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Shogun (Part 1) by James Clavell

"The stranger in a strange land, forced to learn new customs and beliefs with a dash of forbidden romance thrown in is always a draw. And with a strong MMC in Blackthorne the story has promise but is very quickly and heavily weighed down by political intrigue and way too many characters. I think this will have translated well to the screen so I plan on checking out the TV Show." 

3 Stars

Pros: Rodrigues and Blackthorne's banter and friendship is tenuous but you want it to be genuine/Of course, the simmering romance between Blackthorne and Mariko was fun. 

Cons: There were a lot of characters and they all called each other by different names, it was extremely confusing. The only one I cared about was Blackthorne and those scenes were what kept me reading/The political plays and betrayals were all very complex and I was just lost in ancestral lineages and who was descended from one of the ancient Clans/The Jesuits and the Catholics and the Protestants, I couldn't keep track of any of it/ The religious part just added to the complexities and confusion/The sea battles were completely lost on me, I'm sure visually so another reason to check out the TV show.  

Full Review

Blackthorne knows they're doomed. They've been days adrift, everyone's sick or dying from the scurvy and the supplies on the Erasmus are running terrifyingly low. He tries his best to stay calm, since he's the only officer on the ship who's fit to command and the men respect him but God in Heaven is he terrified. When a storm sweeps in, he's almost grateful, perhaps it'll be a quick end, but the Pilot in him can't just let the ship go, so he fights the storm and they make landfall. 

The details are fuzzy but when Blackthorne comes back to himself, he realizes with amazement that they're in Asia, they've managed to make it through Magellan's strait. He can't help but be proud and knows that once he manages to get home, he'll be set for life. The riches are almost beyond comprehension. But he learns very quickly and brutally that he's not getting home anytime soon. These foreigners do not play. He's thrown into the pit with his surviving crew and soon, it's not money that he cares about, it's whether he can play his cards right and survive in this terrifying new land. 

What started out as really exciting was quickly mired down by political/religious intrigue, betrayal and confusing but deadly Cat and Mouse games being played in every single direction. My brain was so quickly overwhelmed that all I knew and cared about was what happened to Blackthorne. That's what kept me reading, honestly. The rest of it, the Clans, the religion, all the Clans, Daimyos etc, it was just too much and made me want to DNF the book quite a few times. 

Though I know this is sacrilege, I think this book will have translated really well to the screen, so I'll be looking into ways to add the recent Shogun Television Show to my ever growing watchlist. 

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