Rating: 
Summary: IGNORE THE COVER
Review: The two near-collision planes have nothing to do with the story! I almost didn't read the book because I'm not really interested in military stories, but a friend recommended it so highly, I took it home and spent the whole weekend immersed in this enthralling adventure.Modern archeologists are excavating the site of a ruined city in Africa and as they uncover artifacts (vaguely similar to Carthage) they are drawn into, and become, the people who inhabited this mysterious city which vanished centuries ago. Could it be reincarnation? Is that what helped them uncover this city? Whatever the reason, this was a fascinating exploration of an extinct culture and a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, awfully written
Review: This book contains an excellent story based on a very clever idea (the parallel lives). However, this book reads like a cheap romance novel at times, one of the lead characters is extremely handsome and brave and strong and .... Another is an extremely beautiful woman, the other a phyisically deformed genius. Some of the dialogue made me wince - the constant references to the Lo's handsome features, the constant references to doctor Kazin's intelligence. I will definitely not read any other of Wilbur Smith's books!
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best adventure novel I've ever read!
Review: This book has so much excitement and adventure packed
into it that in the hands of a lesser author it would have been
expanded into a trilogy. The vivid writing brings Africa alive:
the reader can feel the hot sun and the cool lake waters,
smell the dust and grasss, and hear calls of seabirds as
well as thunderous war chants and gunfire. I have probably
read it 20 times and have four separate editions of it, so I am a fan. Please keep in mind that it does have flaws, but
you will look long and far for a more exciting book ... if you ever find one.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable but engrossing
Review: This book should be purchased with an eye toward Wilbur Smith's strengths as a writer and not as a literary piece. Smith's works are entertaining and adverterous, but little else. His characters are fully developed, but hardly plausible, as well the plots in his book. Think of his writing as a fun trip to an amusement park like Disneyland. The "Pirates of the Caribean" was not intended to be believed, but simply to entertain the imagination. Little more than an afternoon spent escaping reality. So too, this book.
Rating:
Summary: an adventurous story of a lost city
Review: This is a book about an archaeologist, Dr. Ben Kazin, who has been looking for a lost city all his life. It all starts when his friend and boss, Louren Stuvesent, shows a picture of he faint outline of something that looks like a city. So Ben along with his lovely assistant, Sally Benator, and his friend Louren, Venture out to the Bushvelt of South Africa. As the story goes along Ben and Sally find more and more little discoveries that lead to much bigger ones. Along the way Ben Kazin meets new people one of which is a small Bushman named Xhai. He also meets a few Terrorists along the way that threaten his life. In this book I learned lots of new things about Africa, mainly the Bushvelt. The author describes the landscapes of the Bushvelt in amazing ways. He describes many different animals such as the Gemsbok and the Eland. There are also descriptions of the surrounding cities and archaeological points of interest near Ben's lost city. The author also describes cities that still thrive to this day like the country of Johannesburg and the city of Cape Town which are located in South Africa. I would recommend this book to people who like fiction, adventure, danger, and history. I would also recommend this book to experienced readers not little kids. This is a book I know many people will enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: If you ever wondered why Mandela was kept in jail so long ..
Review: This is a vile book on several levels....P>The characters are completely implausible. They do not possess ordinary human qualities. Instead, they are extraordinary! Just top-flight people! Dr. Ben Kazin speaks 17 languages. He teaches himself ancient Punic in a week, with nothing except a scroll to instruct himself with. He gives a series of lectures at a university. A dozen people attend the first, 600 the last. Why? Because he's just such an incredible guy. Although he is depicted as being a scrawny hunchback, he nearly overpowers half a dozen terrorists single-handedly in hand-to-hand combat. Lauren Sturtevant is also a remarkable guy. Mostly he's jetting about the world, doing deals and making killings. When he isn't doing that, he's usually killing things out in the bush, or scoring with chicks....P>A big problem is that we have to take Smith's word on how great these people are. He will say that one character devastates another with a display of dazzling wit. Rarely, Smith attempts to show us what he means by including the characters' dialog. Invariably, what they say isn't dazzling or witty--just crude and stupid. And the main characters always respond with furious anger, eyes flashing, muscles tensing, etc, whenever anyone disagrees with them. What's with that? Smith believes that the way to make characters memorable is by means of magnitude. Take a trait, and just magnify it. If a little is good, a lot must be really great. An unintended effect of this method, in Smith's hands, is to make all of his main characters insufferably pompous. Smith also is a great believer in drama. The Sunbird is a series of scores of mini-dramas. Most are dead-ends, having little to do with the story--such as it is. An earlier reviewer remarked that the book cover illustration is misleading. He's right. I had to think for a couple minutes before I remembered the bit in the story with the airplanes. The worst part of reading the Sunbird is being inside the head of the narrator--Dr. Ben Kazin. A vain, disgusting, foul man. I cheered when Part One was over. Only then I was in the head of Huy Ben Amon, which may have been worse. The bit about Mandela. The book was written in 1972. Part One is about the "discovery" of an ancient city. The ANC war against apartheid is a theme. Part II is a flashback to the last days of this supposed ancient kingdom. Smith has the ancient Carthaginians, whom he inaccurately portrays as being white, setting up this huge empire in Southern Africa. They are swept into oblivion by a remorseless, tidal wave of black Africans. Get it? Just like how the '70s must have seemed to hardline Afrikaaners like Smith. In both eras, the blacks are led by another extraordinary human being--except that this one has purplish skin and yellow, smouldering eyes. Smith was definitely cheerleading for apartheid. I loved the book when I read it at 15. It looks pretty horrible to me now.
Rating:
Summary: Best Smith everything to date
Review: This is by far the best Smith novel I have read - comparing it to the likes of " The River God, Seventh Scroll etc." Right from the word go, Smith's style captivates me. Judging from the detailed sketch of the country this epic takeks place in, he knows how to do his research down to the lats grain of dust. I'm free to say this as the country he writes about is my own country(Botswana) for those of you who have not read it. This is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: This is Smith's best book
Review: This is my favorite Wilbur Smith book, bar none. The story is enchanting, the characters wholly believable, their struggles utterly convincing, and Smith's signature gift for drama and subtle humor interlaces each page. I finished the book reluctantly, hoping that somewhere down the line Smith would provide us perhaps with the early adventures of my new friend, Huy Ben-Amon
Rating:
Summary: What an incredible read....
Review: This is really two books in one. The first is an excellent story of the discovery of an ancient lost city and the mystery that surrounds it's demise. There are three main characters. The archeologist, his assistant and his best friend. The assistant of course is a beautiful and intelligent woman. The men vie for her charms. The second story goes back to the days of ancient Africa. The the last years of the city. This time there are four main characters. The king, the high priest, the oracle and the barbarian king. The characters in the first story are looslely associated with the characters in the second story. Anyway, what an excellent book. I have been reading an average of 125 to 150 pages per day. It's a real page turner.
| 
