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). 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. 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.
Since the same actor did Shogun (and I do remember thinking that Blackthorne shouted a lot - but that was more in character), it is surprising that this was such a disappointing return.There's nothing wrong with Clavell's new "Asian Saga" novel that cutting 900 pages wouldn't fix. Any attempt at a Scottish accent was pitiful - which is ridiculous since the Scottish characters in the Struans/Dunross storylines are central to the storyline. Mr Lister seemed to convey emotions by shouting a lot, and some of the regional accents were just shocking.
Wanted to know what happened to all the characters! Sad to say, the narration was nowhere near as good as for the others in the series. I remember wanting the whole story to continue, at its breakneck speed, and had the same sense at completing the audio-book. However, more than compensated for by the masterful weaving of all the storylines into a satisfying tapestry. I noticed the 60s standards much more this time, with a few wince moments at the sexism of characterisations.
And glad to say, the story itself lived up to expectations - almost 100%. Working my way through the Asian Saga, my memories of Noble House were of a cracking good read.
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