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Apr 21, 2010

Fiona rated it:

I have had this book for quite some time in my collection, probably over five years in fact and it wasn't until recently I picked it up, due to a good friend here on GoodReads who prized it as a favourite book.

Strangely, I'd say that I have no real interest in Japan despite having read Memoirs of a Geisha and Tales of the Otori both which are set in Japan or Japanese based. I think Shogun has brought me out of the closet in that respect and I'm very interested now in reading more fi More...

6 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2010

Jon rated it:

Bloody brilliant - re read after a 20 year gap after GR peer group pressure and upgraded from 3 to 5 stars. Pleased to find memory of goldfish so remembered almost nothing from previous read and that had seriously done an injustice with previous rating,

The writing isnt always frist class but at the same time Clavell perfectly encaptures the delicacies of the Samurai code of honour and Japanese life at that time. Its gruesome and bloody and coarse but the plots and counter plots and More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2008

Peter rated it:

When I was a teenager my father had a heart attack. He survived, thank goodness, and is still fine these many decades later. But while he was bedridden and convalescing, our neighbors brought all sorts of books over to help him pass the time. They were mostly best-sellers of the time; books that I would never have read on my own, since I was a science-fiction fan.

Shogun was one of them. I'm not sure if Dad read it, but I sure did. And I've read it every six months or so, ever since. More...

5 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2009

Rob rated it:

So sorry, I am not worthy of the honor of reviewing this novel. If however, my Lord insists it, then I shall endeavor to offer up some humble thoughts regarding its mighty, even epic narrative. Neh? The scope is so vast, the characters and settings are so many, the head is liable to spin at times, so sorry. But the arc it follows is like a peregrine's path through the sky: long but fast and with vicious twists along what might otherwise have seemed a predictable path. I'm sure my Lord woul More...

6 comments like (35 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2007

Craig rated it:

This is the Clavell novel that most people have read -- which is too bad, because in many ways, it is not his best.

Which is not to say it's not very good -- it is. It's amazing. It's... well, just ask anyone who's read it -- you'll not find someone who didn't like it. But the historical anthropology of the book isn't as well integrated into the narrative as it is in, say, Whirlwind or Noble House.

That being said, this is a remarkable work -- it is perhaps the most sw More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2008

Amanda rated it:

This is a fun and fascinating read, not only on its own merits, but also as part of what I like to call the 'male romance' genre. This, along with other manly titles like 'From Here to Eternity', make me giggle because they so closely parallel women's romance novels in the point-by-point adherence to a checklist of what their reader desires. And Shogun hits all the points: a handsome, tall, well-endowed man is, by virtue of his awesomeness, the ONLY person who could succeed in a dangerous sit More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Sameera rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Whitelady3 rated it:

I started reading this book in English within the month I dedicated to Japan, but because I was too tired (hectic months) the English sometimes seemed like Japanese so I asked Slayra, who had also lent me the English version, to lend me the Portuguese edition. This gave me the chance to go compare the translation with the original and can say that, despite some changes of names and terms less successful, in my opinion, the Portuguese translation didn't seem that bad.

We follow the stor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2008

Lenny rated it:

Amazing well played-out story. Adventure, love, mystery, treachery all entwined in a story unfolding in a foreign culture, to most in this hemisphere. This novel has it all, well worth reading, possibly my favorite book.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2007

Logan rated it:

This fantastic book is exactly what historical fiction SHOULD be. It's sad that most efforts fail to live up to this standard. A rousing tale of a Dutch navigator who washes ashore in 17th Century Japan and proceeds to become caught up in the strife and war that would usher in the Tokugawa era, this book really has it all: intrigue, diplomacy, romance, tragedy, internecine warfar, and NINJAS. Who can resist a book with all of that?

If you like this book I would recommend reading S More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2012

Andre rated it:

Growing up as a kid in the US, I dug the TV mini-series (I think NBC) that was based on the book. My dad was involved in the production of the show and I met some of the actors, which delighted my young self. At night, I also eagerly watched each episode, and being of Japanese descent, I thought it was totally cool (and slightly weird because it was so rare) to see Japanese people on American TV, and actually speaking real Japanese, too!

Years later, when I became an adult, I decided More...

2 comments like

Jan 23, 2012

J.R. rated it:

I loved the story, it had me hooked in the beginning with an interesting narrative, political intrigue and the promise of a build up to an epic battle. It was even beautifully written and pulled me along quite easily on the tide of the narrative. It was funny and gritty and made more interesting from the stark contrast between the British and the Japanese lifestyles.

Somewhere along the line it turned into a love story and continued whilst the build up to the battle that would More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Richard rated it:

As a professional seaman I was captivated by this book in the first chapter as it described a ship in peril. I was holed up in my family home on Cape Cod waiting for one of my brothers to finish his semester in college so we could drive down to Florida. I've read all of Clavell's books but none captured me like this one. I read the final two thirds of the book in one sitting. Fantastic story of political intrigue and illicit love.

A few years later when I was working on an oil-rig suppl More...

0 comments like

Dec 15, 2011

Leon rated it:

An Amazon Review that sums up my thoughts:

"Very few men are wise-most are sinners and great evil happens on earth in gods name. But not of god. This world is vale of tears and only a preparation for the everlasting peace."-James Clavell, page 1085, Shogun.

This is a book about a man named John Blackthorn, English pilot of the Dutch ship Erasmus who was washed ashore with what was left of his crew in the small Japanese village of Anjiro. His tale is amazing, for B More...

0 comments like

Nov 29, 2011

JS rated it:

This book is ostensibly the story of John Blackthorne, an Englishman piloting of a Dutch sailing ship which is attempting to circumnavigate the globe in 1600. Their ship runs aground before a storm in a village on the east coast of Japan, and from there Blackthorne and the rest of the Dutch crew are quickly caught up in the fractious, Byzantine politics of feudal Japan.

I say that the book is "ostensibly" about Blackthorne, because while the book begins with his POV and foll More...

0 comments like

Oct 23, 2011

Eric rated it:

Wakarimasu ka?
This epic was absolutely amazing. The story contains love and intrigue, war and sex, samurai and ninja and pirates. Set in 1600, just as the Spanish are making inroads into Japan, a lone English pilot lands with the remains of his ragtag crew. Nearly two years after fleeing into the Pacific from the coast of South America, with stolen rutters, ten men of five hundred, the Erasmus is commandeered by the local daimyo. Blackthorne proves himself time and again as the ultimate More...

0 comments like

Jul 27, 2011

Emily rated it:

It took me awhile to get through this tome, but I have to say for the most part, it was worth it. The pacing and storytelling in the first 4-5 books was really good. There was rarely any times where I felt bored and when there was something I was really wanting to know the author left a suspenseful cliff hanger keeping me wanting more. The characters are pretty good. There is the strange gaijin that learns the ways of the Japanese, but not before making many mistakes and risking his life in the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Kelly rated it:

I had always wanted to read this book, just because it was made into a mini-series in the 80's, back when a mini-series on TV had the same caliber as a movie. Now, with straight to DVD movies, some TV movies are actually way better than things on DVD or even theatre, but I digress. This is a good book, and as is common with books that I like, I liked the non-fiction aspects of it. The factual peek into the norms and culture of pre-colonial England of the 1600s and the sharp contrast More...

0 comments like

Jul 12, 2011

Anthony rated it:

“It’s a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.” (185)

The first volume of James Clavell’s Shogun sat on my shelf for exactly 10 years. It made its way into my collection by chance when I usurped a bookshelf abandoned on a street corner that he More...

0 comments like

Jun 24, 2011

Matthew rated it:

This is my all time favourite book, from my all time favourite author. Although I love all of Clavell's novels, this is definitely the most "well rounded" of them all (apart from King Rat, unsurprisingly as it is based on his own experiences).

What Clavell does really well is create a, fantastically, vivid and complex world that you are immersed in, and can almost confuse this with reality. I found myself, after reading this book, thinking in the ideals of a 16th century Samur More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

Wow. I didn't realize that the last time I wrote a book review was a month ago. Yes, it took me a month to read and finish this grand epic. I remember buying this book from a bookstore in Seattle, and was captivated by it. So, how do I begin?

This book is about the story of a bold English adventurer who found his way to Japan, and his adventures with Japanese feudal society back in 1600. He encounters an invincible Japanese warlord, and a beautiful woman that becomes his interpreter, an More...

2 comments like

Jan 24, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I had always wanted to read this book, just because it was made into a mini-series in the 80's, back when a mini-series on TV had the same caliber as a movie. Now, with straight to DVD movies, some TV movies are actually way better than things on DVD or even theatre, but I digress. This is a good book, and as is common with books that I like, I liked the non-fiction aspects of it. The factual peek into the norms and culture of pre-colonial England of the 1600s and the sharp contrast of it aga More...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2010

Alison rated it:

What can you say about a story that's very well done. Having just viewed the movie (again) reading the book provided not only the speakers' voices (ah, Richard Chamberlain as Anjin-san/Blackthorn) but their thoughts as well. Actually, their thoughts provided background to the story that the movie did not and could not provide. It was certainly a different time with different mores, traditions and cultural views. For someone (me) living in the 21st Century, reading about Feudal Japan (and the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2010

Bokuwakonekochan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Aug 04, 2010

Forrest rated it:

Although this book isn't perfect (large chunks of expository explanation somewhat clumsily dropped into dialog, a tendency to compress 250 years of Tokugawa bakufu history into the end of the Sengoku / the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, alarming amounts of melodrama), it does a great job of portraying a completely alien philosophy and sharply limning a very different era (note that said era may never have actually happened). As interesting for its stark portrayal of the violent differences More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2010

Nicholas rated it:

I read this on a recommendation, and the plot was so gripping that I didn't realise until about halfway through that I had been tricked into reading a romance novel. The (movie voice) based-on-a-true-story exploits of Blackthorne (hmm, the name should have given away the whole romance-novel angle) kept me reading through tales of heroism, loyalty, and tragedy, even when the author's narrative voice faltered at times, leaning a little too heavily on the classic romance-novel "battle of the s More...

0 comments like

Jul 03, 2010

Paulkelly05 rated it:

This book was long but good. It was originally published in the 80s back when the conventional wisdom was that Japan would take over the world. It details the Japanese culture and society, which now may seem common place via movies, TV and other books, but then was novel. I think this book would have been amazing reading when it was first released but it was still really good now.

The books is about an English Pilot in the 16th century of a Dutch ship that is sailing around th More...

0 comments like

Apr 19, 2010

Timothy rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this epic story, set in feudal Japan -- a cross-cultural clash and then, integration, that is right up my "Worlder" alley.

I had the honor to meet James Clavell when I was a literary producer for a big-city prime-time TV show, and he was on a promotional tour for (at that time) his latest blockbuster, "Nobel House." I had often been in Hong Kong, and knew the real trading empires of which he wrote. James became my friend, and was my mentor for More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2009

kingshearte rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

May 01, 2009

Robin rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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