I have read all of Clavell's Asian series books and enjoyed them all except Whirlwind. It is always best to read a series in order but in this case it may be ok to read Noble House first. Clavell was a great writer and one of my favorites. His movies were also great. btw, his daughter once appeared in a movie that is one of the all time running series, 007.
I rented the movie The Great Escape when my GD was visiting and she went crazy over Steve McQueen and asked me to get her other Steve McQueen movies for her birthday. It was a great movie, btw.
The Asian Saga consisting of six novels:
King Rat (1962): Set in a Japanese POW camp, 1945
Tai-Pan (1966): Set in Hong Kong, 1841
Shogun (1975): Set in feudal Japan, 1600
Noble House (1981): Set in Hong Kong, 1963
Whirlwind (1986): Set in Iran, 1979
Gai-Jin (1993): Set in Japan, 1862