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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Slogging my way towards a re-read of Noble House. Soap opera of the 1840's.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
medium-paced
Maybe not quite as epic as Shogun but still a compelling read. Clavell had a knack for writing compelling power-hungry manipulators. It also seems that he tends to end stories rather abruptly, and while it was very pointed and made sense in Shogun and King Rat, not sure the same could be said with this one. And while parts of it may fall under the "didn't age well" category, he is also trying to present the POVs as they likely would have been in the time period. Still a satisfying read!
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
This is the sequel to Shogun, which I read about a year ago (just before starting Goodreads!) and greatly enjoyed. A friend told me I would like it because it was about the founding of Hong Kong and "the good old days when finance was conducted with cannons." That indeed is a good description of the plot, but I would say that Tai-Pan fell well short of Shogun, and I'm not in a hurry to read any of the further sequels.
I often said about Shogun that I could barely stand how bad the writing was (think cheesy Dan Brown style, but set in the 17th century), but I couldn't put it down because the plot was so great. The same was pretty much true of Tai-Pan, but I didn't get into the plot as much. I think that's largely because the plots of the two books are quite similar--"heroic Westerner gets himself involved in an Eastern culture and claws his way to the top." Also, one of the main things I liked about Shogun was the existence of Toranaga as a strong foil to Blackthorne, temperamentally and culturally quite different, but an equal if not a superior in terms of intellect and power. Tai-Pan lacked that, with everyone playing second fiddle to Struan.
I thought, while reading Tai-Pan: this is what a right-wing book looks like. I haven't read any Ayn Rand (yet), but in several passages I thought the writing was similar to what I would expect from her: glorifying Struan's solitary quest for power, and his inability to form any strong relationships because of that. Struan is an opium trader, but the book only provides the lightest intimations that there might be anything wrong with that. Although I believe Clavell is very meticulous in getting the historical detail of China (Japan in Shogun) right, he's also unpleasantly Orientalist at times. If I recall correctly, both Shogun and Tai-Pan have scenes where the Westerner, who has taken an Eastern mistress, is "forced" to abuse her because that is what is "culturally demanded", and then of course that pleasantly resolves everything and they have sex.
I often said about Shogun that I could barely stand how bad the writing was (think cheesy Dan Brown style, but set in the 17th century), but I couldn't put it down because the plot was so great. The same was pretty much true of Tai-Pan, but I didn't get into the plot as much. I think that's largely because the plots of the two books are quite similar--"heroic Westerner gets himself involved in an Eastern culture and claws his way to the top." Also, one of the main things I liked about Shogun was the existence of Toranaga as a strong foil to Blackthorne, temperamentally and culturally quite different, but an equal if not a superior in terms of intellect and power. Tai-Pan lacked that, with everyone playing second fiddle to Struan.
I thought, while reading Tai-Pan: this is what a right-wing book looks like. I haven't read any Ayn Rand (yet), but in several passages I thought the writing was similar to what I would expect from her: glorifying Struan's solitary quest for power, and his inability to form any strong relationships because of that. Struan is an opium trader, but the book only provides the lightest intimations that there might be anything wrong with that. Although I believe Clavell is very meticulous in getting the historical detail of China (Japan in Shogun) right, he's also unpleasantly Orientalist at times. If I recall correctly, both Shogun and Tai-Pan have scenes where the Westerner, who has taken an Eastern mistress, is "forced" to abuse her because that is what is "culturally demanded", and then of course that pleasantly resolves everything and they have sex.
Visiting Hong Kong in a few weeks and wanted a bit of historical fiction to set my bearings straight. Tai-Pan was not the best choice- the 'fiction' heavily outweighed the 'historical'. There was a bit of swashbuckling adventure that made me push on to the end (quite a long winded feat, let me tell you) but there was so much about the novel that I didn't enjoy. The stereotyping, the meaningless violence and vapid sex scenes, the big lusty white men taking over Hong Kong and painted by Clavell's brush into heroes, (despite being drug-smuggling colonizing idiots), the giggly silky-skinned insatiable Chinese mistresses. Not a redeemable character in the whole bunch. But then again, I knew that was what this would be when I signed on to read it. It's my own fault for expecting more, hence the 2.5 stars.
It's mostly fun, but the whole time I read it it just felt like a lesser version of Shogun. I wish I could do half-stars here, because I think it's closer to a 3.5 than a 3, but definitely closer to a 3 than a 4.
This is by the guy who wrote Shogun, which I loved, but about traders in China instead of a guy stuck in Japan. It started out slowly and very much as if I'd missed some previous book in the series, and I wasn't sure I liked it, but I sort of remembered feeling that way about Shogun in the beginning, so I stuck with it and loved it by the end. It's a long read, but a couple of days in a place without TV or internet, a couple of two hour plane rides and babysitting for a few hours after kids had gone to bed allowed me to finish it in record time.
Also it was great; you should read it.
Also it was great; you should read it.