The Triumph of the Sun

 

By Wilbur Smith
4 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

This book was given to me by a family friend. I had not heard of this particular author beforehand. Before I get into the review, I will advise any of my readers that this book contains a lot of graphic violence and graphic sex scenes. I would label the sex scenes as erotic (by my own definition) in nature. I would not go so far as to call them porno/smut. I did not know that going in. I would not have read it knowing that.

The main characters are Rebecca Benbrook: young, beautiful, intelligent, and responsible beyond her years; however, when it comes to men, she’s naive and stupid. Penrod Balantyne: young soldier, courageous, dashing, handsome, but he’s a man-whore. Emir Osman Atalan: the main villain, courageous, handsome, intelligent, absolutely ruthless. There are four more characters of slightly lesser importance that I will mention. Ryder Courtney: a merchant, courageous, handsome, intelligent, rich, but a little bit boring. The twins Saffron and Amber Benbrook are younger sisters. They mature through the course of the book. Finally, the Mahdi: a religious leader who unites the warring tribes of Sudan in rebellion. There are many other important characters throughout the book, but everything revolves around the ones I’ve mentioned. 

The book begins with the siege of Khartoum in 1884 and flows from there. This book is very well written. The descriptions were excellent, although in a few places near the beginning, I felt they dragged a bit. Maybe I’m just an impatient reader, but I did have to fight the urge to skip ahead through some of it. After one of the sex scenes, I wasn’t far from putting it down and not picking it back up. Everything you would expect in a well-written novel was there, though. The characters were complex and, for the most part, believable. The action scenes were riveting. There was foreshadowing, symbolism, and parallels, and it all made sense. I found the climax a little predictable, but the ending was satisfying. My star deduction in the rating is based on the writing itself, not the graphic depictions that some may disapprove of. Some people enjoy that in a book.

One small thing baffles me. There is a minor character toward the end of the book that is a part of a family where all the men are handsome and the women beautiful, but for some reason, it’s pointed out a couple of times that he is butt-ugly. It stood out so starkly, and I’m not sure why the author did that.

The Fist of God

 

By Frederick Forsyth
5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

I would have to consider myself a fan of Frederick Forsyth. This is the sixth of his novels that I have read, and I haven’t been disappointed in any way in any of them.

The book is set during the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Desert Shield, and the beginning of Desert Storm. The premise of the book is that Saddam Hussein has built a Weapon of Mass Destruction that Iraq has code-named The Fist of God. It is a top-secret program that almost managed to escape the Allies' attention. There is a race against time to identify, locate, and destroy the threat. The consequences are enormous.

Through most of the book, Major Mike Martin of the SAS does the heavy lifting. He is borrowed by the intelligence people to work inside first Kuwait, then Iraq. The allies have a wild-card-type spy on the inside. They don’t actually know who he is, and neither do we. There is a twist at the end of the story that completely blindsided me.

Great book, highly recommended.

The Dogs of War

 

By Frederick Forsyth
5 Stars
Action/Adventure/Suspense
Adult

I read this book when I was in high school and absolutely loved it. Became a bit of a fan of the author. My kids learned about this while we were discussing different authors that I liked when I was growing up. My daughter found a copy in the used bookstore in town and decided I should have my own personal copy. This review is based on my reread.

Cat Shannon is a mercenary leader who finds a job for himself and his band of mercenaries. They are hired to overthrow the government of a small African country so that his client can gain mining rights and favour from the installed regime. The clients motivation is of course greed and the mercenaries need money as well. The author draws the reader in and you will end up cheering for these guys. The story ends with a twist and it is quite satisfying. My second time through, I knew what was coming and looked for all the little clues along the way. A great read both times but the ending hit me completely differently the second time around.

I saw the movie made from this book and didn’t like it at all. Christopher Walken played Cat Shannon and he is not what I envisioned the character to be. No disrespect to his acting but I think he was miscast. For me the book is highly recommended but the movie is not. 

 

Nala's World

 

By Dean Nicholson with Garry Jenkins

5 Stars

Non-Fiction/Adventure

Adult 

We found this book in the Sackville, New Brunswick, book exchange box and took it home with us. Nala is a cat, and the book is basically the story of how this long-distance bicycle traveler found her and adopted her. They have been touring the world together ever since, raising money for animal shelters and the like. They can be followed on their YouTube channel 1bike1world and their Instagram account @1bike1world. I do follow them myself. You can subscribe to their community at https://www.1bike1world.com/community. There is a cost.

The initial appeal of the story to me is that I have traveled by bicycle myself and would love to be doing it again. I won’t list my excuses here. Reading about it is quite enjoyable. I can sit and exchange stories with fellow riders for hours. I also grew up with cats. 

The author meets an abandoned kitten while cycling in Bosnia and takes it with him. He names her Nala and then goes through the adventure of learning how to care for her and take care of the paperwork involved with traveling with a pet and crossing international borders. The story became an Internet phenomenon, and they’ve been able to contribute a great deal to animal shelters along the way. It’s a feel-good story, and I quite enjoyed it.

The Journey - A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

By Robert Coulter

5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

For me, this is an important historical work as I have been a Sabbath-keeping Christian for more than fifty years. The subject matter is something I have studied in the past, and when I became aware of this book, I sought it out and bought my own copy. Once it was delivered, I read it cover to cover.

Other works that I have read on the subject are: “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by Richard C. Nickels, “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by John Kiesz, “A History of the True Church” by Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, “The Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong Volumes I and II. In addition, I have listened to a number of sermons touching on the subject as well as some lectures while I attended Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, back in the 1980s. Most of these works can be obtained online for anyone interested. I got free PDF files of all except the Autobiography, which I have in hard copy.

For a reference work, I found this quite easy to read. That is not the case with some of the books in the above paragraph. This is well researched, and it does reference some of the works above. What impressed me the most about it was its simple, logical, chronological organization. I also appreciated the author's efforts at complete honesty on the subject. He is critical of some of the other books, and he supports his points.

One point I’d like to make is that the separate organizations were not as separate as some of the writers seem to indicate. Herbert Armstrong started “flying solo” with the Radio Church of God, but I do recall a high ranking minister in a lecture at college mention that in the early days, when they were traveling, sometimes they would find themselves in an area without a directly affiliated congregation and would sometime visit Church of God Seventh Day congregations and at times deliver sermons while visiting. So I don’t think organizational borders were very rigid. 

This is a valuable reference to anyone within the broader Church of God community and anyone interested in studying the subject.

 

Flight of Eagles

By Jack Higgins

4.5 Stars

Action/Adventure/Suspense

Adult

This is my first written book review in a very long time. I might write an entry in my dormant blog explaining that. It doesn’t belong here. My daughter, knowing that I’m a Jack Higgins fan, found this at the local used book store and brought it home for me. This book is everything you would expect from a Jack Higgins novel. Masterful storytelling and well-written.

We follow Harry and Max Kelso, who are identical twins who follow in the footsteps of their World War I fighter pilot ace father. They are separated as boys, one living in the United States, the other in Germany. They fought on opposite sides during World War II. If that sounds a little corny, don’t worry about it. Higgins handles this well. It doesn’t come off that way.

I grew up completely enamored with airplanes, especially fighter planes and the pilots that flew them. As a writer, I understand “the suspension of disbelief” concept, and as a reader, because of my background, I struggled some with this at the beginning of the book. If you don’t have the background, I have you likely will not notice. The maneuver where a fighter pilot slams the “brakes” to get his opponent to overshoot or even crash, to me, is a trope. I think every fictional fighter pilot I’ve ever read pulls that stunt like it’s somehow genius (okay, Firefox was an exception). I’ll give him a pass on that partly because it is actually a thing. It does have the disadvantage that if your enemy is expecting it you’ve bled off too much energy and now you’re a sitting duck.

I feel I have to dock him a half point for something, though, and as a big fan, I almost feel guilty doing it. Erich (Bubi) Hartmann is a character in the book, and he is completely off on the actual historical person. I’m not sure I understand why. Maybe the personality is perfectly matched, but he was spending his time fighting on the Eastern Front, not working for Himmler. He captures Adolph Galland’s charisma, and he seems to be spot on with all the other historical characters. Higgins did his homework. I can’t help but think this was done on purpose. It is possible they met, and Higgins didn’t like him one bit. Only saying that because there is one ace, who will remain unnamed, who is considered a hero, but as a person, he is not a nice man. I’ve written people I don’t like into villains in my writing. Not saying that that is what is happening. I think we should try to be true to actual history, and I think the character could have been given a different name. Hartmann could have been left out of it.

Without Fail

By Lee Childs

5 Stars

Action/Adventure/Suspense

Adult

I read my first Lee Child/Jack Reacher novel sometime last year. I got it out of the library. I did enjoy the read and in the name of making her pappy happy my daughter kept an eye out for similar books in the used book piles she visits now and then. She found a couple for me and this is the first one that gets my review.

This time around Jack Reacher is actually hired to troubleshoot vice-presidential security by M. E Froelich, who is a former flame of Reacher's dead brother. He has a female helper Neagley and they make a devastating team. Someone is out to assassinate the vice-president and Reacher has to find out who they are and stop them.

The story pulled me in from the very first line. Superbly executed. Child is a bestselling author for a reason. He is good at his craft. I did have to read the ending several times over because I do have a bone to pick there. Neagley is military trained like Reacher and all through the book her competence is highlighted. She ends up inexplicably defenseless in the climax of the story and plays damsel in distress. I see it and I don't see it. I like it and I don't like it. I was tempted to deduct half a star but after rereading it several times, I can't really justify it. Child gets a pass on that and my full recommendation of the book. 

*Amazon link will be added when I can sort out an affiliate agreement with them.