Art done by Probably Ed Vebell
Noble House - Review
Link to the author's (J. Clavell) personal website
Genre: Fiction
Publication Type: Book
Tags:
- Average Age of Main Characters (35)
- Length (7 / 10)
Series: Asian Saga
Link to Goodreads
Blurb: The tai-pan, Ian Dunross, struggles to rescue Struan's from the precarious financial position left by his predecessor. To do this, he seeks partnership with an American millionaire, while trying to ward off his arch-rival Quillan Gornt, who seeks to destroy Struan's once and for all. Meanwhile, Chinese communists, Taiwanese nationalists, and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent this. And nobody, it seems, can get anything done without enlisting the aid of Hong Kong's criminal underworld. Other obstacles include water shortages, landslides, bank runs and stock market crashes.
Review: This book had me absolutely absorbed for the full duration. It follows the Tai-Pan in 1960s Hong Kong as he's juggling a near bankrupt company and its historic responsibilities. The book is pretty large, but it is amazingly cool how well all the plot threads are laid out without feeling rushed, or becoming too confusing. It fulfills the potential of so many cold-war thriller movies, which were constrained by runtime and the medium.
I loved the setting, as in all book's of this larger universe. It is so authentically portrayed as a base, or at least convinces me so, that the dramatisation feels completely natural. The characters are also just forces of personality without being overbearing or one-dimensional. The book is completely stand-alone, but given the chronological order of the larger world, I'd suggest reading Tai-Pan first. A massive recommend from me. Beautiful book.
See the series review here.