expensive to produce!

The Yang Shen eBook page has links to currently available eBook versions, to free eBook readers for your PC, and a blog for collecting comment from readers about eBook formatting, display, and performance on a reader's particular eDevice.

Good reading!
James

Congratulations to Yang Shen's very first Goodreads givaway contest winner Marketa Fei. A gift copy of Yang Shen has been mailed to Marketa, and we hope she'll enjoy the read and report back to the other 514 contestants how she likes the book.

More Yang Shen giveaway contests will start soon - right now we're scrambling to get the eBook editions of Yang Shen formatted and uploaded. Watch for progress on the eBook page at the Yang Shen website www.yang-shen.info.

James

Welcome to a discussion of my novel YANG SHEN. Esentially, YS is the tale of an American soldier-of-fortune in 19th century China and the influence he had on the fate of the Chinese empire. More detail about YS is at the novel's website www.yang-shen.info, and also at the publisher's website www.oldchinabooks.com.

As a historical novel, YS is unusual in many respects, and I hope to hear from readers their views of the approach taken to tell this story. The research is extensive and detailed, the events and characters portrayed are numerous and complex, and the narrative includes excerpts of the Chinese language. There is a glossary, a reading list, and section of notes called the Underfoot, which disentangles fact and fiction.

It has seemed to me that readers who enjoyed emersion in the complex culture of Japan in Clavell's SHOGUN would also enjoy a similar detailed exposure to a story set in China. Readers of TAIPAN, set in early 1840s Hong Kong, will find themselves in familiar territory when YS picks up the story 20 years later in Shanghai.

I will be pleased to hear from readers whether they found the read compelling and nimble enough to carry the weight of historical detail.

Best regards,
James Lande