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Rating: Centayne De Thiry is very young and very beautiful; her maturity, still in its infancy, blossoms with the encounter of Micheal COURTNEY, a scion of a wealthy family of entrepreneurs, war heroes, influential and established, who do not shy away from their duties when one of the bloodiest wars involving Africa breaks out, where combat aircraft are deployed on the front line for the first time, piloted by Micheal like no other.
To avoid revealing the plot, I will only say that Centayne embarks on a long journey and fights for her life. The road is tough, grueling, and Africa, with its fascinating natural and political contradictions, plays a leading role. Centayne will have to draw on all her strength and will to live and will undertake the journey with two unexpected companions who, thanks to their traditions lost in millennia, know how to derive everything necessary for survival from the African soil.
The book is the manifesto of the narrative art of one of the greatest adventure writers of all time. Wilbur SMITH, having sold as much as anyone else, is often the subject of harsh criticism, but those who criticize him unknowingly highlight his strengths. He is redundant, exaggerated, passionate, just like the protagonists of his books, who are heroes rich in virtues and perform feats sometimes at the limits of humanly possible. The writing style is engaging, compelling, sprinkled with descriptions full of adjectives often even excessive, but which expertly emphasize the author's love for his homeland.
The Burning Shore cannot leave the reader indifferent. Engaged in a plot rich in twists and intriguing adventures, interspersed with moments of amorous passion described in the most daring detail, and in passages where the rawness and violence of nature and man take one's breath away, the reader reaches the end without noticing and finds themselves unknowingly enriched with knowledge about Africa and its inhabitants; knowledge that will accompany them for a long time.
For those, like me, who will start to immediately miss the adventures of the book's characters at the end of the reading, there is great news: The "Courtney Saga" covers almost 4 centuries of African history, from the era of pirate struggles to modern times. There is only the dilemma of choice, and those who start with "The Burning Shore" will have a physical need to continue reading, even at night, at the cost of arriving at the office with puffy eyes.
Book recommended for everyone. A masterpiece of adventure fiction.
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