Blue Horizon

By Wilbur Smith



So I love historical fiction.

Here we are in the 1700’s, sailing and trading around the Horn of Africa and up to Oman. At 800 pages I expected many characters but the book (thankfully) mostly follows the Courtney family. The travels of the son Jim across Africa in a caravan escaping pursuit, to the uncle Dorin fighting to get back his crown. I loved the detail of the caravan and how they set up camp, hunted the animals, the trackers Bakkart and Xhia. The book is almost 2 separate stories in one. The Courtney’s in Africa, moving houses, running rrom the law, and then Dorian fighting to regain the crown, avenge the murder of his wife and his enemy since childhood.

Of course there is one thing that bothers me. The passage of time. Now it would have made for a dull read (probably) if the caravan journey didn’t jump ahead months at a time each chapter. But the passage of time was not equal between chapters. This normally wouldn’t be a problem but with no dates given at the beginning of each chapter or some way to tell the season, the fact there were jumps between the different characters where the action was happening simultaneously, so you had in fact gone back in time, it ended up frustrating the hell out of me. Enough so that I think it took away from the story and I was constantly wondering how much time had passed. Now maybe this is because most of the books I read end up being written by men.

On a side note I don’t really appreciate having a picture of the author on the back of the book. It kinda creeps me out, esp when they start having detailed sex scenes and it is an old guy writing the book. Would I read another Wilbur Smith book? Sure. It’s a lot more socially acceptable to read one of his books in public than if I was toting around a book on erotica or a picture book of how to butcher a carcass. Did I mention though that I like the detail? As I was saying why is it that in every story the girl is blond, a virgin, like to keep her privates hairless, and horny? Oh well, I guess like my wife says, that’s why it’s called fiction.