Shogun paints a detailed picture of Japan in the 1600, explained mostly through the eyes of a ship-wrecked English pilot. What starts out as a story about people with strange customs and beliefs soon turns into an intricate plot filled with cunning and treachery.
It took me about 2 months to plow through this 1200 page behemoth of a book. The plot felt overly complicated to me. Overkill does not begin to describe the plans that the characters in the book hatch, all of whom seem to be proficient in playing out the long game, the very very long game.
On the upside, I enjoyed the set up and the setting, the plunge into the Samurai psyche, for whom words like honor, duty, and death takes on a whole different meaning.
Check out this book if a foray into a foreign culture excites you, with ample amounts of honor, bushido, and steamed fish thrown in for good measure.