Wilbur Smith - Blue Horizon

Review by showhost
We go back to the Courtneys of Africa again but this time a lot of the action is on the sea off the Cape of Good Hope in the mid 1700’s. It follows on from ‘Monsoon’ & although it still features Tom Courtney & Dorian Courtney, the main story line are their sons Jim & Mansur.
The adventure starts when Jim Courtney goes aboard a Dutch convict ship to sell their fresh catch of fish. He is surprised to see that the convicts are all emaciated women and one woman in particular takes his eye (obviously she is tall, blond & beautiful) & he manages to secretly get her name – Louisa.
The boat departs the Cape in a storm, the boat flounders & Jim, who had been watching the proceedings, races up on his horse, at the last moment, snatches Louisa from the jaws of the sea, steals a horse from the commander of the troops & rides of into the wilderness. As he is now a wanted man by the military, he has to travel deep into the African wilderness. He is aided and abeted by his father & mother, who then themselves become fugitives for assisting him & they have to secretly leave but aboard their impounded boats. They too are now wanted by the military
Running beside all this we have Dorian Courtney, and Mansur, his son, fighting for their rightful succession to the Elephant Throne in Muscat.
Old enemies, with old scores to settle, feature highly in this swashbuckling adventure as well as new enemies made along the way.

I started to read this and thought, how can I have liked Wilbur Smith, it is all to similar, boy runs off with girl, chased by enemies, gory death scenes and explicit animal hunting but I always get engrossed in it. I can’t stop reading it, I want to get back to read it, I look forward to reading it – how does Wilbur Smith do it!

But in this book I did get irritated with the stupid way that Tom Courtney, that swashbuckling, hard-hitting hunter succumbed to his wife when she ‘put her mind to it’: like carting a harpsichord on a wagon when the Dutch military are after them literally on their heels, “Come up behind me sweeting” Tom leaned out of the saddle to lift her up” I shall whisk you back to the beach and have you on board before you can blink an eye”
I thank you no my own trure heart. I prefer to stay with the wagon, to see that no further mishap befalls my baggage”. I mean what crap!

‘Tom embraced Sarah “by god I’m pleased to see you woman”
Sarah pushed him away, “There’ll be plenty of time for that nonsense later, Tom Courtney. You still have work to do here”.
“Right you are!”
I mean ‘right you are’ what kind of reply is that, its a 'Norbert' kind of reply

This is how one reviewer summed him up: ‘Smith has the gift of a true storyteller, and no matter what you do there is no escape when he starts to tell you a tale. He writes with confidence and eloquence; criticisms of him tend to be that his characters are all stereotyped heroes and villains, maidens in distress or conniving evil harlots… but when you’re reading one of his stories it is irrelevant