Tai-Pan, by James Clavell

• Title:  Tai-Pan
  
• Author:  James Clavell
  
• Borrowed from DC Public Library (AudioBook)
  
• Started: 10/23/2016
  
• Finished: 10/29/2016
  

My (very slow) reading of James Clavell's Asian-Saga continued with Tai-Pan, having read Shogun almost exactly one year ago.  I am reading them in chronological order, not publication order, somewhat on accident (but happy accident).

This is a big book, something like 25 hours and change. Normally I could not have consumed such a big book in a week, but I was struck with a cold on Monday, and home from work Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was in bad shape, on a rotation of something like 6 hours sleeping, two hours awake -- round the clock for 48 hours.  During those waking moments, I was listening to this book.  

Like Shogun, I wasn't sure as I first started if I could get into this one.  I was helped (ironically?) by the Flashman series, as one of the recent books I read there took place in China around the same time.  Thus I has a better understanding of the geo-political situation in the area at the time (say what you want about the Flashman series, they are great historical overviews of the 19th century British empire).

Soon I was completely taken in by the story and the characters.  A very enjoyable read.