How can a book start out so slow and then get in your craw like no other? I walk around in the Tai pans world two weeks after finishing this book. Simply amazing. Clavell makes his protagonists super heroes ( Tai-Pan, Lord Toranaga, the Anjin-San) but so what?! Ya no one has every plan come out roses like these guys, but what's the alternative? Have Tyler Brock win? No way! I want to see what happens to culum and the rest of them, but I read that gai-Jin wasn't that good... Should I go straight to noble house or stop at king rats prison first? Help people, it will give me great face as it is my joss to read the Asian saga!