An absolute page turner. The book explores the American and Japanese political and cultural misalignments with little reconciliations.

I really enjoy how Michael Crichton can keep me glued to the page with plot twists and fast pacing, but I really hate when he gets too preachy. I think that is his biggest weakness as a writer. All of his books have some kind of lesson to be learned, typically it's the dangers of fast-growing technology, but his best novels show the reader why this is a problem instead of insistently telling us. For example, in Jurassic Park we didn't need a lecture on the dangers of playing God and giving life to an extinct species, the dinosaurs pretty much took care of that. So, due to his constant rants about the Japanese taking over America, I must give this book two stars, even though I found the murder mystery to be suspenseful and interesting.

The funny thing is that his fears about the American economy aren't entirely unfounded. I think the Japanese taking over must be an out-dated fear, because I have never heard such fears, but he does make good points about our economy going too far into debt and other countries passing us in education and industry. However, his characterizations of the Japanese seem very harsh. No matter how many times the characters insist that they aren't judging the Japanese culture, it sure seems like they are vilifying them. All this distracts from the murder case, which is pretty compelling. Overall, even though I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to know the identity of the murderer, it left a bad taste in my mouth and, as a book by Crichton, comes off as pretty forgettable.

Read my first Michael Crichton novel.
What a slog! I almost quit reading it several times and probably should have. So Boring! I thought maybe the mystery part would liven things up, but it didn't. It was just one political rant after another.
I've found textbooks more interesting.
But when I looked up this author, I recognise a lot of titles.
Is it worth reading another one or are they all a boring slog like this one?

Wow!!!!!!

"Rising Sun" is Micheal Crichton at his best. All the reasons he is one of my favorite authors are found in this book. He writes honestly, not politically correctly. The cold hard facts he states, through the eyes and ears and mouths of his characters, about the Japanese and their business practices and America's inability to respond to either, mostly out of ignorance, innefeciency, and a desire to, at whatever cost, not come across as offensive or racist, is spot on. I live in Asia full time (the Philippines) and have been to Japan, and China and South Korea and have experienced racism, as a white man, that is not only accepted in Asian culture, but practiced by the masses, and taught to children openly by parents and educators. Practices and behaviors that, thank God, are not accepted or tolerated in the west, and Crichton is NOT afraid to write about that issue and call a spade a mother lovin' spade.
And that style of writing is so refreshing to me.
I also enjoy how he wraps fact with fiction in his work, as he does in this one, so not only do you get one hell of an exciting ride with the story line, but you learn so many facts, some of which are not always comfortable (like America represents 4% of the earth's surface population, has 18% of the world economy, yet has 50% of the world's lawyers due to our legal frivolity).
This book ranks as a close second as my favorite Crichton work, first being "State of Fear."

GRRRRRR. This was BOOOOOOOOOORING. I think I started off the wrong foot with Michael Crichton, so I am not giving up on him just yet. However, this was TERRIBLE. So, why did I hate this book? Let's get into this.

The story is generic and BORING. It is every murder mystery novel you have never read that you see in the "Books" shelf at Walgreen's Pharmacy. It tries to have good characters, but a lot of them annoyed me from either being too boring, or too pompous. I ended up hating a character named Graham, which is ironically my name, who acted like a jock when he is supposed to be a serious, rough as nails detective. UGH. However, I at least tolerated Crichton's writing style since he does give some descriptions rather well. However, the writing on a structural standpoint is a total disaster. This book could of been edited down from 400 pages to 200 pages mainly because it is all FILLER. Interrogation after interrogation of characters we never see again. Also, the book poorly develops the characters and makes them more pretentious and snooty the deeper you go into their characters.

So overall, I hated "Rising Sun." I know I really should of started off with "Jurassic Park" or "The Andromeda Strain," but I made a bad move. We all make them, and this was it for me. Today. Bad story, annoying characters, clumsy writing, what else do I have to say? It's awful. DON'T READ IT.

I am giving this one a 1 out of 5 stars.

Great read about murder, mystery, politics, financial war, and solving a crime, and racism during 80s-90s.

It is cool that they also added Japanese language to read in the book. I had fun reading the book.

A great book with an interesting premise, although a bit outdated now, but good nonetheless.

A Japanese company in LA is celebrating it's grand opening, when on the 46th floor, in one of the conference rooms, the body of a young woman is discovered. 2 LAPD Detectives are called in to investigate the murder, going through the surveillance systems, but still can't identify the killer, their only clue is he is Japanese. Detectives Peter Smith and John Connor soon realize that they're investigating not only a murder, but a web of lies and cover-up within the Japanese company itself.

Michael Crichton once again delivers in this intense murder/mystery, and also the realism of the belief of Japan taking over Amercian industries and it's economy, and that's where I said the story itself it outdated.

Classic Crichton. Smart, fast-paced, impeccably researched. The thing about a Crichton novel is you can't help but learn a lit while also being thoroughly entertained.

This one has it all: A murder mystery, political intrigue, a race to solve the crime.

Seems a little weird at first, with a current reading, as Japan is no longer the powerhouse of economy that it was the the '80's and '90's. But the foreign relations concepts are still quite valid.

Don't miss the teeny note in the front papers that notes, amazingly, how much of the background facts in the tale are true. An extensive bibliography completes the back.

Great read! Really captured a 1980's or 1990's action movie energy and as a result was very engaging! Amazing inclusion of details that not only helped with the immersion but also seemed quite education to Japanese culture. Interestingly, this also felt like a downside as the story was very thick with exposition. Mr. Crichton successfully navigated the story to an entertaining end for me but I imagine some readers may be annoyed by the intensely-infused informational narrative.

I had read some Chrichton growing up, I think I even read this one but I don't remember it. I had to put this book down after I was about 20% through. The complete lack of internal logic coupled with a wildly racist fixation on the japanese just made it not work as a crime novel or as entertainment.

The critiques that Chrichton levels at Japanese businesses are completely blind to the self-same faults in American capitalism, and in this age of rising Chinese power both misses the mark completely by focusing on a tiny island nation and by, again, the completely hypocritical economic anxieties.

The book is a breast beating naive screed of American exceptionalism wrapped in a blanket of racism.

Really disappointing.

Another meh for Crichton! Just couldn't get into all the rambling and reasoning as to why the murder of the young women and how the Japanese are taking over business in the US. I agree the US needs to put more regulations into foreign trading, but I was looking for an entertaining read, not political rambling.