Rating: 
Summary: Noble House Series
Review: Many years back I happened upon the book 'Taipan' in a used bookstore in Berkeley. Little did I know then that I was about to embarc upon a fictional journey that would span the centuries as well as generations. 'Noble House' the somewhat sequel to Taipan is set in Hong Kong of the sixties and where the battle between the Straun and Brock families continue to wage not their sabres and cutlasses but clout and money in a ceaseless endeavor to dominate, or even demolish one another.Clavell a master storyteller in this and his other epics, but here he plays upon classic battle between families and offers an expose' into the world of the Orient, and those who would venture into this realm of mystique and beauty. Bottomline: Read Taipan before Noble House ...Or you'll be completely lost
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book; Worth every page!
Review: I really enjoyed it. A classic that will definately go on my list of all-time favorite books.
Rating: 
Summary: Noble House - A Huge Disappointment
Review: After reading the previous four novels of Clavell's Asian Saga, I was very disappointed in Noble House. Shogun, Tai-Pan, King Rat, and Gai-Jin were absolutely fantastic; exciting with a lot of action and colorful characters. The characters in Noble House are excellent, but the constant detailed diatribe about the finances of taking over the Noble House was way overdone and constantly repeated. I'm amazed that Clavell wrote this book because all the hashing about money consistently stopped the ACTION of the story. The first thing a writer learns is to keep the action going. I found most of this book as boring as watching paint dry. The plot lines about espionage were good and Clavell should have expanded that story line and cut out the constant rehashing of the bank's problems and Casey's "drop dead" money. Like, we got the point.
Rating:
Summary: I don't quite agree with the others
Review: I enjoyed "Noble House". Mostly. However, I am not as enthusiastic about it as the other reviewers, especially when comparing "Noble House" to "Shogun". In my humble opinion, "Shogun" (another of Clavell's marathon-length novels) is far more enjoyable to "Noble House". An explanation about my tastes in books below may illuminate for you why I feel this way. There are three things that make a novel appealing to me: 1) interesting uses of the English language; 2) plots built around complex relationships, especially romantic ones; and 3) books that inspire or "move" me. Incidentally, when I write "an interesting use of the English language" above, I do NOT mean flowery or intellectual language. Rather, I mean I prefer authors who can paint common scenes with common words in uncommon or unique ways. Some of my favorite books, both fiction and nonfiction, include "The Beautiful and Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Class" by Erich Segal, "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, "The Rainmaker" by John Grisham, "Walden" by H.D. Thoreau and "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. On the flip side, genres that I typically DISLIKE include trashy romance, fantasy, science fiction and spy/military thrillers. Some very popular authors whose books I don't enjoy include Tom Clancy, Danielle Steele and Stephen King. Because of my personal tastes, I loved "Noble House" for its character relationships (Dunross v. Gornt, American v. European v. Chinese means of doing business, Casey v. Linc, Dunross, Gornt, et al). However, I equally DISLIKED it for its endlessly painful details about the Russian KGB, double-agents, kidnapping, etc.). Since the book had both, I found myself lapping up some chapters yet wanting to skip others entirely. This was frustrating to me because I needed some of the information in the "spy" chapters to keep the plot flowing seamlessly, yet I dreaded sifting through them to find the facts I needed. This is the reason I cannot sing unfettered praises for "Noble House". It's worth reading, but I would personally put it off until you've read "Shogun" first. "Gai-Jin" is the next Clavell novel on my plate. I'll let you know how it goes.
Rating:
Summary: I still haven't found a match to this one
Review: I read Noble House many years ago. I still haven't found a match to this book. Never have I been so spellbound by a story. Clavell's other books are also good, but this one should have had an extra sixth star.
Rating:
Summary: Buy This
Review: This has to be one of my top 5 best reads to date. James Clavell manages to tear you away from present day life by offering you a detailed look at the remarkable history of Hong Kong and the colonisation of the uninhabitable rock off China. Guranteed to have you calling in to work sick, you will not be able to put this down with more action than you can handle as well as amazing facts that you probably never knew. Noble House follows James Clavell's Thai Pan which I strongly recommend you read before hand, also 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Lackluster Sequel to Tai-pan
Review: This is an interesting sequel, in that, it takes place about 200 years after the first novel, Tai-pan. You don't need to read Taipain, however, to read this book. If you have read Tai-pain, you might enjoy it more. Noble House tells the story of some Americans coming to Hong Kong to open up a trading house. They encounter some English traders whose family has been there since the story in Tai-pan. In Noble House we learn that business today, in Hong Kong, is unlike business in any other place in the world. Romance, violence, drugs, and murder, these are all parts of normal life in Hong Kong. There are interesting characters and a good tension through the book. If you liked Tai-pan or Shogun, you will probably like this book. Why only three stars? Hong Kong is written almost exactly like Tai-pan. I loved Tai-pan because I learned about Hong Kong's past. I loved learning about the times and culture. Here, I didn't have as much to learn, I already read the other book! As such, my rating is based on the story alone. The story here was okay, but it just wasn't that interesting to me. I didn't like the "hero" much. I didn't see much "bad" about the villian. It did move along, and the story did have one or two twists. Overall though, it was too long and not interesting enough to rate more then average in my view.
Rating:
Summary: fantastic
Review: rich characters and setting great plot
Rating:
Summary: excellent clavell: art of war x 100000000000
Review: welcome to Dirk Struan's Island. welcome to espionage, intrigue, cut-throat ambition, war and love and business, and one big old motherfornicator of an earthquake to top it all off. welcome to the towering rain-soaked skyscrapers and the devil-sea whipped shores of Hong Kong. welcome to a half a week without food, water, or sleep enthralled in this mesmerizing epic from a master of his art.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: One of my 10 favorite books of all time. Better than Shogun. Great plot, well developed characters - I couldn't put the book down! Simply awesome work. Clavell's best and that says much!
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