Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

Easy to get into:

Gai-Jin is the third novel in Clavell's Asian saga and consequently the third novel of his that I have read. After such promising predecessors, (Shogun and Tai-pan) I was really looking forward to Gai-Jin and tackled it with gusto. Being familiar with both the Shogunate and Tai-pan character line, I found Gai-Jin, (unlike both Shogun and Tai-pan) extremely easy to get into. The first 500 pages are fantastic and I couldn't put the book down. However, around the mid-point of the novel, the story starts to... more info

A good story, but not up to previous works:

Before this book was, I wanted nothing more than another Clavell novel. King Rat was probably the moodiest book I have ever read (Very well done movie adaptation, too), Tai Pan the most exciting and both Shogun and Noble House the grandest. Gai Jin, like his previous efforts, had a wonderfully complex plot, with many interesting characters and scenes of extreme violence.

The book also gave a good view of 19th century Japan, but made many errors. While I can't remember the particular details (I read it... more info

Okay, not great:

Sometimes amusing, sometimes irritating. Too often the writing seems to be there only in order to show off mr Clavell's research that he however hasn't put in perfect use, as others have pointed out.

I have a question. Why Angelique? Why do I have to suffer trough the mewlings of the airhead? And however unearthily beautiful, do all the men of the book really have so unified taste as to drool after the self-centered bimbo?

I liked the Japanese characters much better than the gai-jin. Was rooting for the... more info

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