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aparth's review against another edition
5.0
Written in 1981, at first glance this looks like a cheap soap opera style adventure paperback set in Japan. The tagline doesn't do it any favours: "a magnificent odyssey, an exotic adventure, a star-crossed love story"
But brave readers who pick this up will be drawn into a stunning epic that has been meticulously researched and written with skill and insight.
The entire Shike series compresses two significant events in 12th/13th century Japan - the Genpei War and the Mongol Invasions in a way that is believable while sensitive to true events.
The characters really come to life but Shea doesn't labour conversations or resort to cringy dialogue.
Zen Buddhism features heavily in the storyline, and the political battles and intrigue (and general brutality) are easily on a par with Game of Thrones. The unpredictability in the plot is really refreshing too (even the ending maintains the overall tone of the story).
In fact, if a Hollywood producer ever bothered to read this they would see how made for TV it is. The naval battles alone (not to mention the desperate mountaintop skirmish halfway through the text) are so well written you can easily visualise them on a screen.
Highly recommend anyone who enjoys Asian history (or GoT style power struggles) to give this a go, even though it's easy to make negative assumptions from the cover and blurb. Can't recommend highly enough. Start with Shike #1 - Time of the Dragons
But brave readers who pick this up will be drawn into a stunning epic that has been meticulously researched and written with skill and insight.
The entire Shike series compresses two significant events in 12th/13th century Japan - the Genpei War and the Mongol Invasions in a way that is believable while sensitive to true events.
The characters really come to life but Shea doesn't labour conversations or resort to cringy dialogue.
Zen Buddhism features heavily in the storyline, and the political battles and intrigue (and general brutality) are easily on a par with Game of Thrones. The unpredictability in the plot is really refreshing too (even the ending maintains the overall tone of the story).
In fact, if a Hollywood producer ever bothered to read this they would see how made for TV it is. The naval battles alone (not to mention the desperate mountaintop skirmish halfway through the text) are so well written you can easily visualise them on a screen.
Highly recommend anyone who enjoys Asian history (or GoT style power struggles) to give this a go, even though it's easy to make negative assumptions from the cover and blurb. Can't recommend highly enough. Start with Shike #1 - Time of the Dragons
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