Engaging Boer war action, dubious `heroic' character

books:


	• The Sound of Thunder Wilbur Smith St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2007 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Africa for the ArmchairTraveler

What a super series! You just dive into the book and experience vicariously all the rugged passion of AFrica. Wilbur Smith, keep writing!

Histoy Made Interesting

Don't mistake the Courtney series for a history lesson, but it's a close second for an interesting overview. Just returned from a trip to Africa and this author was recommended by people we met in South Africa. The characters are engaging and the descriptions of the bush and the camps are wonderful. Smith has a reputation for diligent research wrapped into a good story.

for more information click here

Simply the best

I read a lot and came across Wilbur Smith when my next door neighbor kept speaking of him. My ideas of African adventure were far removed from what Smith writes about. If you like DeMille, Flynn, Shaara, and the like you will love Smith. The back cover of his books says it the best. "Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared." Just make sure you read these in order or you will be lost, only sad when the set comes to end.

for more information click here

Engaging Boer war action, dubious `heroic' character

An iconic action/thriller writer in the popular format of a family epic series, tracing ordeals and triumphs over generations, in this case against the exotic African background during the Boer war.

This was one of the first `grown-up' (`adult' has the wrong connotations) books I read as a teenager, and I was surprised getting back to it something like twenty-five years later just how much I remembered. I don't know how much of this to attribute to the skills of the writer or to the relative impressionability of my younger self, but I could still vividly recall several of the major incidents - which isn't usually the case with me: I have really enjoyed rereading many books that I only read a decade ago, with far less recollection.

There's much to find offensive and laughable in this book, perhaps mostly in what Smith presents as heroic, although his rigid goodie or baddie characters are also pretty hard to take. Sean Courtney, sure, is meant to be larger than life, but I don't even think being a demigod justifies him bedding both his brother's and his best friend's wives - and somehow being supposed to maintain his unimpeachable integrity. We're supposed to indulgently shake our heads at that rascal. Actually, more than that, we're supposed to respect Courtney's right to any woman who catches his eye because of the purported strength and depth of his passion, and because he's such a manly stud. Otherwise it's your standard shallow hero fare: tougher, smarter, winner financially, militarily, physically etc. Meanwhile, apart from his brother's eleventh hour redemption, people are simply born good or bad - hence Courtney's contrasting two sons: nurture is irrelevant.

Admittedly Smith has the maturity to present admirable and disreputable soldiers on either side, and his historical context is probably one of the strengths of the book. How would I know, but I get the impression he'd checked out some of the battle dates and details, and read some contemporary accounts. This is still, of course, a fantasy story, and we're aware that our hero will survive the hail of bullets, and that the major character's lives are worth considerably more than the cannon fodder around them. I won't begrudge Wilbur the pleasure of that convention. I found it harder to be excited by Courtney's growing prosperity: I don't have the same worship of wealth acquisition so many popular writers seem to assume.

So, in summary, this book worked well enough for me as an engaging historical fiction/action novel, but conflicted with my values of character formation and heroism.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

The year is 1899. The British Empire is at the height of its power. But in South Africa, proud Dutch colonists defy the Queen and her army?and a lush, wild world is torn apart by guns, spears, and swords.

Sean Courtney had been tragically separated from his family, but the Boer War has brought him back to his homeland?and into the sights of his enemy?s guns. It has also returned him to Ruth Friedman, the only woman Sean can love, even though he shouldn?t. As Sean?s loyalties?to nation, man, and blood?are tested, a saga of duty and betrayal unfolds....

for more information click here

hot