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Post by berkley on Sept 17, 2024 21:32:53 GMT -5
Like I said, I can accept that having a western protagonist is a natural thing to do when writing books directed towards a western audience. What I don't like to see is when they make that western protagonist a hero at the expense of the people who live in the part of the world he's visiting. I don't know if Clavell does that or not since I haven't yet tried any books, but something on the back cover of King Rat made me fear he might go a little too far in that direction for my taste. However, from codystarbuck's description, I now see that I was misinterpreting that back cover blurb, so I think I will give King Rat a try once of these days.
Given King Rat is about Westerners in a Japanese POW camp, I can see building up the hero at the expense of the Japanese. As for Shogun, I don't know if you'd say that or not. The main character is certainly the hero and saves some of the Japanese on a few occasions. But they also teach him a thing or two about Japanese culture. Personally, if you take it for fiction rather than history, I found it fairly balanced and definitely enjoyable. Yes, the POW camp setting would be a mitigating factor for sure. It's likely I'll give the book a try sometime so I'll find out for myself one of these days how I like it.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 17, 2024 23:50:01 GMT -5
King Rat is about a POW camp, in Singapore, with a mixture of European prisoners. The POV is a British RAF officer, but "The King" is an American corporal, who is a scrounger and black market dealer and pretty much controls the camp. I haven't read it, but saw the film, with George Segal as King. King's fortunes change, after the camp is liberated, upon the Japanese surrender. The "rat" part refers to King selling rat meat to prisoners, as "mouse-deer." I was tempted to read Shogun, but the page count and the parts of the mini-series that lagged kind of dissuaded me. Are you talking about the recent mini-series or the original with Richard Chamberlin? I thought the original was much better and was much truer to the novel. The book is incredibly long and has some slow parts, particularly at the beginning. But if you enjoy samurai-related stories, particularly a slightly romanticized version of the samurai, I'd say it's definitely worth a read. The original. It was good; but, it sagged a bit, in the middle, and some of the romantic elements were a bit too "soap opera," for my tastes.
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 18, 2024 7:03:56 GMT -5
Given King Rat is about Westerners in a Japanese POW camp, I can see building up the hero at the expense of the Japanese. As for Shogun, I don't know if you'd say that or not. The main character is certainly the hero and saves some of the Japanese on a few occasions. But they also teach him a thing or two about Japanese culture. Personally, if you take it for fiction rather than history, I found it fairly balanced and definitely enjoyable. Yes, the POW camp setting would be a mitigating factor for sure. It's likely I'll give the book a try sometime so I'll find out for myself one of these days how I like it. Are you sure you never read Shogun? "Mitigating factor" is actually my favorite line from the novel and the original mini-series.
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 18, 2024 7:05:17 GMT -5
Are you talking about the recent mini-series or the original with Richard Chamberlin? I thought the original was much better and was much truer to the novel. The book is incredibly long and has some slow parts, particularly at the beginning. But if you enjoy samurai-related stories, particularly a slightly romanticized version of the samurai, I'd say it's definitely worth a read. The original. It was good; but, it sagged a bit, in the middle, and some of the romantic elements were a bit too "soap opera," for my tastes. Agreed but it was still better than the new version. Book is somewhat similar. Hard to write over 1000 pages and not have some parts drag a bit.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 18, 2024 7:12:24 GMT -5
Continued my Cimmerian September journey, finishing Conan and the Emerald Lotus, the first novel in the recent City of the Dead book release by John Hocking. It was originally one of the later Tor pastiche releases. The sequel is the second novel in the release, and I will get to it soon, but I am going to pick up where I left off with the original Howard stories first, which means The People of the Black Circle is on deck.
The serialized short story that appeared in the back matter of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian relaunch is also by Hocking and takes place just after the events of Emerald Lotus, and is a bridge between the two novels in City of the Dead. It was also one of the first releases in Titans e-book program through Amazon featuring new pastiches of Howard characters.
Emerald Lotus was an entertaining Conan pastiche, featuring a Conan that acts like Conan (always a plus ant not always a guarantee in some of the pastiches), with an interesting plot and a likable supporting cast. If I had any critique, it's that it sort of feels like Conan is part of an adventuring party through the latter half of the story (where he is hired as a guide/sword for a noblewoman who has two other retainers on her journey. But as I said, those supporting characters are likable and Conan still gets to be Conan, so it's a minor quibble at most.
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 20, 2024 1:51:11 GMT -5
Cimmerian September continues, I have now read 14 of the original 21 Howard stories, having read The People of the Black Circle, the first story in the second Del Rey volume, The Bloody Crown of Conan. Next up, the only Howard novel, Hour of the Dragon. This one may take a couple of sittings to finish. -M
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