Not exactly sure why this was in my library – probably because I read Shogun and TaiPan decades ago when I was fascinated by Hong Kong.  Oh, yes, also Noble House and Watched the mini-series with Pierce Brosnan. 

 

A writer friend of mine who works in a bookstore – as previously mentioned – said that they always read to page 100 to give any book a chance, and I have adopted this as a rule so as not to suffer through books that I just can’t enjoy.  I could only make it to page 78 o f this one, although the print is small and the pages are large to maybe it’s about the same thing. 

 

Ok it’s an old book – almost as old as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstien.  By today’s speed of change 1986 is a long time ago.  I remembered that I thought I learned a lot from previous Clavell books, but I think I was remembering Leon Uris.  By page 78 all I knew was that Westerners see Muslims as crazy fanatic's and The British are sure a fun bunch of lads.  I had to give up.  

 

It’s a shame that potboilers written by men are lauded as great, sweeping historical works of intellect, when they really are just the male version of the Jackie Collins school of literature.  Why this book even had to be printed in hard cover is beyond me.  It might be ok beach reading in paperback and about half the length with something that actually happens in the first 78 pages besides a bunch of English school boys talking big about messing up someone else’s country. 

 

Oh yeah, and another thing, I hate when a writer starts a scene and then goes back a week or a month or a year to a whole other scene that they should have told you about earlier – when does the story start is a basic rule of fiction writing.  Back story is only useful to actors and directors in theatre and film – readers don’t need it.  A well constructed character is their own back story.  That’s just laziness.