After reading Rising Sun I have decided that this is my favourite Crichton book. I loved the twists and turns that this book took. Crichton masterfully weaves around the truth, giving you glimpses of what might be reality, only to take a totally different path. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this novel. The characters were interesting as well, although I did not feel a great connection to any of them, but the main character. I enjoyed learning a little about Japanese culture and how much it differs from our own. One thing that I did not like was how there were long sections of information that could easily have been condensed to help the reader keep interest. These sections slowed down the pace and made me wonder why we really needed all the information we were given. I understand the desire to include all the information from your research, but as an author you need to resist this urge.
In his Associated Press obituary his rebuttal to the criticism of Rising Sun was quoted, saying because I'm always trying to deal with data, I went on a tour talking about it and gave a very careful argument, and their response came back, 'Well you say that but we know you're a racist.' [13] Furthermore Crichton has gone on record as saying that he intended his novel to be a wakeup call to U.S. industry and that he is more critical of the United States than Japan. According to activist Guy Aoki if that was his intention, he failed miserably,” and “what you had instead was every character going on for pages about how unfair Japanese business practices are[...] the book was a very one-sided view of what the Japanese are doing, saying that there's reason to not trust them and not like them. [14]
In Rising Sun, Mr. Crichton steps into a classroom with a pointer, dims the lights and enacts a violent murder mystery. At its opening, Peter J. Smith, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who specializes in liaison work with foreign nationals, describes being summoned to investigate a murder that occurred at the gala opening of the Nakamoto Tower, the American headquarters of Nakamoto Industries. On the way, he picks up a senior officer in his department, John Connor, who immediately starts lecturing him on the difficulties of dealing with the Japanese.
Call this dystopian fiction then, the opposite of Edward Bellamy's utopian Looking Backward and more like Orson Welles's famous Mercury Theater of the Air adaptation of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds. Yet pray that it doesn't send people running hysterically into the streets, crying for another bombing of Japan, but instead moves them to thoughtful debate. Rising Sun is remarkably timely, given this country's increasing frustration over its Far Eastern rival. It even makes one wonder if contending with Japan isn't going to be the United States' next great mission now that the cold war is over. But let us also hope that Mr. Crichton's assiduously researched fantasy does not turn out to be too extremely timely.
