Fetch The Burning Shore (The Courtneys Of Africa) Prepared By Wilbur Smith Accessible In Publication
continuing saga of the Courtney clan, Bookin a series of, Wilbur Smith does Historical Fiction as well as any other authors, Ive lost count of how many of his books Ive read, This is not as good as the first three but they are a trilogy inside a series and maybe the following books will be better The story dramatically improved when it switched from soft erotica to full blown adventure at aboutof the way through.
About every possible twist jammed into one novel, but have to give it props that I couldn't have remotely guessed the ending at thepoint! Read it twentysix years ago.
The tv series was pretty nice, Centayne De Thiry è giovanissima e molto bella la sua maturità, ancora in embrione, sboccia con l'incontro di Micheal Courtney, rampollo di una famiglia di facoltosi imprenditori, eroi di guerra, influenti e affermati, che non si sottrae ai suoi doveri quando scoppia una delle più sanguinose guerre che coinvolgono l'Africa e che vede schierati in prima linea, per la prima volta, gli aerei da combattimento, che Micheal pilota come nessun altro.
Michael fa nascere in lei, raccontandole della propria terra, un amore per l'Africa che è superato soltanto da quello che la ragazza nutre per il bel pilota, Sarà questo duplice amore a indurre l'aristocratica e spregiudicata francesina a partire verso una fortunosa ma splendida avventura, Portando in grembo il frutto della sua relazione con Michael, Centaine s'imbarca per l'Africa e affronta i mille pericoli che l'attendono, . .
Come sempre, Smith ci regala un meraviglioso libro di avventura e di amore, che non potete lasciarvi sfuggire,
I don't have words to express the praise for this piece, Also I am not in the regretful phase of finishing up this novel at a great pace because there are three more novels to be read on Courtney series pertaining to this.
My review can't suffice to explain panoply of wonderful things I learnt, In this awesome description of war, I learnt to fly plane diving, rolling and firing, Umm, what not Then I got familiarized with the insideout structure of submarine and firing torpedoes, True adventurous experience of hardships faced boldly by Centaine starting from the incredulous escape ashore through the Atlantic to the misery of the deserts of Africa and finally reaching human habitats.
And well, crux of this novel are Bushman and their support to Centaine, Eventually how she learnt all survival instincts and temerity from them, That's enough, give it a read!! : Nunca había leído nada de Wilbur Smith y me lleve una grata sorpresa, Muy entretenido. Me gusto esa descripción minuciosa de África, las costumbres, la historia, En este libro me pareció bastante acertada, pero me da la impresión que puede llegar a volverse medio denso si siempre realiza una descripción tan excesiva.
Conclusión: Me gusto mucho, en un futuro seguro voy a volver con este Autor africano, tiene una gran colección de libros para poder seguir degustando, Returning to the Courtney series, Smith takes readers into the next generation of the family and their exploits, While fighting the Great War in Europe, Michael Courtney, illegitimate son of Sean Courtney, crosses paths with a young Frenchwoman, Centaine de Thiry, They soon fall in love and during a passionate night, conceive a child, They plan to marry and return to the African subcontinent after the war, much to Centaine's curiosity and delight, While running a routine air reconnaissance mission, Michael is ambushed by the Germans and dies on his wedding day, When a sense of grief overcomes both Centaine and Sean, the latter still fostering the secret that Michael is his and not his brother Garrick's, both agree that Centaine must leave Europe immediately.
Centaine and her nurse are sent on a hospital boat to South Africa, where she may live with Michael's family, However, the boat is torpedoed and Centaine is separated from the others, drifting to shore off the coast of southwest Africa, alone and still pregnant, As she tries to find her way, Centaine is taken in by a couple from the San tribe, who help her navigate the bush and teach her of their ways, including a special piece of land, 'The Place of All Life'.
Here, Centaine eventually gives birth to a son, whom she names Michael Shasa Courtney, to honour both his father and the San couple, Centaine is eventually tracked down by German South African Lothar De La Rey, who agrees to return her to Garrick Courtney for a pardon, While they travel with young Michael, Centaine exhibits another moment of weakness and falls in love with Lothar before conceiving a child with him as well, She is happy to start a new life until she learns the San have been killed by Lothar, With a number of important choices to make, Centaine must decide how to carve out her life in Africa as a newlyadopted member of the Courtney family, Smith lays out the foundation for a wonderfully complex second series in the Courtney collection with this interesting opening novel, forcing the reader to recall all the characters who have played a role up to this point.
As I shift gears and return to the Courtney mindset, I am happy to see that Smith has not spared the reader any of the action or intrigue.
As with all multigenerational novels, there is a need to bridge past stories with new ones, which Smith does effectively, In truth, parts of this novel precede A SPARROW FALLS, which left me trying to place some of these characters, to determine if I had heard of them in the aforementioned novel.
The shift from the Sean and Garrick era to Centaine's new role with enrich the story and keep the reader interested as well as curious, Smith's depiction, both of the European theatre of war and the African backcountry, leaves little to the imagination and forces readers to pay close attention to all the nuances offered.
I suspect that Smith has much more in store for the reader as the story continues to unravel and new characters will play central roles in the larger narrative as the series expands.
Kudos, Mr. Smith for a great novel, launching a powerful new portion of the series, and keeping Africa as your central setting, I cannot wait to see what else you have in mind for your readers,
Like/hate the review An evergrowing collection of others appears at:
sitelink wordpress. com/ Once more Wilbur Smith has written an excellent saga involving the Courtneys: from the French Chateau in the Great War flying Ace Michael Courtney and his lovely French girlfriend Centaine to the German submarine and survival for Centaine and their son traveling back to Africa.
Continuing interesting characters, beautiful descriptive countryside and wildlife including wild animals that many readers would never have the opportunity to see it is all there in this book.
Good people are sometimes not always good and bad people are not always as bad as they seem,
The End of one of Smith's stories leaves a burning desire no pun intended on the 'burning' shore for the reader to start his next book.
I hated this book, so much so that I can't even rate it, On my quest to read all the Courtney books this was by far the most disappointing, It was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the women characters being idiots, I also think that I had already put it down once before, picking it up again only because I needed to read it to get to the next book in the series.
Worst novel by a favourite author, Smith è un maestro nel descrivere l'Africa, Best Wilbur Smith book. Hidden behind a title that screams "Trash!" Het verhaal begint tijdens de eerste wereldoorlog, Centaine de Thiry, een jonge Franse vrouw, maakt kennis met de gevechtspiloot Michael Courtney, Ze worden verliefd, en besluiten te trouwen, maar het noodlot slaat toe en Michael sneuvelt, Samen met haar dienstmeid Anna scheept de zwangere Centaine in op een hospitaalschip dat hen naar Zuid Afrika zal brengen, het land waar de familie van Michael woont.
Het schip wordt echter getorpedeerd, Centaine overleeft het en na een moeilijke strijd wordt ze gevonden door een ouder koppel van het volk van de San, of de Bosjesmannen, Ze verzorgen haar en helpen haar zich te redden in het meedogenloze Afrikaanse landschap, Zal Centaine ooit nog terug kunnen naar de wereld van de blanken Naar de familie van Michael en van haar zoontje Shasa
Een ontroerend en spannend verhaal!
Ik ben blij dat ik dit boek gelezen heb, maar het is nu ook weer niet zo dat ik zou zeggen dat dit een "must read" is.
Ik vond het niet prettig dat het boek geen hoofdstukken heeft, enkel geregeld een paar witte lijnen, om gebeurtenissen van elkaar te scheiden, Sommige beschrijvingen waren ook zeer uitgebreid, zodat ik soms moeite had met verder te lezen, Dat beterde wel naarmate het boek vorderde, waarschijnlijk omdat mijn interesse dan meer gewekt was,
Het interessantste deel van het boek vond ik de tijd dat Centaine bij O'wa en H'ani, de San mensen, verbleef, Dat heb ik met veel plezier gelezen,
Ik kan alleen maar besluiten dat dit een zeer goed boek is, Muy buen libro
Este año se lo dedique a Wilbur Smith y la verdad no me arrepiento, una novela excelente que nos cuenta a fines de la primera guerra mundial como una adolescente francesa después de enamorarse de un piloto proveniente de una buena clase social deberá aceptar enfrentar su destino al morir este , huyendo de su casa por el ataques de los alemanes, en esa huida pasara por distintos momentos desde ayudar a curar heridos a naufragar el barco que iba como así también a la parte más importante del libro que es su sobrevivencia en un desierto africano.
Está descripción del ambiente y todo lo que vive ella es espectacular pareciera como que uno se encuentran allí, Obviamente rodeados de otras sub tramas harán de la novela algo muy atrapante,
No por nada le decían el maestro de la aventura, I have always liked Wilbur Smith's books, They can be brutal, horrifyingly bloody, and almost excessively dramatic, But boy howdy, they are also ripsnorters of adventures that keep me up late at night turning pages, lost in Smith's world,
I've only read four now five since joining GR, but I have many others in my library that I imagine I will reread and review Someday.
Smith wrotetitles which revolved around the Courtney family in South Africa, but The Burning Shorein the series is the only one I have read as far as I recall at the moment.
The first time through was over fifteen years ago, so this reading was fresh and almost new,
Here we meet Michael Courtney, an ace fighter pilot in WWI France, and follow his flying sorties as well as his romance with Centaine de Thiry who lives at the chateau near the airfield.
There are some incredible dogfight scenes, and the horrors of that particular war to end all wars are made quite plain,
Centaine and Michael plan to marry, and in the fever of life that comes along with that of war, they enjoy some blissful moments together, Usually Smith's books feature manly men as the main characters, but Centaine takes over this story when Fate and the Germans destroy her home and her dreams, Michael's uncle arranges passage for her on a ship heading to the family home in South Africa, but will this journey be the end of her troubles, or just the beginning
As I said, this is numberin the Courtney series.
When I was preparing to write this review, I learned that the other two big Smith books on the same shelf are numbersandand deal with two young men who were born in this book, so I have decided to extend my stay in South Africa and find out What Happens Next.
I'm also curious to discover if I have read these books before, So far the dust jacket blurbs have not triggered any ahha moments, so I am eager to get myself back to South Africa!
Courtney series is action packed with numberupholding the tradition, albeit huge detail a Smith hallmark.
I loved the book, but I didn't like on big part of the story, I mean I wanted it to go in the opposite way, Is that even possible
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