If you like Shōgun, read these other great historical novels by James Clavell
By Joel Wagler
King Rat (1962), set in 1945, approximately 300 pages
Clavell spent time in a Japanese prison camp in World War II. That experience provides the background for this completely standalone book. It takes place late in WWII in the notorious Changi prison camp in Singapore.
The book describes life inside the prison camp. Based on Clavell's personal history, it is most likely the most historically accurate of his books, though nearly 80 years after the fact, it is hard to know for certain.
While it's the fourth book in Clavell's series chronologically, it's the first one he wrote. King Rat was published in 1962, four years before Tai-pan. It was made into an excellent movie in 1965 starring George Segal.
King Rat really doesn't have any connecting threads to the rest of the Asian Saga, but is included because of its locale. It has a somewhat darker tone that some of the other books, but that doesn't mean it's a hard read. It's by far the shortest book in the series, and it is an easy, quick, and entertaining read.