Title: Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1)
Author: Clavell, James
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Pages: 1152
Date Read: 18 June 2024
Bookshelves: read, may-return-to
My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐
This book began with some promise but I found the first few pages quite slow and it didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to start to wane. For a book with over a thousand pages, it was sad to have had these concerns this early into the book and I took it as my cue to discontinue.
It also didn’t help that I thought the book was too descriptive. There were too many words deployed in service of little meaning. The fantasy genre suffers from this particular tragedy, which is why, to this day, I try to steer clear of books published in the category. However, to have encountered this shortcoming in a book of Historical Fiction, my favourite genre, left a bitter taste in my mouth. To which I hold the author squarely responsible.
I hope watching the show will encourage me to return to the book. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.