Highly entertaining book. ( )

This was a terrible let-down after the quality of King Rat. Clavell took a dramatic and compelling bit of history and happily butchered it (something I happily told him over lunch in the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club a few years after publication).

Worse, in many ways, was that Clavell had been given access to the historical documents of Jardines, the trading company whose head effectively founded Hong Kong. It was believed that Clavell was writing a serious history and some of the principals at the company (descendants of the founder), swore afterward that no writer would ever again gain access to the family papers -- something I hope does not happen.

Dreadful book. ( )

Historical ( )

I loved 'Shogun', the first of James Clavell's asia saga; however, I loved it partly because I love Japan, so 'Tai-Pan', set in Hong Kong for the most part, was never going to fare as well.

I loved the way, in 'Shogun', that Clavell used the Japanese language, teaching his readers simple words and then no longer providing a translation for them, once they became familiar enough. However, the same trick doesn't work as well here, with the use of pidgin English, Struan's thick Scots accent, and the poor English of the pirate-traders like Brock or Scragger. In fact, this attention to detail on Clavell's part nearly wrecked the experience for me, though with time I grew used to the presentation, and now cannot imagine it written any other way.

The plot runs similarly to 'Shogun' in its style - once again, a relatively short period of time is explored over the course of about a thousand pages, and once again the end of the book is by no means the end of the story. 'Tai-Pan' is more obviously a book in a series, part of his saga; the story of the four half-coins is not concluded, and a number of notable ends are left quite loose.

The main character, the eponymous Tai-Pan, Dirk Struan, is an interesting creation, but is too often the wisest person in the text, and is almost pointedly wiser than the reader would imagine himself to be. This can be a pain, but fortunately the other characters are developed enough to provide interesting counterpoints. I'm particularly glad that Clavell uses some of his book to round out the supporting cast, making them into three-dimensional beings rather than the crude caricatures they could have been. Longstaff is a good example - for much of the book he is a bumbling fool, but really he's just out of his depth; later, we see how he too can be a schemer, just like Struan.

Having read this book I am convinced of the need to read the remaining chapters of the saga. There are four more to read, but they go quickly despite their length, and so shouldn't take very long. ( )

One man's desire to establish himself as the dominant trader with China, his struggle to maintain a relationship with his son and a love story all wrapped up in one book. Loved it! ( )