The Triumph of the Sun

The Triumph of the Sun
Wilbur Smith
Pan Macmillan
600 pages $20

Like an old elephant heading back to that familiar watering hole, Wilbur Smith has returned to the territory he knows best.
Africa, where men are men and women go weak at the knees in a rip-roaring, lusty, busty tale based on actual historical events but featuring one of his heroic families, the Courtneys or the Ballantynes.

But wait, there’s more. In retelling the story of the Mahdi’s rebellion in the Sudan in the 1880s and the death of British General Charles Gordon, he has brought the Courtneys and the Ballantynes together as they battle the hordes of the Mahdi, a Sudanese Islamic revivalist. Naturally there’s a beautiful girl, Rebecca Benbrook, who is torn between the handsome officer, Penrod Ballantyne, and the roguish trader, Ryder Courtney.

It’s by-the-numbers standard Wilbur Smith fare, given the prolific author knows he’s on a good thing, so why mess with a winning formula? Still, if you’ve got a long plane ride or a weekend indoors because of foul weather, then Triumph of the Sun could be just the trick to while away the hours.

– David Sibley

.