Shogun (Asian Saga) - Clavell, James Review & Synopsis

Synopsis SOON TO BE AN FX LIMITED SERIES � A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life. All brought together in an extraordinary saga aflame with passion, conflict, ambition, and the struggle for power. Here is the world-famous novel of Japan that is the earliest book in James Clavell's masterly Asian saga. Set in the year 1600, it tells the story of a bold English pilot whose ship was blown ashore in Japan, where he encountered two people who were to change his life: a warlord with his own quest for power, and a beautiful interpreter torn between two ways of life and two ways of love. The principal figures are John Blackthorne, whose dream it is to be the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, to wrest control of the trade between Japan and China from Portuguese, and to return home a man of wealth and position; Toranaga, the most powerful feudal lord in Japan, who strives and schemes to seize ultimate power by becoming Shogun-the Supreme Military Dictator-and to unite the warring samurai fiefdoms under his own masterly and farsighted leadership; and the Lady Mariko, a Catholic convert whose conflicting loyalties to the Church and her country are compounded when she falls in love with Blackthorne, the barbarian intruder. In dramatizing how a Westerner, the representative man of his time, comes to be altered by his exposure to an alien culture, Mr. Clavell provides a spellbinding depiction of a nation seething with violence and intrigue as it moves from the medieval world to the modern. Praise for Shogun "I can't remember when a novel has seized my mind like this one. . . . It's not only something you read-you live it."-New York Times Book Review "Adventure and action, the suspense of danger, shocking touching human relationships . . . a climactic human story."-Los Angeles Times "A tale surging with action, intrigue and love . . . a huge cast . . . vast and dramatic . . . stunning . . . savage . . . beautiful . . . an extraordinary performance."-Publishers Weekly "Exciting, totally absorbing...be prepared for late nights, meals unlasting, buisness unattended."-Philadelphia Inquirer Review A bold English adventuer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in a mighty saga of a time and place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust and the struggle for power. "Superbly crafted. . .grips the reader like a riptide. . .gets the juices flowing!"--Washington Star. "Exciting, totally absorbing. . .be prepared for late nights, meals unlasting, buisness unattended. . ."--Philadelphia Inquirer. "Adventure and action, the suspense of danger, shocking, touching human relationships. . .a climactic human story."--Los Angeles Times. "Superbly crafted...grips the reader like a riptide...gets the juices flowing!" -- Washington Star. "Exciting, totally absorbing...be prepared for late nights, meals unlasting, buisness unattended..." -- Philadelphia Inquirer. "Adventure and action, the suspense of danger, shocking, touching human relationships...a climactic human story." -- Los Angeles Times. Tai-Pan 'Intensely readable and exciting' Sunday Telegraph Set in the turbulent days of the founding of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Tai-Pan is the story of Dirk Struan, the ruler - the Tai-Pan - of the most powerful trading company in the Far East. He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Orient. 'Packed with action . . . gaudy and flamboyant with blood and sin, treachery and conspiracy, sex and murder . . . grand entertainment' New York Times He is also a pirate, an opium smuggler, and a master manipulator of men. This is the story of his fight to establish himself and his dynasty as the undisputed masters of the Orient." Shōgun This is James Clavell's tour-de-force; an epic saga of one Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, and his integration into the struggles and strife of feudal Japan. Both entertaining and incisive, SHOGUN is a stunningly dramatic re-creation of a very different world. Starting with his shipwreck on this most alien of shores, the novel charts Blackthorne's rise from the status of reviled foreigner up to the heights of trusted advisor and eventually, Samurai. All as civil war looms over the fragile country. After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai." King Rat Japanese POW camp Changi, Singapore: hell on earth for the soldiers contained within its barbed wire walls. Officers and enlisted men, all prisoners together, yet the old hierarchies and rivalries survive. An American corporal, known as the King, has used his personality and wiles to facilitate trading with guards and locals to get needed food, supplies, even information into the camp. The imprisoned upper-class officers have never had to do things for themselves, and now they are reduced to wearing rags while the King’s clean shirt, gained through guts and moxie, seems like luxury in comparison. In the camp, everything has its price and everything is for sale. But trading is illegal—and the King has made a formidable enemy. Robin Grey, the provost marshal, hates the King and all he represents. Grey, though he grew up modestly, fervently believes in the British class system: everyone should know their place, and he knows the King’s place is at the bottom. The King does have a friend in Peter Marlowe, who, though wary of the King and himself a product of the British system, finds himself drawn to the charismatic man who just might be the only one who can save them from both the inhumanity of the prison camp but also from themselves. Powerful and engrossing, King Rat artfully weaves the author’s own World War II prison camp experiences into a compelling narrative of survival amidst the grim realities of war and what men can do when pushed to the edge. A taut masterwork of World War II historical fiction by bestselling author James Clavell. Powerful and engrossing, King Rat artfully weaves the author’s own World War II prison camp experiences into a compelling narrative of survival amidst the grim realities of war and what men can do when pushed to the edge." Noble House Taking place over the course of an eventful week in 1963 Hong Kong, James Clavell’s Noble House is a masterfully woven novel of true suspense. Ian Dunross, the current tai-pan of the illustrious yet financially troubled Struan empire, is racing to undo the damage his predecessor left behind and to once again stand on stable ground. And he’ll do whatever it takes—including striking a hard-fought deal with an American millionaire. But his rival, Quillan Gornt, has other plans. Suddenly caught in a dubious plot involving Soviet spies, Hong Kong’s criminal underground, and the hostile takeover of his company, Dunross holds nothing back in the fight for the Noble House. Espionage, mayhem, and high-stakes betrayals make Noble House Clavell’s most prolific and imaginatively crafted narrative in the Asian Saga. Taking place over the course of an eventful week in 1963 Hong Kong, James Clavell’s Noble House is a masterfully woven novel of true suspense." Whirlwind Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions finally explode, and the Iranian people rise up against the Shah. The country, once secular, is now thrown back into an orthodoxy that threatens to tear it apart. The United States and Russia go on high alert, with warships heading to the Middle East. The region becomes a powder keg, waiting to explode. Caught up in the revolution are a British helicopter company and its pilots. The oil fields of Iran need helicopters to ferry workers and administrators, and when the main US aviation company pulls out of Iran fearing what might come next, S-G Helicopters steps in to fill the void. Soon they realize that they, too, must leave or risk losing all their machines to whomever takes control of the country. The company risks bankruptcy if that happens—which would ruin Andrew Gallavan and reveal that the company is actually owned by a secret Hong Kong–based consortium: Noble House, controlled by the Struan family. Caught in between is his son, Scot, a pilot in Iran who must help save his father’s company, but also the other pilots and their families. In a risky move, the pilots concoct a plan to get their choppers out of Iran. But will they be able to escape a country crumbling around them before it’s too late? A rich panoply of characters brings to life the events of forty years ago, events that even now have ramifications throughout the Middle East and beyond. Fast-paced and full of action and intrigue, Whirlwind is an intricately plotted and detailed tale of war, love, and the ingenuity of the human spirit, told by James Clavell, the unparalleled master of historical fiction. Fast-paced and full of action and intrigue, Whirlwind is an intricately plotted and detailed tale of war, love, and the ingenuity of the human spirit, told by James Clavell, the unparalleled master of historical fiction." Gai-Jin In the closed society of Japan in 1862, a bitter battle for commercial supremacy rages between the Struan and Brock trading houses. Young Malcolm Struan confronts the complex politics of the Japanese Court and the samurai of the warlords to succeed in love. By the author of "King Rat" and "Shogun". In the closed society of Japan in 1862, a bitter battle for commercial supremacy rages between the Struan and Brock trading houses." Shōgun: The Epic Novel of Japan After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai. After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai." James Clavell's Gai-jin In the closed society of Japan in 1862, a bitter battle for commercial supremacy rages between the Struan and Brock trading houses. Young Malcolm Struan confronts the complex politics of the Japanese Court and the samurai of the warlords to succeed in love. By the author of "King Rat" and "Shogun". In the closed society of Japan in 1862, a bitter battle for commercial supremacy rages between the Struan and Brock trading houses." Escape Tehran, Iran 1979: Simmering religious tensions explode and the Shah is forced to flee Iran. A British helicopter company—secretly owned by the Noble House of Hong Kong—with a fleet of helicopters registered in Iran faces bankruptcy if their copters are claimed or destroyed by the uprising. The pilots need to escape, but they’ve built lives in Iran, some even have families. Finnish pilot Erikki Yokkonen has married Azadeh, an Iranian woman of noble birth, whose family is caught up in the political situation exploding around them. Tasked with saving as many of the helicopters as he can and desperate to save his love, Erikki and Azadeh become caught up in the events around them. Threaded throughout master storyteller James Clavell’s novel Whirlwind much like a shimmering strand of silk woven through an elaborate Persian carpet, is the love story of two people from different backgrounds. They have been brought together by a love stronger than either one, a love stronger than the revolutionary fires that burn all around them. A moving story, expertly told, unthreaded from the original masterwork, and allowed to stand on its own, brilliantly. Threaded throughout master storyteller James Clavell’s novel Whirlwind much like a shimmering strand of silk woven through an elaborate Persian carpet, is the love story of two people from different backgrounds." James Clavell's Shōgun After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai. For use in schools and libraries only." James Clavell's King Rat The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here, within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike. His weapons are human courage, unblinking understanding of human weaknesses, and total willingness to exploit every opportunity to enlarge his power and corrupt or destroy anyone who stands in his path. The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory." James Clavell's Noble House The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. Under the eyes of the KGB, the CIA, and the People's Republic of China, British and American businessmen maneuver for control of Hong Kong's oldest trading house. The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. Under the eyes of the KGB, the CIA, and the People's Republic of China, British and American businessmen maneuver for control of Hong Kong's oldest trading house." James Clavell's Tai-Pan An Englishman sets out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into a bastion of British power and to make himself the supreme ruler: the Tai-Pan. An Englishman sets out to turn the desolate island of Hong Kong into a bastion of British power and to make himself the supreme ruler: the Tai-Pan."