Warlock by Wilbur Smith

Background

Warlock is one of the books from Wilbur Smith’s ‘Egyptian Series, historical fiction series based in the land of the ancient Pharaohs

Synopsis

After the death of his beloved Queen, Taita performs the rites of burial for her. Then, stricken with grief, he retreats into the desert and becomes a hermit. Over the years he devotes himself to the study of the mysteries of the occult until, armed with these extraordinary powers, he gradually transforms himself into the Warlock.

Now Taita answers the calling from beyond and leaves the desert vastness to returns to the world of men, finding himself plunged into a terrible conflict against the forces of evil which threaten to overwhelm the throne and the realm of Egypt, and to destroy the young prince Nefer, who is the grandson of Queen Lostris.

Review

There is no getting away with the fact that Wilbur Smith is a great wordsmith and story teller, but this book fell short of the mark for me.

The characters are all well formed to a point where you cheer the heroes on and the plot is woven well to maintain pace, in what is a lengthy novel (over 500 pages) and at times the imagery conjured up by smith is second to none, but it still left me feeling underwhelmed. 

For me smith at times seemed to go too far with areas of gratuitous and sexual violence, seaming to dwell too long over the detail of the event and thus distracting from the impact that the event would have had otherwise. Yes there are times when something needs to have more time spent over its telling and there are times when enough is enough and, in my opinion, Smith crossed that line to many times in Warlock

I can see why this book has, generally, such a high rating, but for me – it misses the mark.

Rating

I give this book 5.5 out of 10, a bit over the top at times

The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler (With Jack Du Brul)

Background

From the Oregon Files novels based on the larger than life Juan Cabrillo and his more than capable private secret service organization called 'the Corporation'. The corporation are based on the Oregon, which looks to be a rusty old tramp steamer sailing the seas but in reality it is an extraordinarily sophisticated intelligence-gathering vessel with luxury facilities and top of the line technical capabilities and a match for almost all other vessels out there.

Synopsis

December, 1941. Four brothers investigate the secrets of a treasure pit on a small island in the Pacific. but a sudden death and the events at Pearl Harbour allow its secrets to lie forgotten . . .

Moving on to the present day, and Juan Cabrillo and the Oregon team have been sent to locate the remains of a crashed satellite in the Argentine jungle. While there and coming under attack, they make a mysterious discovery which sends them to the small Pacific island. There, they discover the deadly secrets of an ancient Chinese expedition - by the lost ship The Silent Sea and the curse surrounding it.

Now Juan Cabrillo and his team are in a race against time to find the remains of The Silent Sea, as there will be terrible consequences if someone else finds it first . . .

Review

This is part of a series of books based around the Oregon and its crew, and not reading any of the earlier books leave one not sure if you can just pick it up and enjoy for the novels sake. For the Silent Sea I would say you can, as you read you get the sense that there is more depth to the main characters than you initially pick up on, and to those that have read any of the earlier books, this will not be a problem, and even for those that are new to the series it doesn’t take long for the principal charters to be rounded within your imagination.

As for the plot, it starts in three different places/times and with three different sets of characters, even telling what could be described as a short story in its own right, but then the plots converge into what can be best described as a good old fashioned adventure yarn that has no problem keeping you hooked.

Even taking into account the ever increasing capabilities and skills of Juan and the rest of the crew of the Oregon, the writer’s skill at this type of tale is enough to help you suspend your scepticism and not put the book down until the telling is done.

I’ll be defiantly looking at other Clive Cussler novels.

Rating

I give this book 8 out of 10, really enjoyed this yarn