Title: Not well-researched at all
Product review: The thing I liked about Shogun and Clavell's other works was the detailed research effort that went into each novel. I'm afraid Matsuoka doesn't deliver on the same level. He basically co-opts Clavell's Gai-Jin plot and then tries to overlay a real 17th Century Japanese historical event, the pivotal Battle of Sekigihara, onto the late Tokugawa landscape. I'm afraid it doesn't work for me or anyone else who knows history, since the samurai were almost gone by the time of the late Tokugawa shogunate. The same can be said for Stark, the American gunfighter who comes to Japan to hunt down a ruthless American desperado, hiding out as a buddhist monk no less! Ha! Ha! Excuse me, but I just have to laugh at this improbable nonsense. Add to that, Lord Genji's strange psychic abilities and you've got the makings of a good soap opera, or anime movie, but not an historical action adventure. The other reviewers said it best: James Clavell remains the undisputed master of this genre.
Would you say this review depicts the product in a flattering or unflattering light?
