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Nicholas Quenton Harper is a very British entrepreneur with a passion for archaeology. His gray hair tells of a life fully lived, filled with successes but also deep sorrows. He is wealthy, well-known, respected, and has a past full of adventures of all kinds. He still mourns recent serious losses and spends his days trying to find solace in his lifelong passions.
When Nicholas meets Royan Al Simma, an Anglo-Egyptian who is as charming as she is knowledgeable about the ancient history of her people, he cannot resist the call of an adventure that promises thrills, distractions, and great archaeological discoveries, leading him to the abandoned, mystery-filled lands between Egypt and Ethiopia, lands touched by the magic of the Nile.
With Wilbur Smith, adventure, clashes, violence, and great love passions are never lacking, and this book certainly doesn't deny the characteristics of an author who proves to be an inexhaustible well of ideas and intricate, surprising plots, with suspense lurking behind every page. But what truly leaves one speechless is the ease with which the author navigates a sea of historical and archaeological knowledge, which the reader, captivated by the plot, adopts almost without realizing it.
The novel exudes passion and love for the African soil and its mysteries, and by the end, with a thousand twists and surprises, you find yourself so entwined with the characters that you wish the story would never end. That passion is contagious, and the author's undisputed narrative ability satisfies every taste; that of the fine connoisseur of Egyptian history, who can try to engage with the wealth of historical information the book offers, as well as those who have never delved into such subjects, and who by the end of the book will surely have a different and less vague view of the majesty of the ancient Egyptian empire's history. Some scenes describe actions of North African guerrillas that may seem brutal and unrealistic. Comparing them with recent news broadcasts leaves no doubt about how well WS knows his land and how plausible his descriptions of the violence Africans can reach when driven by certain beliefs.
The narrative thread of the entire work is the presence of TAITA, a eunuch scribe, a slave but faithful advisor to Egyptian kings and queens, a genius of art and architecture, who with his hieroglyphs and tricks, three millennia later, guides the archaeologists but at the same time complicates their lives with ingenious creations capable of crushing anyone who underestimates the challenge. Taita is a constant, captivating, sometimes unsettling presence. Those who will be captivated by his genius can drink from the "The Nile Series" and the other two Egyptian novels by WS, set in the pharaonic eras.
Of the Egyptian novels by the great South African author, however, "The Seventh Scroll" remains the undisputed masterpiece, which I truly recommend to everyone, even to those who persist in believing that WS is a mediocre commercial author.
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