first two reviews from amazon

26 Reviews

5 star: (24)

4 star: (1)

3 star: (1)

2 star: (0)

1 star: (0)

Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Surprise, June 23, 2001

By Tyler Tanner (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME)

I bought the two Shike books about five years ago and they remained forgotten until I dusted them off the shelf, peered curiously at the first chapter, and opened myself to one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The first mistake one can make about these novels is the comparison to James Clavell. Clavell is good in his own right, but what I found refreshing about "Shike" is that there is no western influence anywhere. No shipwrecked sailor or trade baron's are found here. All the characters are three dimensional, living beings and the reader can identify with every one of them. Shea's vocabulary makes the medieval Japanese Zen ideal easy to comprehend and contributes to the story and characterization. Another aspect I found facinating was Japans relationship to the rest of Asia, which is explored fully in these books. The author takes you to China, Mongolia, and all over the islands of Japan. Anyone who has made generalizations about Asian culture will get a wonderful education. It's a shame that most of the authors books are out of print. He has the rare gift of telling a wonderful tale and exposing you to a wonderful world. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bar none this is the best book I have ever read!, October 6, 1999

By Melvin Kossey ([email protected]) (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This is a story that takes us through the lives of two young people. One is a fearsome warrior from a secretive monk caste who is born from a Mongolian father and a Japanese mother. His growth throughout the story, with having to deal with the struggles of not fitting into a discriminating Japanese culture, allows us to readily identify with him. The other character is a very young girl who is to be sent away from home to meet her husband, prior to her prearranged marriage. From there on it is a tale of Combat, Love, and Friendship against the backdrop of Feudal Japan during a war of the clans. The tides of war and betrayal then take our subjects to China during the invasion of the Mongols, and then back to Japan under the newly proclaimed Shogun, preparing to face the Mongol Hordes. If you are considering reading this series, stop considering and get it. You will want to reread them over and over. Monks, Samurai, and Mongols ... what else is there to say.

I concur

problem is I can not locate my copies and they are out of print. I want my son and daughter to read them.

#14...DAMN fine book.

A friend of mine loaned me his copy to read. When I returned it we sat down and watched the movie.

The movie was a cinematic splendor. It was lacking in so many ways. The entire experience was enriched with the knowledge of reading the book.

See the movie if you haven't seen it.

Just got back from the library.

I sort of cherry-picked among the suggestions you guys offered, and took a list of about 7 titles with me.

I ended up with Vonnegut's S-House 5. That is it! Two other titles I sought were O'Rielly's Piece of Humanity and ZRX's Lone Survivor. They were out on loan, but I reserved them for later this month.

TDub, I looked for the Robert Shea books. No luck. But I did call a friend who runs a used book store. He had a copy of the first one. He's going to hold it for me, I'll read it and then give you the copy if that's all right with you. I told him to keep an eye out for the other.

Thanks to all of you again. I think this is the sort of thread that some one of us here should start every couple of months, so we can all see updates on worth reading.

I WIN..............I WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everybody Poops. You can find it in the childrens section. He he he.

No prob Big Chief, enjoy all the reading.....My wife hates it when I read books because when I get into a book I'm useless to the world till it's done.

Lots of good recommendations above, I'll just bring you smokes next time I go to the coast!

"The Comprehensive Guide to Malt Liquor and Fortified Wines," by grmcooper.

ref:

"Chemyst, thank you, too. I suspect we are of an age--your

list is composed of many familiar authors and titles"

Dante and Homer were once friends of mine. 😃

Chemyst

anything by David Baldacci

W.E.B. Griffin writes some of the best WWII novels

"The Winner" by David Baldacci is an excellent novel, everyone I know who has read it also agrees....plan to have about 3 hours of time to read..cause it's so good you won't want to put it down.

da76guinness

"Co. Aytch"

by

Sam R. Watkins

ZRX, if you come over to the coast this summer, plan on stopping by.

But don't bring me any cigars!

Chemyst--

I was wrong--you are older than I am. Much older.

For sure Big Chief, and 76 is right about Baldacci...Good stuff.