The Asian Saga
The Asian Saga is a series of six novels written by James Clavell between 1962 and 1993. The novels all centre on Europeans in Asia, and together explore the impact on East and West of the meeting of these two distinct civilizations.
Overview
The name "Asian Saga" was first applied to the series after Shōgun had been published. The purpose of the Asian Saga was, according to Clavell—descendant of a family long in service to the British Empire, and who was a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II—to tell "the story of the Anglo-Saxon in Asia". In publication order, the books are:
King Rat (1962)
Tai-Pan (1966)
Shōgun (1975)
Noble House (1981)
Whirlwind (1986)
Gai-Jin (1993)
The books are listed by internal chronology below:
Shōgun: set in feudal Japan, 1600
Tai-Pan: set in Hong Kong, 1841
Gai-Jin: set in Japan, 1862
King Rat: set in a Japanese POW camp, Singapore, 1945
Noble House: set in Hong Kong, 1963
Whirlwind: set in Iran, 1979
Apart from Shōgun and King Rat, all the books follow the dealings of the great trading company Struan's, the Noble House of Asia (based on Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited), its founder Dirk Struan, and his various descendants. Gai-Jin provides the major link between the Shōgun and Struans storylines.
