Story of Kao Yu: A Tor.com Original

"The Story of Kao Yu" is a new fantasy short story by the legendary Peter S.

Beagle which tells of an ageing judge traveling through rural China and of a criminal he encounters.

Of the story, Beagle says it "comes out of a lifelong fascination with Asian legendry - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Indonesian - all drawn from cultures where storytelling, in one form of another, remains a living art.

As a young writer I loved everything from Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries to Lafcadio Hearn's translations of Japanese fairytales and many lesser-known fantasies.

Like my story 'The Tale of Junko and Sayuri,' 'The Story of Kao Yu' is a respectful imitation of an ancient style, and never pretends to be anything else.

But I wrote it with great care and love, and I'm still proud of it. "At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.