A review by frasersimons
Shōgun by James Clavell

Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

I made it through 20% of this and picked it up to see if it would be more interesting and better than the new TV show. It isn’t. It’s a product of its time, at least a little problematic already in multiple areas—but most of all, I simply don’t like the writing. There is so much exposition positioned in such a contrived manner all of the time. Characters will verbalize what should be internal, and vice versa, so often it becomes increasingly annoying. Because it is historical, you can hand wave some of the many, many info dump segments, but this too becomes very tiresome, as they are not organic in the least, and become more contrived as it goes on. 

Even to a complete laymen of Japanese culture, there’s noticeable, glaring inaccuracies, most notably this notion that samurai would commit ritual suicide almost eagerly and for the slightest infraction. Laughable. Allowances should be made for the perspective coming from a westerner navigating the culture anew, but the parts that are info dumps and detached from it have these kinds of inaccuracies, and make it hard to trust in the fiction as a whole. Would the women really have sexualized and fetishized the MC as wildly as here? I’m not sure, but skewing toward problematic aspects so early coupled with other issues makes it so another straw in the camels back, so to speak. 

Plot wise, the changes in the mini series are really superior as well. This drags immensely because of the overwriting. 

I will just watch the show.