James Clavell

Shogun, his masterpiece to many, he cribbed from another author . Some say James Clavell was inspired by the true life adventures of the English sailor William Adams who became an advisor to a Japanese ruler in the 16th century when he wrote the captivating story of an English captain and his crew making contact with Japan in 1600 while only the Portuguese had the contract to do so. Their adventures that followed, the rise of the protagonist to assimilation with the Japanese culture and the picture of Japan at that time is so thrilling that it was made into a TV movie in the late 1970's. The largest ever American film production in Japan to this day, and featuring some of the very best Japanese actors of the time, _Shogun_ is still replayed around the world almost forty years later. It is a love letter to a most unique country, one whose past continues to entrance and influence.

After the success of Shogun, Clavell decided to continue writing historical fiction epics (these are not thin books, averaging over 1000 pages each) calling his series the 'Asian saga' but went forward for his second to 1841, specifically the ongoing trade between Japan and the European traders it allowed to be based there.

His third novel, King Rat, his slimmest volume, is the story of Singapore when, after the largest surrender of the war, it was WWII's largest POW camp. Told with heart-rendering detail, and praised by veterans, it is his best stand alone novel and one that should be included in courses on the Pacific theater in WWII.

Continuing with his focus on the Pacific rim and European/Asian contact, he based his fourth book, Noble House, in 1963 Hong Kong and on the post WWII Pacific growth miracle. With an operatically large cast , many of whom were descendants from his previous novels, he charts the end of British political empire but the continuing relevance of British and European commercial relations to the East.

For his final novel, Whirlwind, he switched from Asia to Iran and the 1979 Revolution with his cast being both Iranians and the European helicopter firm that services all their oil rigs. Having grown attached to the families and fortunes of the Pacific as he so majestically laid them out for so many hundreds of years, many fans wish that he had stayed in Hong Kong or elsewhere in the Pacific for the final novel but it is worth reading for an understanding of the motivations of the Iranian people in their revolution.

Any of his novels can be read alone, though together they truly do form as he said, a saga.