I thought Shogun was good but Noble House might even be better….
Just finished Clavell's Noble House and absolutely loved it. While I thought Shogun would be hard to top I think Noble House might just be better by a whisker. I havent seen a lot of love for Noble House so if people are looking for an epic book this is a good option.
Such a good story. Fantastic ending and imaginative scenes (especially the horse racing meet). So many interesting and well written characters (Taipan Dunross, Gornt, Casey, Linc, Four Finger Wu) and the way he wrote the setting made it feel at times like you were actually in 1960s Hong Kong.
It certainly helps if you have visited and/or lived in either place (personally I have been to HK 4 times and to Japan many times) but even if you have never been to Asia it wont take much to imagine yourself amongst it all.
All I know is that Clavell is one fantastic storyteller and have now read all of his books and all of them have been good in themselves but as an Asian series it must one of the best series written in fiction.
Just a shame there was no sequel to this book as I could see one being built upon at the end of the book. Maybe he planned to write one but passed away before he could.
Shogun recently did very well as a TV series so somebody could also look into making this as TV series as well. I think it would be an excellent show (I know there was a 1988 TV miniseries but an 10-12 series show would do a much better job of telling the full story).
by changwonmatty