secre's review against another edition
3.0
Whilst I certainly enjoyed this novel, it has a definite tendancy to veer into the two dimensional at times and I found the descriptions of our young leads virile manhood tiring by the end. For a virgin, he certainly goes through his share of women. Maybe it's the sign of a 18 year old who grew up in male company, but it could certainly stand to be reduced.
The pacing though is well done, and whilst nautical terms are frequently used, Smith successfully avoids becoming didactic in his approach. He puts his characters through absolute hell and you can't help but feel for them. He certainly writes a mean set of bad guys and there are characters here you will truly loathe.
The pacing though is well done, and whilst nautical terms are frequently used, Smith successfully avoids becoming didactic in his approach. He puts his characters through absolute hell and you can't help but feel for them. He certainly writes a mean set of bad guys and there are characters here you will truly loathe.
kathleenitpdx's review against another edition
2.0
A swashbuckling adventure tale. An exotic setting--the east coast of 17th century Africa, a young, handsome, brave, bright hero under the tutelage of his strict but loving father with a loyal, strong, brave, wise indigenous side-kick, naval battles, sword fights, lions, crocodiles, hidden treasure, a secret society, an evil, implacable but honorable foe, a couple of slimy bad guys, a beautiful, high-born nymphomaniac to relieve our hero of his virginity—what could go wrong? All of the characters are one dimensional. They each can be summed up in one stereotypical sentence. Far be it from them to examine their actions, motives or themselves. And enough purple prose to cause the reader to occasionally throw the book down.
expendablemudge's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 3* of five
Wilbur, Wilbur...yours isn't the stuff of literary legend, but usually you buckle a *mean* swash and cause images of Erroll Flynn to dash around your reader's head (thanks for that, BTW).
In this book, Wilbur, you lost your way. I don't expect autheticity of language, and don't even WANT it, in books set in the 17th century. But sometimes I felt I was watching a mini-series dumbed down for a TV audience as I read this installment of the generational saga of the Courteneys. Plenty of buckles are swashed, it's true, and the hated Dutch East Indiamen are suitably hateful, but things were...foreshortened, somehow.
Could it be the Courteneys are beginning to pall in your interests? I haven't read Assegai, the most recently published of their family saga which is set in WWI times, and now I wonder if I should.
This isn't the Smith to start with. If anyone wants to know what the fuss he's made over the years is about, start with [b:The Sunbird|74778|The Sunbird|Wilbur A. Smith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312017946s/74778.jpg|891715]. "Fly for me, bird of the sun...." *snivel* Still makes me mist up.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Wilbur, Wilbur...yours isn't the stuff of literary legend, but usually you buckle a *mean* swash and cause images of Erroll Flynn to dash around your reader's head (thanks for that, BTW).
In this book, Wilbur, you lost your way. I don't expect autheticity of language, and don't even WANT it, in books set in the 17th century. But sometimes I felt I was watching a mini-series dumbed down for a TV audience as I read this installment of the generational saga of the Courteneys. Plenty of buckles are swashed, it's true, and the hated Dutch East Indiamen are suitably hateful, but things were...foreshortened, somehow.
Could it be the Courteneys are beginning to pall in your interests? I haven't read Assegai, the most recently published of their family saga which is set in WWI times, and now I wonder if I should.
This isn't the Smith to start with. If anyone wants to know what the fuss he's made over the years is about, start with [b:The Sunbird|74778|The Sunbird|Wilbur A. Smith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312017946s/74778.jpg|891715]. "Fly for me, bird of the sun...." *snivel* Still makes me mist up.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
More...