Shōgun, Part One

The Asian Saga, Book 1.1

By: James Clavell

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell’s Shogun is soon to be a major FX/Hulu TV series!

Shogun, the classic epic novel of feudal Japan that captured the heart of a culture and the imagination of the world, is now available for the first time in serial format. Part One contains the first half of the complete novel.

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne’s loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed.

Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shogun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shogun is, as the New York Times put it, ‘'not only something you read—you live it.’‘

Also available: Shogun: Part Two

©1975 James Clavell (P)2015 Blackstone Publishing

Fantastic

I’ve read some complaints about the amount of seppoku in this book, there is a lot of it…. A lot. But if you give this book the chance it deserves you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve seen the show, this is almost a completely different story. It’s deep and rich. Completely engrossing.

Descriptions were fantastic

The story suffered from a couple of things first being the sense of time passing or lack thereof. Secondly would be it was sometimes difficult to tell who was talking especially when characters went into internal monologue. Over all a very good book.

Great Narrator

The story was greatly enhanced by the narrator. The history of Japan is very fascinating

Good, long, dense, slow

Overall - not bad story of two alien races unable to communicate with other, and nominal western understanding of Japanese culture. Reader constantly pronounced samurai as “sam-yoo-rye”, which I found inordinately distracting.

Weird editing is distracting

Enjoying the story, love the narrator, very annoyed by the bad editing, some words clipped, and a weird fade out on some sentences which sounds like I’m about to get a phone call (iPhone fades audio in a similar way for calls). I’m getting used to it, but I’ve never even noticed audio editing before and on this book it really distracted and annoyed me for the first few days I listened. If you’re sensitive to quirks like this, listen to a sample first.

Good storytelling

Really enjoyed this book, it was a pleasure to listen to. I would recommend it.

Amazing story, overacted

I read this book 30 years ago and I wanted to refresh my memory in anticipation of the coming FX series. It did not disappoint. Actually there was much more depth and complexity than I remember. My only issue is that Ralph listers narration is way overdone, It definitely took away from the experience

Everyone is a barbarian!

Just finished part two of this series, and gotta say, what a ride it’s been. Loved how everyone is a barbarian from an outside perspective. It really led me to examine how people view other ethnicities. The Narrator killed it! Made all the personalities unique, with different tones. He crafted a masterpiece of a listening experience. Don’t sit on this one.

The length of the novel

Very entertaining. There was a lot of dialogue that was confusing at times. The cultural exchange between the characters was comedic.

Shogun part 1

A good story and very interesting historical information. The plot line is fascinating but it takes awhile to identify and follow the characters. Overall, a very good read.