The Triumph of the Sun Review

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(More customer reviews)Once again Wilbur Smith confirms his mastery of meticulous historical research coupled with a good old fashioned 'rip-roaring' yarn!
As with his dozens of other tales that span the history of his of his fictional Courtney family, this tale keeps the reader literally on the edge of their seat throughout all 500 plus pages.
As with the other superb books which track over four centuries of the lives, loves and struggles the Courtney clan, Triumph of the Sun is set against the sprawling backdrop of Africa.
This novel covers the adventures of Ryder Courtney and pits him against the fanatical Mahdi and the infamous dervish troops during the long siege of Khartoum defended by the legendary British General Gordon.
In this novel however Courtney's heroics almost pale in comparison to a member of the other fictional family of Smith's African saga's, Captain Penrod Ballantyne.
Ballentyne plays the role of the handsome, dashing, fearless young British officer that was most typified in the swashbuckling films of the 30' and 40's, by Errol Flynn.
The almost Hollywood style love interest is supplied by the beautiful teenage daughter of the British consul general, Rebecca Benbrook. In a neat little package that would have done a Hollywood director proud, Smith also manages to throw two preteen younger sisters, Saffron and Amber, into the mix as well.
As the story weaves in and out to cover the long years of the siege and battles, Smith cleverly develops the pair of young sisters into love interests as we watch them grow up under the most adverse but exciting of conditions.
In the hands of a lesser author, this tale of dashing hero's and winsome maidens in peril could have turned into a hackneyed 'Saturday matinee' of a novel.
But Smith is a master when it come to the historical saga. And although both Ryder and Penrod make escapes from certain death, survive fiendish tortures and rescue fair maidens, Smith spices the mix with liberal doses of really good history and cunningly woven and often shocking detail, so that the reader is truly caught up in the adventure and never bored.
As a matter of fact there is one incident when Penrod is held captive by a dervish prince, who suspects him of treachery, where I actually find myself getting choked up. The dervish decides to expose Perod by torturing in the most gruesome manner imaginable, a poor little slave girl that Penrod has befriended.
For the rest of the novel, I perused the pages with a vengeance, waiting for Penrod to even the score by plunging a saber into the dervish's guts!
It is a powerful writer who can evoke that sort of emotion in a reader, and Smith never disappoints.
I heartily recommend Triumph of the Sun as yet another in Wilbur Smith's long list of triumph's.
Richard S. Wasley "Ric - Author - Shadow of Innocence - coming January 2007 from Kunati" (Boston, MA USA)

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