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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Shibumi

01:06 / 03.07.06

Nicholai Hel born in the ravages of World War I China to an aristocratic Russian mother and a mysterious German father, raised in the spiritual gardens of a Japanese Go Master, he survives the destruction of Hiroshima to emerge as the world’s most artful lover and its most accomplished—and highly paid assassin. Genius, mystic, master of language and culture, Hel’s secret is his determination to attain a rare kind of personal excellence, a state of effortless perfection . . . Shibumi.

Now living in an isolated mountain fortress with his magnificent Eurasian mistress—He’ll faces his most sinister enemy—a supermonolith of espionage and monopoly. The battle lines are drawn. Ruthless power and corruption on one side and on the other …Shibumi.

Shibumi by Trevanian

More about it

YOU HAVEN'T READ IT?!!!! MY GAWD, WHY NOT?

I can't believe I was on this planet for 30 plus years and didn't read this book. Well if I had I would never had the guts to attempt writing my own novel. Shibumi is the perfect balance of brilliant writing and straight up cheese. It rips into the spy novels of the time and yet some how calls into question some of the ugly global conspiracies of our time. It's both indulgent and sublime.

What do you think about it?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:15 / 03.07.06

I've read The Eiger Sanction a few years ago and had more or less the same reaction... elegant cheese... but this seems to have a lot more Danger: Diabolik and less James Bond wanna-be to it. Easy to find?

23:29 / 03.07.06

easy to find, hard to loan out!

13:46 / 05.07.06

Though if anyone wants to borrow my copy I'll send it media mail to you.

Crux Is This City's Protector.

01:21 / 08.10.06

I just bought a copy today. I read the Eiger Sanction a couple days ago, and was quite disappointed. I've written a thousand words on the subject, but they boil down to this: as a spy novel, it was trite, unoriginal, predictable, and absolutely chock full of odious cliches. As a post-modern, self-aware, 'revisionist' spoof of a spy novel, it was—a lousy spy novel. One does not spoof merely by indulging in the tropes which one is spoofing.

That said, for whatever reason, I have high hopes for Shibumi. Any thoughts on the Eiger Sanction, either on its own or vis a vis Shibumi?

13:59 / 14.06.08

read it , liked it, forgot about it, until you mentioned it. what a great memory you brought back,,,it was so much better than i had thought it might be

17:43 / 16.06.08

Read Shibumi when I was learning how to play Go ages ago and I loved it. I find it superior to the two Sanction books (although they're really good too). Great giddy fun that never feels cheap.

Did anybody read the book Trevanian wrote about his mother? It's called The Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street. I've been looking for it in used book shops, but haven't seen a copy yet. Seemed like a bit of a departure from his perfect lover/perfect assassin novels, but then maybe I just don't know enough about his mother.

18:36 / 05.08.08

Back in the mid-80s when I was 11-12 I devoured spy novels -- all the Flemings, the Ludlums, even the John Gardner Bond sequels (which I recall liking a lot). I saw Shibumi at the library, picked it up, but didn't read it...for one thing I assumed it was a sort of Eric Lustbader sort of thing (aka The Ninja, The Mikado, etc); for another, I think I realized it was a satire, and I wanted the real thing, baby!

Now I'm all about the satire, so this sounds pretty cool to me. Also, Men's Fitness Magazine of all things ran a mention of this in their July issue this year (we get a free subscription here at work for some reason), really a great and informative review which stressed the satirical and action-packed elements. Long story short, I intend to pick this up the next time I hit the used bookstores -- something about books like these demands they be read in the most tattered mass market paperback possible.

13:46 / 30.09.08

i learned to play `Go`because of this book, many things come from such gems.