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Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer
I finished Shogun by James Clavell today. A very good and beautifully written book but, at least for me, a very slow read. The end did disappoint me a bit, it seems that the whole book was working up to that for it to be shortly summarized in a couple of lines. But I think that if it would have been described in it's entirety it would mean that the book would probably have been twice as long.
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I read it years ago, and it was a good yarn. I didn't find the ending a let down. It wasn't really what the book was about. Years ago, at an SF convention, the late SF artist Kelly Freas said "You want to read a novel about contact with an alien culture? Read Shogun!", and he was quite right, because that's what it was. Edo period Japan was a
very different culture and place than Europe of the period. The protagonist was very much marooned in an alien land and trying to understand it and make a place for himself.
The book got some flak from Japanese, who were unhappy with the portrayal of their people and said it wouldn't have happened that way. That was somewhat amusing, as Clavell had lived in Asia, and put himself forward as an expert on Japanese culture who could help other westerners who had to deal with it.
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Dennis