Rating: 
Summary: Sunbird basically substandard.
Review: I love Wilbur Smith's novels, but this one must have been a high-school project that he resurrected for some immediate cashflow. The literary device for the transition from modern to ancient settings was clumsy, and much in both halves was just not plausible. The story had potential, but it was not realized.
Rating:
Summary: Sunbird, with racial overtones
Review: I read The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith first when I was 14. Little did I realize the racial overtomes it has! Having read it again, (at 41) I was appalled at the blatant racial bigotry. This book is most likely what any apartheid supporter would love to see be reality. Back when Great Zimbabwe was being said to be built by Whites, Black Africans assumed to have been too ignorant and unintelligent to have built it, scientists were beginning to prove that Black Africans did indeed build Great Zimbabwe. This book, in which a White South African finds a hidden city that is proven to be as big as Great Zimbabwe is and is proven to be built by Whites, is just the sort of fantasy dream many Whites would have wished could have happened. The archaeologist, Ben Kazin, proves "once and for all" that Whites were the builders of the great cities of Africa. The story, finding a hidden and lost city and the fall back into time that came with it, would have been great, had there not been this not-so-hidden agenda of trying to prove that Whites are superior to Blacks. That agenda disgusted me in the extreme and makes reading this book unpalatable for me. If Wilbur Smith had written it as just an Indiana Jones type of story, of finding a hidden city and how the finders dreamed back into time and actually lived the final days, this would have been a great book as well as a great movie. Sadly, for anyone that is reasonably educated on the ancient and recent history of Africa, I would not recommend this book. It would only make you angry. Too bad Wilbur Smith allowed his own prejudices to mar what could have been a really great story!
Rating:
Summary: Worst book *ever*
Review: I wasn't expecting a whole lot when I started, W. Smith's other Egyptian related books weren't too historicaly accurate, and truely the only reason I picked it up was becuase the back said "Egyptian city of Opet." Now the Egyptians did have a city named Opet but the only mention of Egyptians related to the City of the Moon was the chalice. W. Smith takes his time and takes near forever to determine that you are not in London or elsewhere in England but in fact in S. Africa. I did like once you acutaly got to the "historical" viewpoint of the book but the rest was overly predicatable and many avenues never lead anywhere. Oh and don't get me started with how it ended (although it was inventive) You seriously need to be a devote fan of W. Smith to make it through this book (or a desperate reader)
Rating:
Summary: Only Wilbur Smith book I could not finish
Review: I've read several WS books but by the time I got to the second half of the book, I gave up. The story went nowhere.
Suggest the Seventh Scroll or Birds of Prey, much better.
Rating:
Summary: Only Wilbur Smith book I could not finish
Review: I've read several WS books but by the time I got to the second half of the book, I gave up. The story went nowhere.
Suggest the Seventh Scroll or Birds of Prey, much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Read!
Review: I've read this book several times since the 70's and recenly my daughter read my old copy. The back cover has fallen off and I will be replacing the copy with a new one. We enjoyed the way the story splits into two separate but connected books.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie and entertaining
Review: I've recently re-read "The Sunbird" after many years, and found it just as terrific a read as ever. Without giving away any plot points, what got me the first time still gets me, the well-executed parallel stories, modern and ancient. The charge of racism voiced by several reviewers is perhaps understandable, but one has to keep in mind that the book was written at a time (the late 1960s) when the kinds of events described in the "modern" section of the story (tribal Africans taking up arms against descendants of white colonists) were common. I didn't find Timothy Mageba a one-dimensional caricature, but a complex and conflicted man who finds it necessary to sacrifice personal loyalties for what he believes is a larger good. Anyway, I don't want to make the book sound like a Poli Sci text, it's a fast, entertaining read, full of intrigue and romance, and eerie enough to make your hair stand up a little at times. Worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie and entertaining
Review: I've recently re-read "The Sunbird" after many years, and found it just as terrific a read as ever. Without giving away any plot points, what got me the first time still gets me, the well-executed parallel stories, modern and ancient. The charge of racism voiced by several reviewers is perhaps understandable, but one has to keep in mind that the book was written at a time (the late 1960s) when the kinds of events described in the "modern" section of the story (tribal Africans taking up arms against descendants of white colonists) were common. I didn't find Timothy Mageba a one-dimensional caricature, but a complex and conflicted man who finds it necessary to sacrifice personal loyalties for what he believes is a larger good. Anyway, I don't want to make the book sound like a Poli Sci text, it's a fast, entertaining read, full of intrigue and romance, and eerie enough to make your hair stand up a little at times. Worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie and entertaining
Review: I've recently re-read "The Sunbird" after many years, and found it just as terrific a read as ever. Without giving away any plot points, what got me the first time still gets me, the well-executed parallel stories, modern and ancient. The charge of racism voiced by several reviewers is perhaps understandable, but one has to keep in mind that the book was written at a time (the late 1960s) when the kinds of events described in the "modern" section of the story (tribal Africans taking up arms against descendants of white colonists) were common. I didn't find Timothy Mageba a one-dimensional caricature, but a complex and conflicted man who finds it necessary to sacrifice personal loyalties for what he believes is a larger good. Anyway, I don't want to make the book sound like a Poli Sci text, it's a fast, entertaining read, full of intrigue and romance, and eerie enough to make your hair stand up a little at times. Worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: The first of all his books
Review: No exaggeration ! I have read absolutely everthing Wibur Smith has written. Sunbird was the first. I loved it from the first. It's not for the fussy ones who don't like superlatives - like the reviewer who wrote he would not read any other books of Mr. Smith's. My second favorite is "Rage of the sea" which I have read so many times I have lost count. Its strong, boisterous, sweeping and very easy to read. I'm glad for all you new readers that it's still in print cos' my copy is more than 20 years old, in fact 28 printed in 1972.Enjoy.
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