The Sunbird

Author - Wilbur Smith ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Mass Market Paperback Book item from St. Martin´s Paperbacks was reviewed on 4-Nov-2008.

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1) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks. The Sunbird I´ve read other reviewers who pan this book, calling it unrealistic and saying it promotes white supremacy. I can´t disagree more. I am 66 years old & first read this book when it was a Readers Digest chosen book in the mid Seventies for book of the month club. I was in my thirties then and thought it magical and telling of a story that would be written just as the attitudes of the people were in the century the story would have happened. There is nothing racist intended. I have since read it about every three years, buying newer printed versions as it has come to be such a special book in my heart. I have all of Wilbur Smiths books but this is my favorite.

The Sunbird suggests an answer to the mystery "what happened to the defeated Carthaginians the Romans destroyed? It begins with two modern day archeologists excavating a newly discovered city in central Africa. The two are very dissimilar; one being a rich and gracious eccentric multi-millionaire who is funding the project, and his faithful henchman, a brilliant and very strong man who happens to be a hunchback.

The story begins in the modern day digs and as our heroes fall prey to traps that are left for grave robbers we jump back in time to these same two heros who are the two main leaders in a hidden city that was founded by the Carthaginians after they escaped the wrath of Rome. This city is hidden at the end of a river in the center of darkest Africa and tells the magical story - a "what if?" story that is part fictional history and part ancient legend come to life. It is full of action as it might have happened in that time and the struggles this ancient city went through in trying to survive.

The Sunbird lifts your spirit and excites your immagination. This was one of Wilbur Smith´s first books and is more fiction than fact, whereas his writings of the past 20 some years have been based soundly on historical fact that is told in fictitious story to make it interesting. Like his current 4 books on ancient Egypt.

I strongly recommend it for all ages from the teens to "old folk" like me!¤

2) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks. It´s a story about a hunchback Archaeologist, his wealthy backer friend, and his pretty assistant and a lost Carthaginian city. It´s also an interesting parallel story about the fall of this city. On certain levels it´s interesting story with a lot of exciting searching for an Archaeological treasure that I´m sure many Archaeologists would kill for.

But it´s also quite a sexist and racist story, but then it was written in the 1970´s, when this attitude was common, still not right or justified, but prevalent. The attitude that the only way civilization arrived in Africa was because of the benevolent White folk is incredibly annoying and flawed.

If you pretend that it´s a historical story you can almost forgive the attitudes, however it´s an almost, which loses this fairly good story many stars.¤

3) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks. An interesting premise to begin with. But halfway through the book I started wondering "where is he going with this?". The material is a bit dated for today´s reader. The characters are typical for Wilbur Smith: men are manly and women are damsels in distress.
I just felt that if Smith was really trying to draw some kind of parallel between the two worlds, it stayed parallel and never came together. It seemed sometimes that it was a gratuitous adventure in blood, killing and testosterone. It simply did not have any of the political intrigue that I remember from River God (still one of my all time faves) and Warlock.¤

4) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks. Written in a somewhat different formatt from previous Smith novels, but as always well done.¤

5) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks. Let´s first describe the book without passion or judgment. There are two tales, cutely parallel. The first tale is set in the 1960´s or 70´s. It concerns a South African multilingual super-talented white hunchbacked Anthropologist. This hero, together with his rich (white) friend and patron, explores an archaeological site. The third important character is a black guy, who is talented but alas feels no loyalty to the great country of South Africa. So it´s a tale of bonding between two superb white guys and the treachery of a black guy.

The second tale is set 2000 years in the past, at which time apparently there was a white empire in southern Africa, whose remnants were being explored as the archaeological site of the first tale. The lead character is the Sunbird who is, ahem, white hunchbacked uber-talented, and the best friend of the king/emperor who is also a great adventurer and hero. And (you guessed it) the third important character is a strong black guy, a bit short of loyalty, who organizes an uprising that destroys the great white empire that surely must have existed in southern Africa.

Now I must warn that this review might contain trace amounts of sarcasm, which has been known to be occasionally harmful to straight-thinking minds.

This is one great book. I read it when I was a teenager, more that 15 years ago now, but the memory of the wonderful adventures and fundamental truths still burns fresh in my mind. Remember, these were the great days of Apartheid, now sadly lost, but perhaps not for ever.

Now, young as I was, I already knew that white people were gods, so the underlying bits of supremacy philosophy did not bother me too much. And, perhaps as Wilbur Smith intended, I was justly disgusted by some black people´s refusal to be happy under Apartheid and slavery. And the main white characters are described so well... oh just as white people should be, the men strong and adventurous and always onto new conquests, the women beautiful and marvelous.

The only complaint I had with the book was the invention (or is it the truth?) of a white empire in ancient southern Africa. I mean, why bother with this convoluted story of Whites having been in South Africa before? We already know that whites deserve African land (actually, all land) as a divine right, so no justification is needed. But it doesn´t hurt of course to be comforted by the safe knowledge that white people were in South Africa already 2000 years ago, and also anywhere else their past presence might be required for the ideological purpose of the day.

I hear this book is popular in the American South, you know, that wonderful place you really ought to fearlessly visit especially if you have dark skin, or even better, if you have white skin and a dark-skinned boyfriend. Oh, and I also hear Wilbur Smith didn´t stop writing tales after the fall (temporary?) of Apartheid. I wonder what he´s writing about now? If I were still a teenager, I´d read and find out, but alas, time passes and I am one no longer.¤

6) Mass Market Paperback Book The Sunbird by St. Martin´s Paperbacks.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 2-Dec-2008, 03129833959780312983390, 730-810-9X0-960-950-150-8

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