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Originally Posted by ReadingManiac
How very convoluted! I'll just get them all as they go on sale.
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As far as I know, though the books are labelled as the Asian Saga, the books can each be read as a stand-alone. Shogun takes place hundreds of years before the rest and King Rat was his first published book and was likely not written with the intention of being part of a series. Likely the same with Tai-Pan that was published between King Rat and Shogun.
I think the Asian Saga thing is more like Stephen King's 'universe' where maybe he'll mention towns and characters from other books, but more as an Easter egg than something you have to investigate and follow to understand the current book.
The fact that none of the books were published in the order in which they take place within the series tells you that they should all be somewhat independent.
One book I really wish Clavell had survived to write is Nippon, which would have taken place in 1970's Japan. That would have been a fascinating book.