Wilbur Smith - Monsoon and other great books

I just finished reading Wilbur Smith’s Monsoon, for the third time. Everytime I read one of his books, I literally experience a time warp, either watching one of the Courtneys shouting down “Belay the end, lad!” at his deck or looking up at Taita, the greatest of the Warlords, with awe! Having just finished the book, the images of Dorian Courtney dropping his Scimitar against Tom’s majestic Blue sword or Aboli watching Zama/Tulu are still dancing before my eyes. What can I say? Wilbur Smith’s characters always leave such a lasting impression! Unlike any of the lifeless characters you might have come across, Wilbur Smith has a way of making his characters extremely colorful and likeable. I agree he always depicts his heroes as macho men - battling with slavers and pirates & capturing the enormous treasure from them, killing mammoth elephants for the ivory, fighting successfully the perils of sea, adept at sword fighting and languages, seducing damsels…but I like them this way

“Monsoon” picks up from where “Birds of prey” left (you don’t have to read them in order for the story to make sense). It tells the story of Courtney brothers Tom/Dorian/Guy and their adventures, especially Tom & Dorian. Hal Courtney, son of Sir Francis Courtney and father of the Courtney brothers I mentioned, is assigned the task of capturing, either alive or dead, Jahangir a.k.a Al-auf, the bad one, who is terrorizing the East India company’s trading ships. Hal sets sail with Tom,Guy and Dorian along with his faithful mates, Aboli/Ned Tyler and Big Daniel. They find al-auf, but during the fight, Dorian gets taken by Arabs. In an effort to save him, Hal Courtney loses his legs. Tom gets Hal back to England, where he succumbs to his injuries. Tom has a fight with William (his step-brother) and kills him accidentaly. If you are still with me, you should go and buy the book. I am not going to let this post being a big spoiler. Mind you, this book is a big one, may take couple of days to finish, but I assure you, it will make a great read. Personally I felt, near the end, the book is kinda rushed - probably Wilbur Smith had to cut down some chapters because of publishing constraints, but an entertaining book throughout.

My favorites in Wilbur Smith’s books are his Egyptian novels - River God, Seventh Scroll & Warlock. The ways of ancient Egypt, their customs & beliefs, the way their lives are entangled with the Great Nile, the treasures they accumulate for the tomb, the wars they wage - Simply amazing! Makes you wish you were born at that time. Who knows? may be, I was Taita in my previous Janma

WS has released a new book - The Quest. This got released just 2 weeks back (Mar 14th/2007), in South Africa. I am not sure when it is going to hit the stands here in India, but one thing I know is I am going to pre-order it today in Amazon