Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST EVER
Review: IT CONTAINS ALL THE ELEMENTS THAT WILL NOT LET YOU STOP READING IT. I WISH THE NEW BOOK BY TREVANIAN WILL BE AS GOOD AS THIS
Rating:
Summary: the book that defines a genre
Review: This is simply the greatest spy novel ever. It epitomizes the decade of the 70's and the genre of spy novels and film. It is simply the best there could ever be and it is a shame that so few people really know about it.
Rating:
Summary: SHIBUMI
Review: Comencé a leer este libro con desgana una noche en la que me era imposible conciliar el sueño.Unas horas más tarde habia amanecido y todo era diferente ... ¿Que puedo decir de SHIBUMI?Trevanian realiza un viaje al interior de un personaje entremezclando culturas,lugares y los más diversos y variopintos personajes.Un libro a fin de cuentas que más allá de la trama internacional,nos habla sobre una manera de entender la vida.
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Summary: La ruta de Nikko: un paseo por la guerra interna.
Review: Claro, faltaba un comentario, por lo menos UNO en español. Como a muchos de ustedes, Shibumi llegó a mis manos a la manera del gô-ke que el General le entrega al joven Heru; como una ofrenda respetuosa y moribunda. Al poco tiempo de entregármelo, murió. Trevanian, como los grandes escritores, consigue en esta novela remover asuntos básicos del ser humano, más allá o más acá de la caricaturesca Organización Madre y del inverosímil pero verídico gringo tipo-Starr, el libro penetra problemas centrales del ser humano, revela la guerra, es un paseo por la guerra interna que vivimos y que casi siempre exteriorizamos. Al carajo los críticos herméticos): lo que sé de la buena literatura es que, como afirmaba Borges, "nos revela desde el fondo de un espejo". Si alguien lee estas líneas efusivas, y tiene mi angustia de no encontrar nada de Trevanian en español, escríbame e hipercharlemos... después de todo, cosas como el abollado Volvo, las juramentadas pelotas de Le! Cagot, los ojos vacíos de Hana frente al jardín perfecto de Nikko, todo eso nos hermana.
Rating: 
Summary: The best spy novel I have ever read.
Review: The problem with genre fiction (e.g., a "spy novel") is that it is bound by the genre, that is, by the various formulaic elements that every work of that genre must, according to the expectations of its readers, have. This is genre fiction, so, in my view, it is simply incapable of meriting 5 stars. Nonetheless, within the limits of the genre (which it does at times transcend), this is superb stuff. Chronicling the life, times, and development of the fascinating protagonist, shibumi-seeking Nicholai Hel, is the book's strength, along with the trenchant (though, of course, biased and incomplete) cultural analyses offered up (mostly) by Hel. Testimony enough to the book's power is that we are persuaded to admire and cheer for a professional assassin! The only weaknesses are the comic-book characters and implausible plot elements occasionally required to satisfy the genre-defined formula. But overall a compelling read, and I'm sure I'll pick it up again to ! quote some of the rollicking cultural gibes.
Rating:
Summary: Fifteen years later -- better than the first time
Review: I found a copy of Shibumi in my father's bookcase fifteen years ago and was mesmerized by its incisive obssesion on dramatic details. Fifteen years later, I revisited the book to discover it had become even better now that I was a bit more cynical. The anonymous Trevanian (a renegade from the mediocre masses) and his work Shibumi will grab you and jolt your assumptions of what spy fiction is supposed to be. (Message to Trevanian: stay anonymous, but please consider sharing more of your work!)
Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite piece of fiction, period.
Review: I read Shibumi the first time in 1980. I have returned to it many times since; I always find something new. I have read all of Ludlum, Clancy, Morrell, Follett, Cussler, Crichton, Clavell, D Brown... This book epitomizes the genre. I wish he would/could do it again.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the absolute best of its kind.
Review: I first read this novel in 1980 and have reread it numerous times over the years. It was recommend to me by a friend who said she could not put it down: I felt the same. Nicholai Hel is one of the most memorable literary characters in fiction.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best adventure novel ever!
Review: This is a great book my all time fave... i love it and this is one of the books i read again and again.The main character Nicolai Hel is a great character and he was the worlds best paid assassin.This is the story of him payin back to a friend of his niece. Trevanian explains the beauty of the philosophy called shibumi in his book. I won't even try and explain shibumi here; I know I could never do it properly. All I can say is that this book is one that makes you think, one that will affect your life and your way of thinking for a long time after you finished it. :o)
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the most idiosyncratic adventure novel ever.
Review: As a writer of smashingly successful softcover "airport-reading" novels, Trevanian has never received serious consideration by academic or other "intelligensia" type reviewers. It's too bad, since his every book is both a rousing adventure in itself, and a sly commentary on the form and its context. Shibumi is a straightforward attack on the values of corporate culture and the honourless society that it produces. More subtle is its self-referential postulation of a perfect anti-hero for the times: someone who is perceived as utterly destructive and immoral, but whose behaviour may ultimately be of benefit to the species. Thus Shibumi's positive portrayal of a man who is, at once, a conscienceless assassin, sexual aesthete, anti-idealist, and spiritual son of a war criminal. The rest of the cast is assembled of grotesqueries and uni-dimensional caricatures with self-consciously cute names like Jack O. Diamond. Some reviewers find this a flaw, but I prefer to think of this as an extra dimension of fun that Trevanian is having with astute readers, who recognize that he is sending-up the stock formulas of the thriller genre. Trevanian displays much greater heart in The Summer of Katya and even the underrated Loo Sanction, but for sheer, overwhelming, dazzling, and arrogantly proficient writing, Shibumi is his peak.
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