Steve’s Reviews > Shōgun > Status Update

On the home stretch! We all know how it ends, but I am surprised to find some significant differences from the television miniseries. Nothing that changes the general flow of the plot, but there are nuances. Just for the record, the funeral scene is really creepy....

Not surprisingly, the book is a fast read. Having read Stephen King's book "On Writing", it is clear that the more plain the language, the easier and faster the reading. However, that does not mean that the words are more memorable, or poetic. Something to think about. A book can be a thousand pages long and not contain a single memorable passage of prose. Yet, it can be fulfilling in its delivery.

I started reading this when I was 17 in 1983, coincident with the rerun of the miniseries on NBC. Well, now it's serious, and I am well on my way to completing the novel. And guess what - there is a LOT that was left out of the miniseries. The race between the Japanese galley and the Portuguese frigate, the swimming party after escaping Osaka, and other extra scenes. The romance of Anjin and Mariko is beginning....