Title: One of the classic epics of popular historical fiction - with an emphasis on the word "epic"
Product review: Shogun is larger than life, in every way imaginable. It is, first and foremost, a huge book (I read it for the first time as a teenager, and it is still one of the longest books I've ever read (at 1152 pages, it is only exceeded as a single volume novel by War and Peace, Cryptonomicon and...not much else, really). And the same thing applies to my experience reading the book at 14 and reading the book in my early 40s -- I could not put it down. There will be some who complain about the historical veracity, but there are few who would complain about the sheer entertainment value to be found in the pages of Shogun. The details are fascinating, the characters are compelling, and if this is not exactly the literary tour de force of a Gore Vidal or Robert Graves it is no less incredible an experience.
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