Showing results by author "Wilbur Smith"

Ancient Egypt. Land of the Pharaohs. A kingdom built on gold. A legend shattered by greed. Now the Valley of Kings lies ravaged by war, drained of its lifeblood, as weak men inherit the cherished crown. On the eve of the festival of Osiris, the loyal subjects of the Pharaoh gather in Thebes to pay tribute to their leader.

Exploding with all the passion and rage of a bygone time, River God is a masterpiece of historical writing.

Tom Courtney, one of four sons of master mariner Sir Hal Courtney, once again sets sail on a treacherous journey that will take him across the vast reaches of the ocean and pit him against dangerous enemies in exotic destinations. But just as the winds propel his sails, passion drives his heart. Turning his ship toward the unknown, Tom Courtney will ultimately find his destiny - and lay the future for the Courtney family.

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction. From being attacked by lions to close encounters with deadly reef sharks, from getting lost in the African bush without water to crawling the precarious tunnels of gold mines, from marlin fishing with Lee Marvin to near death from crash-landing a Cessna airplane, from brutal school days to redemption through writing and falling in love, Wilbur Smith tells us the intimate stories of his life that have been the raw material for his fiction.

Paris, 1939. Torn apart by war, Saffron Courtney and Gerhard von Meerbach are thousands of miles apart, both struggling for their lives. Gerhard - despite his objections to the Nazi regime - is fighting for the Fatherland, hoping to one day have the opportunity to rid Germany of Hitler and his cronies. But as his unit is thrown into the hellish attrition of the Battle of Stalingrad, he knows his chances of survival are dwindling by the day....

He saw his father executed in battle. He spent his youth avenging that death. And now Henry "Hal" Courtney is a man with a ship - and a family - of his own. But fate has not finished with Hal. On a voyage along the eastern shore of Africa, a powerful enemy abducts his wife, the fearless warrior Judith...and with her Hal's unborn child.

Into the wilds of Natal in the 1870s are born Sean and Garrick Courtney, the twin brothers who could not be more different. Fate, war and the jealous schemes of a woman are to drive them even further apart. But as history unfolds a continent is awakening. And on its horizon is the promise of fortune, adventure, destiny and love.

After the death of his beloved Queen Lostris, Taita retreats into the forbidding deserts of North Africa to become a hermit. He devotes himself to the study of the occult and, armed with extraordinary powers, he gradually transforms himself into a warlock. After years of study, he discovers the divine purpose of his bereavement when he is called upon to save the dynasty of Lostris from the clouds of evil that loom over Egypt.

It is 1667, and the mighty naval war between the Dutch and the English still rages. Sir Francis Courteney and his son Hal, in their fighting caravel, are on patrol off southern Africa, lying in wait for a treasure-laden galleon of the Dutch East India Company that is returning from the Orient. They have a letter from Charles II sanctioning them to hunt down and capture enemy ships "beyond the line".

As a member of the remarkable Courtney family, Leon Courtney knows how quickly fortunes can be won and lost. Over the course of more than two centuries, generations of his family have risen and fallen with the tides of history. Leon, too, has experienced his own share of triumph and pain. In the wake of his beloved wife's death, the renowned big-game hunter is raising his young daughter, Saffron, alone in colonial Kenya.

Only once in his life had Sean met a man whose strength matched his own – and now, again, they were pitted against each other...' Sean Courtney, impulsive adventurer of When the Lion Feeds returns from the wildnerness a rich man – until he is robbed by the Boers of his wagons, his gold and the girl he loves. A grim homecoming finds his country in the cruel grip of war. But in the bloody days ahead, conflicts within his family will prove far more bitter than any fought on the veld...

Game of Thrones meets Ancient Egypt in this magnificent, action-packed epic. On the gleaming banks of the Nile, the brilliant Taita - slave and advisor to the Pharaoh - finds himself at the center of a vortex of passion, intrigue, and danger. His quest to destroy the Hyksos army and form an alliance with Crete takes him on an epic journey up the Nile, through Arabia and the magical city of Babylon, and across the open seas.

Taita, the pharaoh's advisor and hero of Desert God and River God, once again finds himself caught up in a whirlpool of ruthless intrigue that threatens the very foundations of the beloved empire he has pledged his life to protect. Plunged into dangerous and deadly waters more treacherous than the Nile, he must use his intelligence, alchemy, and cunning to protect his pharaoh and keep safe all he loves.

From the trenches of France, General Sean Courtney comes back to fame, fortune, and a seat in the government. Mark Anders, the courageous young South African whom he has come to regard as his own son, returns to nothing, his grandfather murdered, his property seized by an unknown company. At the bottom of the mystery is Sean's son Dirk, the jealous, violent, and power-crazed genius whose all-consuming hatred can only end in blood.

At the close of Wilbur Smith's best-selling Monsoon, Tom Courtney and his brother, Dorian, battled on the high seas and finally reached the Cape of Good Hope to start life afresh.

In this spellbinding new novel, the next generation of Courtneys are out to stake their claim in Southern Africa, travelling along the infamous "Robber's Road". It is a journey both exciting and hazardous, that takes them through the untouched wilderness of a beautiful land filled with warring tribes and wild animals.

One of the most formidable fighters in the world, ex-SAS warrior and former private security consultant Major Hector Cross has survived explosive tangles with depraved enemies - warlords, pirates, and arms dealers - from the Middle East to the heart of Africa. Now Cross must take the law into his own hands once again to stop a vengeful old enemy who has resurfaced - and hunt down a deadly new nemesis in pursuit of global domination.

Året er 1913, og den tidligere soldat, nu storvildtsjæger, Leon Courtney, er i Britisk Afrika, hvor han fungerer som guide for rige og magtfulde mænd fra Amerika og Europa, som vil på safari i masaiernes territorium. En af hans klienter, den tyske industrimagnat, Grev Otto Von Meerbach, har et blomstrende firma, som bygger flyvemaskiner og køretøjer for den tyske kejsers hær. Leon møder også von Meerbachs smukke uimodståelige elskerinde, Eva, som han bliver dybt og inderligt forelsket i.

In the heart of the African jungle, Bruce Curry is the leader of a mercenary band, with the dubious support of three white officers. His mission is to relieve a mining town cut off by fighting and to retrieve a priceless consignment of diamonds. Ranged against his ill-disciplined unit are bandits, guerillas, and hostile tribes. But there is another, even deadlier enemy: one of his own men.

Manfred De La Ray and Shasa Courtney, sons of Centaine de Thiry, were blood enemies from their very first boyhood encounter. Caught up in the tumult of South Africa's history through two decades, they found themselves adversaries in an age-old war of savagery to seize the sword of power in their land.

In the blinding light of Zimbabwe's Chiwewe National Park, Dr Daniel Armstrong, world-famous TV naturalist, films the slaughter of a herd of elephants. In London, anthropologist Kelly Kinnear is forced into violent confrontation with the shareholders of the most powerful conglomerate in the City of London, warning them of the destruction of an African country.

Danger surounds all those who oppose the ruling elite. But Taita, a wise and formidably gifted enunch slave, begins the dangerous journey towards his glorious dream: to restore the majesty of the Pharaoh of Pharaohs on the glittering banks of the nile.