Rating: 
Summary: Grand adventure at it's grandest!
Review: A top notch adventure from a top notch author, Birds of Prey is undoubtably a superb epic. Sure the sex scenes can seem overdone, but who cares? The entire story cackles with energy and escapism with grand action sequences that have rarely been as vivid. It is cliche-clogged and sometimes predictable, but to tell you the truth, if I wanted to read a literary suspense novel I would have picked Frederick Forsyth or Nelson Demille. What I expected from Birds of Prey was mind blowing action and a fast paced book, both of which exceeded expectaions. Chronologically the first in Smith's prolific Courtney series (for now atleast), the book opens by introducing us to Hal and Francis Courtney, son and father, one a growing man and the other an accomplished privateer. After that, the duo and their crew spot a dutch ship carrying potentially tremendous cargo, and the reader is then treated to an epic action-fest journey like never seen before. Duels to the death, explosive jail breaks, wild animal hunting, battles with pirates, religious warfare, non-religious warfare, ancient relics, astrological prophecies, torture chambers, lakes filled with writhing crocodiles, fights with lion herds, explorations into the unknown african wilderness, confrontations with ancient tribes, christian empires, muslim armies and MUCH more shape this epic, filled with almost ridiculous acts of courage and skill by the protoganists, though tremendously enjoyable too. Much to the reader's pleasure, the good guys laugh at impossible odds and dispatch them with almost as much ease and for those looking for some action, this story is a definite must. The tale is primarily about Hal's journey from teenage to manhood and about how he becomes a great warrior. He's charismatic, the best fighter alive, a natutral leader, he never turns away from his duty, no obstacle can hold him back and the rest of his characteristics are just about anything you can attribute to the classic good guy. The tale is of course also choke-full of utterly hateable villains. Colonel Schreuder the master swordsman who has never lost a fight, The Buzzard the cunning and greedy pirate, Slow John the almost inhuman yellow eyed executioner, Sam Bowles the cowardly traitor, Van De Velde the obese governor of Good Hope, Katinka the sexy and sadistic wife of the governor and lots more constantly face the protoganists for some reason or the other. One thing that I should emphazize is that this is not a tale about just sailors and pirates. Though a huge part is full of sea battles, a chunky portion of the action also takes place on land too and to classify this as sea adventure would be a gross inaccuracy. And talking of accuracy, whether some people are obliged to admit it or not, Smith has undertaken some heavy research on this book. It is totally unfair to say that this book is not well researched just because he got a technical term wrong about a 17th century ship according to a reviewer. From geographical locations like Trincomalee and Elephant Lagoon to the information about African wildlife, Smith has done his homework before penning this tale, and despite some faults, has managed to do a commendable job. Overall, if you want great literature with three dimensional characters who teach you something about the morals of life, you would be better of with something else. If you just want to sit back, relax and read an action-packed adventure epic like a mega-budget summer blockbuster, Birds of Prey will definitely rank among your favourites.
Rating: 
Summary: delivers another power packed punch
Review: following the story of this family is fabulous:
swashbuckeling, pirates, ships, a little history, steamy romance - who said pirates are only for guys? I love this series and can't wait to read more! As for this book: great.
Rating:
Summary: Great Adventure
Review: Hal Courteney is still being trained to the ways of the sea. When his father, Sir Francis Courteney, is captured, tortured and killed by greed and betrayal, Hal is left in command of the few surviving crewmembers. Somehow Hal has to escape from captivity and regain his birthright, provide for his men, and fulfill the debt that he owes to those responsible for the destruction of his father. Swashbuckling adventure. I can see Errol Flynn's sword flashing through these pages. - Recommended to me by a nephew, it's good to see that good taste in reading has been passed down the family.
Rating:
Summary: Great Adventure
Review: Hal Courteney is still being trained to the ways of the sea. When his father, Sir Francis Courteney, is captured, tortured and killed by greed and betrayal, Hal is left in command of the few surviving crewmembers. Somehow Hal has to escape from captivity and regain his birthright, provide for his men, and fulfill the debt that he owes to those responsible for the destruction of his father. Swashbuckling adventure. I can see Errol Flynn's sword flashing through these pages. - Recommended to me by a nephew, it's good to see that good taste in reading has been passed down the family.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorites
Review: I have always been a Jeffery Archer fan, (Kan & Able, Prodigal Daughter, As the Crow Flies) until I was introduced to Wilbur Smith. Birds of Prey is a classic novel. It is well written, suspenseful and has quite a bit of history incorporated into this novel. You won't want to put it down!
Rating:
Summary: A good book- although I COULD put it down
Review: I have enjoyed several of Wilbur Smith's books and chose to read Birds of Prey based on its reviews. There were parts of the story that I enjoyed but I found some of the graphic sex scenes to be disturbing and totally unnecessary to the plot. Smith went into such detail during some events of the story (like the weird sex scenes) and yet the last part of the story seemed to be rushed through. I found myself interested in the story but not dying to know what was going to happen next (like I felt while reading some of Smith's other books like The Seventh Scroll and River God.) Wilbur Smith is an excellent author and I will probably read Monsoon which is the continuation of Birds of Prey. I hope to be swept up in the adventure and NOT able to put THAT one down.
Rating:
Summary: A good book- although I COULD put it down
Review: I have enjoyed several of Wilbur Smith's books and chose to read Birds of Prey based on its reviews. There were parts of the story that I enjoyed but I found some of the graphic sex scenes to be disturbing and totally unnecessary to the plot. Smith went into such detail during some events of the story (like the weird sex scenes) and yet the last part of the story seemed to be rushed through. I found myself interested in the story but not dying to know what was going to happen next (like I felt while reading some of Smith's other books like The Seventh Scroll and River God.) Wilbur Smith is an excellent author and I will probably read Monsoon which is the continuation of Birds of Prey. I hope to be swept up in the adventure and NOT able to put THAT one down.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It's not the type of book I usually read, but it was recommended to me by my brother. I found it to be very fast paced and exciting. You follow the hero (Hal) on his seafaring adventures set in the mid 1600s. It gives great insight as to what life in this period was like and so makes for a fascinating read. It has great battle scenes, heartbreaking torture, and a good amount of lust! The only thing I found slightly tedious were the constant references to the ship's construction and operation. It would have been really interesting, if you knew what they were talking about. They should definitely have included a little diagram of a ship with all of the parts labeled. I bought this book for my ocean loving brother-in-law and am sure he'll love it. I thought it was very well written and would recommend it, especially for the guys out there who like history and stories of the pirate days.
Rating: 
Summary: Pirate Blather
Review: If you spend enough time browsing around in bookstores you learn a few things. A pretty obvious one is this: if a novel has a very lurid cover and only a very few positive blurbs on the inside cover, it is probably not very good. But some indicators are a little more subtle. For example, if you come across a prolific author you've never heard of, yet one who writes in a genre for which you are constantly on the alert . . . well, this is usually a very bad sign. One should heed such signs. Too bad for me, I didn't.
It is a pirate story, which probably explains my lack of caution. How can one resist colorful rogues, cutlasses, shipboard battles, hidden treasure? Of course, most of us can't. Which is why so many of them are published, and why there are so few good ones.
In this one the pirates are English privateers, plying their trade off the coast of southern Africa and looking for rich Dutchmen. The captain is Sir Francis Courtenay, a pious and stern taskmaster. Along with him is his son, Hal, the youthful protégé. They are the good guys of the book, the ones we are supposed to root for. Except it is a little hard to do so. We are told that the captain is brave, strong, and smart, and loved by his men. But in reality, he comes across as school-marmish, a bespectacled, bewildered victim. The son is also supposed to invoke our admiration, with his handsome virility and strength. But he comes across as a loutish blockhead; the Beverly Hillbilly Jethro with a pirate costume.
The bad guys are really, really bad. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. What is worse is that the author stacks the deck against them. One of the more despicable characters, walking into a room, is described as, "smarming" into it. As he is portrayed from beginning to end as the practical embodiment of evil incarnate, is this really necessary? The lead female bad-guy is a vicious, sadistic bisexual, who taunts sailors on an approaching ship by flaunting her bare breasts at them! As she happens to be the wife of the governor of the Dutch colony in 1667 South Africa--1667--this is not only unbelievable, but ridiculous.
The dialogue is awful. Everyone speaks to each other in blunt, un-nuanced banalities. The hero's girlfriend can't walk near him without telling him how wonderful he is. "'Where did you learn to please a girl, so?' Sukeena asked breathlessly." His response: "'Tis simply that we fit together so perfectly. My special places were meant to touch your special places.'" You almost want to retch. Enemies, whether the good guys or the bad guys, taunt each other mercilessly at every opportunity, like nasty children on a playground. Here is the less-than-inspiring bit of dialogue between the hero and his mortal enemy, shortly after the start of their climactic sword fight: "'First blood is mine, I think, sir?' 'It was sir,' Hal conceded. 'But whose will be the last?'" This is the best he can come up with? What a simpleton.
What is really frustrating is that there are occasional fragments of good writing, particularly when the author describes the African landscape and its wild denizens. A hippopotamus, angered by their riverboat, charges them: "The hippo was moving along the bottom in a slow dreamlike gallop, clouds of mud boiling up under her hooves." Here is a description of a water buffalo, sensing danger from an unseen hunter: " . . . He stopped and raised his huge black head. As he lifted his muzzle to test the air, his nose was wet and shining, and water drooled from his mouth." These kinds of things are very engaging.
But alas, the book is primarily about humans. Humans who are pirates, to be sure, who fight on the high seas, who are captured and tortured, and who trek across wild Africa. But they are to a person a dull, insipid, witless lot, and by the end you realize that despite their adventures, they were really not much fun to hang around with at all. [...]
Rating:
Summary: Texas Reader
Review: This book was great. The action was good and the characterization superior. One really cares about the characters. I can hardly wait to read more!
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