Rising Sun: A Novel Kindle Edition

To me, Crichton is hit-or-miss in a big way. His books are either outstanding or poor, which can be tough when the expectation is set for the former. Some spoilers ahead.The long-winded political commentary and fear-mongering exposition completely pulled me out of the story. I thought the premise was interesting and enjoyed going back in time to the days when Japan was close to becoming the economic superpower. But Crichton's sensationalism just had me cringing; I mean, look at his Afterword!Additionally, the main characters were unlikeable. At first, I felt it was nuanced character development and enjoyed it. But our protagonist was just plain dull and Connor was just an irritable know-it-all. He basically KNEW everything after the fact. I tried to explain it away as his attenpt at mentoring our borefest of a protagonist, but there was extreme urgency in this case - speak up, Sensei! Every discovery seemed like a waste of time when he'd appear and say he knew the answer all along. And his little side stories and connections never amounted to much. I hoped something interesting would happen with him, but nope.Which leads me to my next complaint. This was already dragging before it meandered through its unnecessary twists. It just plodded along with multiple new reveals. After a while, I was tired of them and didn't really care what new piece of evidence they neglected that now popped up and led to a new discovery.I could go on, but there were too many frustrations here. I'm being generous with 2 stars.

Asian nations know how to play the long game. They know how to think. The U. S. is not a ship of state, it is a Ship of Fools. We wallow in foolish pity for adversarial world players and we lose. We have consistently failed to view the world's nations realistically-All Of Them. When we treat other nations like unruly teenagers and allow them to act out, clean up their messes for them, allow them to take advantage of us politically and economically, we do not do them or their people any favors; nor do we help ourselves and our own people. Japan suffered a severe depression after this book was written, however, there is much to be learned here. Replace the word China over Japan. China is not as racist as Japan but it is as ambitious. Replace the words Central America over Japan. These countries are not rich but their governments are corrupt, self serving, and expect us to further their goals with U. S. wealth. All these countries are playing the long game against our foolishness, our stupidity. It's time for our country to grow up, stop behaving like a thirteen year old girl with a crush on a young hood. We have whole populations without career goals or hopes for a future. This book, in its subtle way, is holding up a mirror and saying, "Look. It's not too late. If we don't look after our own country, your own people, nobody else will," just as a parent looks after and nurtures a two year old...unlike a well dressed, wanton woman. Get it?

The novel Rising Sun was originally published in 1992, fully 25 years ago as I write this review, and during that time the world has changed enormously. Michael Crichton writes of a U.S. preoccupied with the threat of an increasingly economically dominant Japan and the story basically revolves around that conflict. History has developed quite differently, it turns out, and the Japanese economic bubble that was taking place when this story was written has now collapsed. Today a more appropriate choice for concern would probably be China. Still, the story is fascinating and enjoyable.Having seen the Sean Connery / Wesley Snipes movie several times over the years, I was curious to see how similar the book was to the movie. This turns out to be one of those cases where they seem to be practically identical, not only in the major elements of the story but in the feel and personalities of the characters. The most notable difference does not become clear until late in the book and is a fascinating one - the retired Captain John Connor, played in the movie by Sean Connery, is black in the story, and the detective Peter J. Smith, the Special Services Liaison for the Los Angeles Police Department, played by Wesley Snipes, is white. I heard Connery's voice in my mind as I read the words of John Conner, and it was an unexpected surprise when a casual remark late in the story disclosed that Conner would not fit the Connery image at all! That didn't detract from the story but it was an interesting difference.The action moves quickly as Conner, senpai to the less experienced kōhai Smith, work together to determine the real killer and identify the motivations for the killing and subsequent coverup, and fight off the manipulations being attempted by the Japanese behind the scenes to influence their investigation and outcome. The twists and turns are well concealed and even knowing the story it was enjoyable and often unpredictable to see how it all developed in the book.I've enjoyed Michael Crichton's books over the years, and although it's likely that I read Rising Sun years ago when it was first released, I did not remember the story from the book. Returning to it now was enjoyable and a worthwhile read.

One of my favorite things about Michael Crichton novels is the sheer amount of research he put into each one. The story here is fascinating, but I'm not sure how well his profile of Japanese culture has aged (or was accurate). I remember reading this in the 90s and feeling the tension with the emerging presence & brilliance of Japanese technology in the American market, but it seems like Crichton presented a series of racial tropes and then attempted to deconstruct/individuate them; just not sure how successful he ultimately was by the end of the book. The narrator is also a bland 'everyman' type of character (foil to Connor, but still). The adventure, however, keeps you hooked.

Read some Crichton before, Jurassic Park obvs and Airframe and Congo and a couple more bit I've not read any of these 3. Book is in pretty good condition actually for what I paid for it and am currently reading Binary, out of the 3 stories.

Arrived in a few days from RM. Book was in excellent condition.

Another excellent book by this author

Okay read. Not as good as other novels of his.

I haven't enjoyed this one - other novels of Michael Crichton I couldn't put down, this one I found it hard to finish