Rising Sun: A Novel

Great eye opening read on world politics. Today Japan isn't what it was, but China is now a similar threat.

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.

I read this when it was first published in 1992. It was excellent and this is the first time I've gone back and reread it. It holds up exceptionally well, in fact, it's amazing how prescient Creighton was. Sure, there are certain exceptions (digital editing of images has progressed by orders of magnitude), but it was definitely ahead of its time. There are many passages in the book that are chilling in their direct and accurate mirroring of our today. Creighton is on record as intending this book to criticize America but ended up - to his great surprise - being labelled a racist for his portrayal of the Japanese. If one now makes unfavorable observations regarding China's business practices, you also stand a likely chance of being labelled a racist. As the proverb goes: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Great who-dunnit.

This was a good book, with one of Crichton's trademark page-turner plots that keep you wanting to read on to find out what happens. Lots of interesting science stuff, in which you never know how much is real, or potentially real, and how much is pure fiction. Crichton masterfully blends fiction with science fact. The only reason I gave this three stars instead of four is that he, unfortunately, inserted long paragraphs of dialogue that sounded too much like lecturing or preaching against the Japanese business practices. If you can look past that, the book is fun to read and worth picking up.

Michael Crichton was, of course, a master of the techno-thriller. Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Prey - From the 70s until the late Aughts, when Crichton passed away, there were few better masters of plotting and pacing. Often overlooked in his resume, though, is Rising Sun, a book that is really interesting to read even now, 25 years after it was published. Rising Sun is, primarily, a murder mystery, a standard thriller novel, but placed in a slightly different timeline than ours. In this timeline, the Japanese have leveraged their ability to protect their markets while exploiting ours to become the foremost producer of just about everything modern. As a result, they find themselves owning most of Los Angeles, where Rising Sun takes place. Interwoven through the very good murder mystery are occasional sidelines into the corruption of modern Washington politics and the media, as well as the nigh-impenetrable facade of Japanese business culture. There are warnings in Rising Sun (again, written 25 years ago) that appear to have born fruit today - the decline of manufacturing in America, our dependency on Wall Street, and the imminent rise of ‘alternative facts’ (the idea that the real truth doesn’t matter, perception is all that counts). Of course, there are plenty of things that stick out to a modern reader. VCRs and car phones, for instance, will be just about incomprehensible to younger readers, as might pay phones and ‘land lines’, but they don’t detract from the plot terribly much. I’d say that, overall, Rising Sun holds up remarkably well 25 years after it was written.

A wonderful insight on how to do business in Japan

un good novel for those who want to deep back in 90' and Japanese threat, from an american perspective.

It is an nice thriller on the difficulties of communication between cultures. More of a spy than really documenting the case.

読んでから随分と経ってしまいましたが、心に残っている一冊です

Es una historia detectivesca muy entretenida, con excelentes referencias a la cultura japonesa. La película del mismo nombre tiene la misma premisa, pero el libro es mucho mejor en la mayoría de los aspectos. Aunque gran parte del tono del libro está afectado por la percepción del Japón en los EE. UU. en los 1980s, los datos referenciados son reales y hacen que el intriga sea más interesante. Recomendable para los que gustan de historias de detectives, aficionados a las novelas de Crichton o a los interesados en la cultura japonesa.

It is a well written novel by Michael Crichton. I did a little research after reading the novel and found that some parts of the novel were exaggerated.It gives good insight to how Japanese want to takeover the american businesses. On the whole it's a good read.