Hello,
So I recently finished listening to Shogun, and while I found the overall story very interesting and captivating, I found it extremely dissatisfying to go through 1100+ pages just for the war not to happen, and also to find out that there’s no sequel???? The entire time I was looking forward to seeing Torenaga win the war and for Blackthorne to get back home in a boat full of gold. But he spent like 50% of the book being held captive and the other half simping over Mariko. All for absolutely nothing in the end.
I don’t know, even though the book was good for the most part, I really can’t get over the ending.
For me, the first half of the book, where Blackthorne was just being passed around as a captive, was a bit dull and hard to get through. The second half, when he was made a samurai and actually got to do something, was really good and captivating. However, it all felt like a huge waste of time when I never got to experience the war that the story had been building up to the entire time. It also felt especially shitty that Blackthorne, by the end of the book, was no closer to reaching his goal than when he first washed up in Japan. If anything, he’s further away, having lost Mariko, the ship, the rudders, and basically getting ensnared in Torenaga’s plot to keep him there forever. Am I missing something? Because everybody seems to absolutely love this book.
Maybe I’m too hung up on this, but in my opinion, a story is only as good as its ending.
What do you think?
by Sedach