The rare case when the TV show is an improvement on the book. I read Shogun a veerrry long time ago and remember that I loved it but I cannot see why—alas, it does not hold up. The story feels more dated than historical, stereotypes abound. The narration was very well done, however. This was a heavy lift and Ralph Lister was certainly up to the task.

I expected this to be more like the TV show and perhaps that is on me and an unrealistic standard. but it features characters having unrealistic dialogue (they talk like they are giving the reader a history lesson, not like people actually talking to eachother) and this book is way more heavy on the "white savior" trope than the show is

I was really enjoying this book, but I didn’t realize there was a part two. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the ending as it wasn’t the end! The plot, the characters, and the narration are all fantastic.

Good first half. The narration is incredible. Blackthorne is a great protagonist and seeing all the machinations with the Japanese characters, especially Toranaga, has been great. Unfortunately it's only half a book. Splitting this book is ridiculous, it's been out as one whole for years.

Well, this is certainly an epic! To think there's more in the series ... I'm glad I went for the audibook ... I can't imagine sitting down to read this behemoth. What we have is a foreign tale in a foreign land. I'm not sure of the historical accuracy, although Clavell does boldly explore cultural clashes ranging from religion, killing, sex, gender roles, affairs of state, marriage, family, and so on. Japanese is used at points, and there's a few rough translations throughout (e.g., わかりません was translated as "I understand"). Many things happen and it's hard to summarize, but I suppose this is a slice of history in feudal Japan from an outsider's perspective, and all that implies. John Blackthorne finds himself washed up on the shores of the "the Japans" and makes his way there, with some difficulty, violence, and no small amount of humour. Strikingly, we have Mariko (apparently based off of the historical figure of Hosokawa Gracia), a rare women as a central player, as well as samurai warrior and trailblazer who embodies Christian and shinto faiths without much cognitive dissonance. I'd be hardpressed to recount the various trials and tribulations they get up to with various daimyo and shogun-wannabe warlords, perhaps notably Toranaga. I suspect this is where the ideas of seppuku and samurai first caught on in Western consciousness about Japanese culture. Ralph Lister narrated a diverse set of characters with aplomb.