There's nothing wrong with Clavell's new "Asian Saga" novel that
cutting 900 pages wouldn't fix. No, that's not a misprint: at 1206
pp., this account of one interminable week in 1963 Hong Kong
stretches out a conventional but adequate plot - financial deals
plus criss-crossing spies - with awesomely tedious, constantly
rehashing conversations; and, unlike Tai-Pan and Shogun, there's
little Far Eastern exotica here to hold your interest while the
padding mounts up. Primary focus is on Ian Duncross, new tai-pan of
Hong Kong's oldest trading house - who's hoping to save Noble House
from bankruptcy via a joint-venture deal with US entrepreneur Linc
Bartlett, just arrived in HK with his right-hand woman, Casey. But
Ian's plans are fraught with peril: Bartlett is an unscrupulous
type who'll ditch the deal if he can find a better one; Ian's
arch-enemy, Quillan Gornt of the Rothwell-Gornt house, is out to
snatch up Noble House, with help from some shady bank-collapse and
selling-short maneuvers; and Noble House employee John then (soon
kidnapped and dead) has been peddling company secrets, even
stealing the legendary half-coin (whoever possesses it can demand
any favor of the tai-pan). So, while Ian goes from bank to bank and
nation to nation looking for bail-out money (in case the Bartlett
deal collapses), Clavell piles on the other half of the plot: the
presence of secret communist agents in Hong Kong - at Noble House,
in the police, even in British Intelligence. And there are also
subplots galore: Chinese gold, gun, and drug smugglers; romances
(Bartlett and a Eurasian, Casey and everybody); racetrack doings.
Eventually, Ian will become entangled in the spy fracas - because
he possesses documentary clues to the identity of the "moles" - and
eventually Clavell also throws in some Mafia and Red-China touches.
But just about everything is rendered moot by a landslide in the
last 100 pages - some blessed action after acres of money-talk and
who's-the-mole? jabber - and it all finally ends with the surfacing
of that half-coin. Flat, colorless characters; slipshod, pulp-mag
prose ("Are you the magic I've been seeking forever or just another
broad?"); little suspense, violence, or sex. In other words,
Dullsville - but the Clavell name will ensure big interest. . . at
least until word-of-mouth takes over. (Kirkus Reviews)
'Breathtaking. Only terms like colossal, gigantic, titanic,
unbelievable, gargantuan are properly descriptive' Chicago Tribune
Over one hundred years have passed since Dirk Struan founded Hong
Kong's oldest trading company. But now, the Noble House is in
danger. As Hong Kong itself becomes the deadly playground of the
CIA, the KGB and the People's Republic of China, rival tai-pans,
seeking revenge for blood feuds over a century old, gather for the
kill. 'Fiction for addicts . . . A book that you can get lost in
for weeks. Not only is it as long as life, it's also as rich with
possibilities' New York Times
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