A Hero Born: Legends of the Condor Heroes

Set in the late Song dynasty as the Jin press from the north, this first volume of the Condor Heroes saga follows Guo Jing, a slow, stubborn boy raised on the Mongolian steppe among Genghis Khan's people, and Huang Rong, the quick-witted daughter of a reclusive martial-arts master. Bound by a wager between rival teachers, Guo Jing is sent south to learn kung fu and becomes entangled in the feuds of the wulin-the rivers-and-lakes world of beggars, Taoists, and outlaws. The novel mixes historical war with martial-arts romance: questions of loyalty to Song, to Mongolia, and to one's shifu drive the plot as much as combat.

Bound in mid-green high-gloss paper printed with wrap-around gilt foiled image. Red gilt title blocked slipcase.