Monsoon

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: Second chronologically in the Courtney family saga, Monsoon covers Hal Courtney and his sons' efforts to end the scourge of piracy plaguing the East India Company, and their inexorable, inevitable removal from an England too small and too meager to hold the family's talents, abilities, and personalities, to a colonial future in the Cape Colony.

The multipolar world of southern and eastern Africa, its long-established power dynamics, and the astounding riches of India, south Asia, and Arabia, are all economically and still excitingly delineated by the Courtney family's arrival and conquest of and by this gigantic, extraordinary prize they seek. Their family dynamic, a violent and competitive and bitter show more one, is brought to several surprisingly exciting climaxes...it's not like one can't see the events coming, but Smith's ability to tell a tale is such that the inevitable feels like a shipwreck in progress.

After an amazing set of adventures in the clutches of people whose self-interest marches against the Courtneys', the family's future is firmly established and their connection to Africa becomes, by the dawn of the 18th Century, unbreakable.

My Review: Of all the Courtney family saga, this book reigns supreme in my affections. Hal's sons are a quarrelsome, angry, fascinating lot, and their well-roundedness makes even their worst traits and meanest actions feel real, comprehensible, and emotionally powerful.

I've read Wilbur Smith books since I was eleven, and I've only seldom felt let down. This book was not, in any way at all, a let-down. It was as violent as the monsoon it takes its name from, and still, like that monsoon, it gave life and comfort to its recipients. Powerfully imagined, powerfully written, passionate and real and engrossing. Don't miss it. show less

I finished just over half and then passed this book to a charity shop.

Not badly written and with believable characters, but very predictable. Stuck on a desert island and with no other books I'd have finished it, but I have better books unread, so it was time to move on.

If you are looking for historical adventures on a grand scale, you could go farther and fare worse than one of the books in this series.

This is the second, chronologically speaking, in the Courtney Family series by Wilbur Smith. And like its predecessor, Bird's of Prey, it is a lengthy, testosterone laden, action adventure of pure escapism. In this installment, the heroes embark on a swashbuckling voyage from England to the eastern coasts of Africa and back. And then back again. Smith takes you from one adventure to the next with settings as majestic as the vast Middle Eastern deserts, lush English and African countryside and the open seas filled with Arabian pirates. Heads are lopped off, men are taken prisoner and women are seduced. All the things Wilbur Smith does with the best of them.

Another fun read. I think Smith is starting to repeat himself, though. The sense of deja vue was pervasive. Good read, though. I'm ready for the next one.

Good book with great sweep of geography and history, and with the stories of piracy in the Indian Ocean, still relevant.

Saga of the Courtney families fortunes set in Africa. Set around the Islands of Zanzibar, I enjoyed the historical seafaring adventure as a summer read.

My first and best loved of all the Wilbur Smitth books I've read. A beautiful and thrilling adventure.