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Sign of the Qin (Outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh) | 
 enlarge | Author: L.g. Bass
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $1.99
You Save: $6.00 (75%)
New (40) Used (17) from $0.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 525969
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0786855665
EAN: 9780786855667
ASIN: 0786855665
Publication Date: September 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New, unread, unused and in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.
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Product Description
A volcanic eruption releases a vanguard of demons, sealed away for centuries beneath the earth. Soon after, the Emperor's first son is born, marked with the sign of the Qin-the brand of the outlaw! Could the child be the new Starlord, destined to restore justice to the land? The emperor plots to kill his only heir before the boy can usurp his throne. But the assassin is foiled by a mysterious monk whose magical tattoos foretell the future, and a trickster monkey who longs for immortality. A host of warring guardians must ultimately unite to help the Starlord unlock the kung fu secrets of the Twelve Scrolls and save the earth from destruction. But first, the Prince must fulfill his destiny, and join the twin leaders of the legendary outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh in a war against the Lord of the Dead. The first in a trilogy, Sign of the Qin draws upon Chinese myth and legend in a tour de force of classic storytelling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 More Please February 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I probably couldn't add much more to the glowing list of reviews, except to say that it has been over four years and I am wondering if the sequel (you are left hanging) will appear in the near future :sigh: I have so many books where I have been awaiting the sequel four years or more, someday I am going to have to spend a whole year of my life just re-reading.
THE SIGN of QIN April 13, 2007
by L. G. Bass is a Chinese fantasy that I would recommend to all the fans of Harry Potter.
The story begins when the Emperor's son is born with the sign of the out law on his chek and as the prophesy was written,the Eire to the thrown with the sign of the outlaw will defeat the demons and save the empire. As it turns out Yamu [the lord of the dead] a strong dark foe that will do anything to bring him down and in the meantime the famous out laws White Streak and Black World wind are on the right path to meet the young prince. A monkey with a high bounty has kidnapped the prince, and took him under his wing as his guardian to teach him the ways of Outlaw.
White Streak and Black World wind are twin brothers who are some of the greatest outlaws ever. On their trip they meet a magical monster with the name, the Nakk . The Nakk has a giant squid like body and octopus like tentiquals and the power to transform into other creatures like a jelly fish. As the Nakk tries to sink their ship, White Streak tries fighting it, and came out successful. for wining they got one free wish, and they wished for a deamon dog named Puk. Puk will serve as a guardian for a small boy they train to become an outlaw.
Well that's all I can tell you about my book over all I think it was awesome!!!!!
 enough with the stupid adjectives! May 28, 2006
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you happen to be crazy and came out of the premiere of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon saying "Wow, that would make a GREAT book!" Sign of the Qin is for you. If, however, you are sensitive to cliched characters, stiff and tedious dialogue, and shameful breaking of the `show, don't tell' law, pass on this incredible waste of paper.
Did you notice how my last sentence contained five adjectives and went on longer than it should have? Well...this kind of pattern riddles Qin. The nearly 400 pages of this first novel could be slimmed down if, well, you took out most of the pointless adjectives and adverbs. I might be picky, but if a typical sentence is `The meeting would require a day's intricate journey along the murky Great River, where a treacherous web of meandering creeks and misty waterways posed a terrible threat to sailors, even those like himself and his twin brother, Black Whirlwind, who knew the territory well enough not to take a dead-end turn' I just can't stand it. I got maybe 140 pages in before my head started to hurt, and I actually started covering the `cruelly's and `encouragingly's with my finger so I could concentrate on the story.
However, that brings me to the plot. It is a fantasy epic set in a dragons-and-demons world that resembles our own, even mentioning Mongolian conquests, the emperor, and obviously drawing on Chinese mythology for the deity characters.
In a nutshell, a cadre of demons led by the Lord of the Dead is loosed on the Earth, and a band of outlaws must cooperate with a young Prince to save the corrupted kingdom from peril.
The story isn't bad, but the way it's told ruins it completely. Since the author relies so much on excessive modifiers, everything feels melodramatic and forced. From the `martial arts scenes' to relationships between characters, everything gives the impression of a bad circus or play; characters don't seem to put their spirits into themselves when they should, and encounters with horrifying demons seem overblown and clumsy.
The author may drone on about a bandit's strong, muscled body barely contained in his tunic, describe his weapons with fervor, give a speech on his bloodthirsty smirk--and then have him get owned by weaklings three times in a row. Logic is literally thrown to the winds; sometimes there is too little description to know what is exactly happening, and gaps of time and space are magically jumped by the main characters.
My last point: the inevitable cliches. In the heat of melodrama, someone's grandmother who is supposed to be dead comes back to life joyfully as if she just fainted, like no one bothered to check her pulse or--look, if I sound like I'm crazy, read the book. It is supposed to be humorous or something, but after every `battle' was won by the good guys I just couldn't help rolling my eyes. There are ways to tell stories without making everything predictable, without coming to `Disney endings' where everything works out. That's the weird part; in some parts of the book there is torture and carnage and a whole village is massacred, and in others it seems the author couldn't bear to let anyone but the main characters get hurt and brings someone inexplicably back to life in an annoyingly pointless way.
All I can say is, the editor at Hyperion should be fired for slacking off. I can't help wondering why this crap got hardcover coverage by Hyperion when thousands of good books are rejected. Even--gasp--Eragon made more sense. There, I said it.
FABULOUS READ!! March 12, 2005
I chose this book as an optional text for one of my methods courses in college and I loved it!! I am a sci-fi/fantasy fan and the book promised a "Lord of the Rings"ish story. It was like a Chinese version of LOTR with fresh characters that sometimes border on the lines of the Greek gods. Amazing story, can't wait to read the rest of them!
How about an original idea? December 18, 2004
14 out of 29 found this review helpful
This is the kind of book that happens when someone attempts to fill in a niche for diversity in order to get published without real respect for the source material or culture.
So here we have the author lifting whole parts from classic Chinese novels like Journey to the West (Monkey) and The Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh--she couldn't even come up with a different title!)
She then mixes up a bunch of aspects from different Asian cultures together as if they are all one and the same. A common Westerner's mistake.
She should have also done more research on names. No one is going to have the name "Zong" since that's reserved for the Emperor--after he's dead! And like most Westerners who come up with Chinese names, the women all get fanciful names like those taken by women in brothels. Of course when you lift from a notorious book like "The Golden Lotus" this would tend to happen.
The author should have spent more time looking into Chinese culture and legend rather than merely reading a few translated books and watching some kung fu films.
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