Rating: 3* of fiveWilbur, 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 The Sunbird. "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.
Err, I don't even know what to say about this book. For starters, I didn't know this wasn't the first book of the saga, so clearly I kind of just jumped in the Courtney's party and was a bit confused. Second, I did not foresee the amount of smut this book runs with. Not bad smut, really, just, woah, caught me by surprise the first few super raunchy scenes. There was one swash buckling battle followed by some raunch for the first hundred pages or so. The characters were pretty shallow as far as characters go and our young hero not necessarily very charming -though we are induces to believe that he is, he kind of doesn't charm much out of you. I liked Aboli, his free man african king friend/caretaker. He wasn't more fleshed out that anyone else but I liked him anyway.So.. it was entertaining, and there was a lot of adventure, though it was a bit of slow reading because no character truly caught me so I didn't really feel like reading it. Was on the verge of dropping it a couple of times but I went on and in the end I can say I enjoyed it. Weird politics and raunch and battles and all. It was.. a book indeed.
What do You think about Birds Of Prey (2003)?
1,5/10Il peggiore che ho mai letto di questo autore, per la prima metà un porno sotto mentite spoglie mentre la seconda metà è una furiosa discesa lungo la china della cretineria per finire nel delirio più totale. A parte la scarsa qualità in sé delle due parti il libro è appunto disomogeneo, come se l'autore avesse deciso solo a metà stesura di farlo andare a parare in un luogo completamente diverso da quello di partenza. Quanto alla prima metà, è appunto un porno che vorrebbe essere un romanzo
—Werehare
I really enjoyed this mammoth historical swashbuckler! The novel takes place during the year 1667 and is the first novel chronologically in the Courtney's of Africa series by Smith. I have read a few other Smith novels and have enjoyed all of them, but this is the first Courtney for me. It was full of exotic adventure, romance, and filled with historic details of the time. These included the war between England and Holland as well as the attacks on Christian Ethiopia by the Muslims. It was filled with despicable villains, brave heroes (especially Hal Courtney), tantalizing women, and swashbuckling action. I would give this one a high recommendation if you enjoy action and historical fiction.
—Frank
As usual (not really by choice), I'm starting in the middle of the series - everything still makes sense and you don't feel like you're missing anything.I loved this book for a few reason. It's well written, there is ALWAYS something going on (no time to get bored), most of it takes place on a boat (never realized how much I love 'boat' stories), it also covers a little of the Southern part of Africa (which just takes me back 'home' - with all the wild life, etc.), and the characters are interesting. So ya... awesome book! Worth reading.This covers the Dutch, English and Southern Africa history...and throw some Muslims in there...with the British looking the best...lol...
—Farhana Faruq
