Shogun

Rating:
Summary: ! SHOGUN. To put it simply it was a show-stopper!
Review: It's hard but I'm going to make this as short and as sweet as possible. Shogun grips you like the "jaws of life" and absolutley refuses to let you down. If you read this outstanding novel, by the time your finished your going to look back and wish you had about 100 more chapters left. You just won't want the story to end, ever...

Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best!
Review: Shogun is the best history of 17th Century Japan you will ever read. Yes, a history of Feudal Japan. Oh, yes its a novel. Yes it is filled with action, romance, sex, politics, and cultural diffusion. But other than changing the names, the book is really a history of how the Tokugawa Shogunate was established. The book is a history of Will Adams, Tokugawa Ieyasu, with background and references to Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. But again, though it is really a history Shogun is much more. This is by far the best book I have ever read. As long as the book is, you don't want it to end. Honestly, I never liked Clavell's other books, Gai-Jin, Taipan, etc. but Shogun is the best. Shogun is one of those books you will always remember.

Rating:
Summary: Clavell's Second Greatest Book!
Review: I say it is his second best because I think his earlier novel, Tai-Pan, is slightly better, but not by much. That aside, Shogun is a brilliant tale filled with plenty of political intrigue in 16th century Japan. It is a historical novel which works. A rare commodity indeed in this day.

I am particularly impressed by how unpredictable the plot is yet plausible. The amount of research which Clavell had to undertake to produce this novel must have been incredible.

Finally, the ending of the novel is filled with nail biting suspense that satisfies the reader with an interesting twist. Read it. It may look boring, but you would be mistaken to overlook this great work. This and Tai-Pan are the mighty bestsellers of the late sixties and mid-seventies that I feel are unrivaled to this day.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Colossal! Stupendous!
Review: This is the best novel of fiction I have ever read. I read a LOT. The people of Japan come to life, and the characters are totally unique. Blackthorne learns his role well, and the women... ah it makes you want to go to 16th century Japan to live. If you're a man, that is. I just bought this book on a whim, and now have bought all of Clavell's books. Buy this book. You will find the 1210 pages are much too short.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book was amazing to put it simply. The depth of the characters and the details in which it was written are perfect. I was most impressed by the character Toranaga. He was the most brilliant leader that I've ever read about. Like all good books I read, when I finished Shogun I was sorry that the saga had ended.

Rating:
Summary: What a Book!
Review: Shogun is one of the best Novels of all time. What a book! A fictional history of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the unification of Japan under his families Shogunate. The references to Hideyoshi, Nobunaga, and other aspects of Japanese history add to the fun. Like Lonesome Dove, despite the size of the book, you will not want it to end. I suggest reading a little Japanese history first and then read the novel. Anyone interested in Japan or just a good book should read it.

Rating:
Summary: My first Clavell book, but certainly not my last!
Review: I had heard from friends that James Clavell was an excellent writer. After finishing 'Shogun' I can certainly say I agree. The story itself never got dull during the 1100-odd pages. There were many interesting characters in the book, Blackthorne certainly being the key. I liked seeing how he at first resisted, then grudgingly accepted, then finally adapted the Japanese culture as his own (the baths and the non-meat diet, for example). The social characteristics of 1600's Japan were captured perfectly and were fascinating (seppuku, for example). The TV series was before my time so I've never seen it. It's hard for me to imagine any TV program or movie doing justice to a story like this.

Rating:
Summary: very short 1152 pages novel
Review: I have SHOGUN since 1984 - practically every second year I read this novel from beginning and always I have the same complain that its a very short. The best thing about this novel that one is no more afraid of death - this is in short. TV serial has been made of Shogun which I saw on Hongkong TV in 1982/83 that was before I read the novel - if anyony can help me find this serial on CD or VHS please contact me at email [e-mail] (tks)

Rating:
Summary: A true tour de force, the best Japanese fiction ever!
Review: I read James Clavell's master work for a grade 12 english project, and loved the book. Though it may appear to be a frighteningly long read, it is so well put together that you will devour this book surprisingly quickly (at the expense of your social life, and a few warm meals). I was reading Michal Crichton's The Andromeda Strain back in grade 7, and I have read non-stop ever since, and Shogun is far and away my favorite novel. The story-telling and character development is flawless, but much pleasure can also be taken from the lesson in Japanese culture that Clavell provides. I would also recomend similer books by Laura Joh Rowland (Shin-ju, Bundori, and The Way of the Traitor).

Rating:
Summary: can I give it 6 stars?
Review: This book is magic put on paper.

This is the first book (in sense of the timeline) in Clavell's Asian saga, and details the adventures of John Blackthorne, and English sailor, who drifts into feudal Japan by accident.

James Clavell is one on the greatest storytellers of the 20th century and it comes through in every page of this book. Clavell writes as if he had actually lived in Japan in the seventeenth century. His characters, both the Japanese and English come alive, in his pages and in your mind till you almost refer to them as real people.

The plot and subplots weave together and create a tale that is an epic unlike any other historical novel. When you finish this book you'll feel as if you woke from a dream in which you were in feudal Japan, sharing in the adventures, tradgedies and triumphs of the chracters, you'll wish that it hadn't ended, you'll wish that it were more than the 1100+ pages it already is.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it is a masterpiece that I will never forget.