When a baby girl is abandoned at the gate of a monastery in ancient China, the monks have no choice but to adopt her into their exclusively male society of world-renown masters of the art of kung fu. She is raised within the monastery with a small group of boys, watching the monks beautiful training exercises during the days and listening to recounts of glorious battles of great kung fu masters at nighttime. Her favorite stories are those of the grand tournament battles between the monastery grand master, Bai Chen, and the legendary Black Dragon, an unknown masked competitor with unequaled prowess in the art of kung fu.Although the monks try to fulfill her physical and emotional needs, the girl becomes increasingly aware that she is treated differently than the male children, and develops a feeling of being unloved. She becomes increasingly isolated, and develops a deep yearning to become a great master of kung fu, dreaming of the day that she will be called to train in the art.When the time comes for the children to begin their initiation into the art, the girl is crushed to learn that she will not be allowed to participate, and flees from the monastery without any thought as to the consequences. She wanders through the rugged countryside for days, tired and hungry, until she chances upon an old man on the bank of a green pond. The old man offers to take the girl into his home, promising to teach her the art of kung fu. Could this wrinkled old figure really teach her anything about kung fu? She doubts this to be true, but faced with another hungry evening, she readily accepts the invitation.Thus begins the lifelong journey of Black Cat toward the only goal she can imagine: to compete in the Grand Tournament of ancient China and become a great master of the art of kung fu. She quickly discovers, however, that not only is her new master highly adept at the art of kung fu, but that her training is not as glorious as she had anticipated... Black Dragon, Black Cat is an ambitious saga of devotion, betrayal, and redemption, instilled with the philosophical wisdom of the old master and breathless scenes of epic battles set in ancient China. It can be enjoyed by all readers who are seeking adventures in ancient civilizations and cultures, as well as poignant character portrayals of unique individuals. And of course, there is plenty of action...
About the Author: Brian Edwards is Professor and Associate Head of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he has taught courses as a faculty member for ten years. He has authored books in several categories, including technical non-fiction, literary fiction, and action-adventure, and has written and illustrated children's books. His academic research is directed at the theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, which is quite useful from a practical, engineering perspective but rather dry to write about. His seminal textbook in this area, 'Thermodynamics of Flowing Systems, ' was the first thermodynamics monograph to sell over 5,000,000 copies in his own imagination. When he isn't wasting his time pondering deep thoughts about that stuff, he is doing other things, like writing novels about other strange, desperate people, because he goes certifiably nuts if he isn't constantly doing something.