Originally posted by RonJ:
T-Star, what's your favorite? I'm partial to The Sunbird.
The Sunbird is indeed excellent and I liked it.
I also like Smith's African historical items, like, "Monsoon" and, "Blue Horizon", set in the 17th Century, or thereabouts.
"Gold Mine" was good, and I liked the movie, with Roger Moore. And I liked the, "River God" series, including the one where a modern expedition went after Taita's treasure, "The Seventh Scroll".
I have other favorites, but the first one that I really liked is still perhaps my favorite. It has at various times been sold as, "The Train From Katanga" and, "Dark of the Sun". It's the one where the Rhodesian mercenary captain in the Congo is trying to save some diamonds and rescue some Belgians who were trapped by an African rebel army. And the hero meets a cute Belgian chick and falls for her. In the movie version, Rod Taylor played the captain, Kenneth More was the villain, and Yvette Mimimeaux (sp?)was the babe.
I loved the scene where Smith was setting out the nature of the characters. Of villain Wally Hendry, he wrote, "It was the measure of Wally Hendry that he had been six months in the Congo, and spoke not a word of French." That's from memory, but is just about word-for-word.
Smith also did very well in, "The Triumph of the Sun", the title being derived from a passage in a book by Churchill. (Churchill, as you may know, was an officer with the 21st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman. He knew the Sudan and its people and climate!)
Smith has laid a few eggs. I've owned, "The Quest" for over two years, and can't get into it enough to finish it. I guess that I eventually will, but it hasn't drawn me in as most of his works have. Too metaphysical and with too much magic.
Another good one is, "The Angels Weep", about the fall of white-ruled Rhodesia. Because I'm an aspirting author, I identified with the hero more than some readers may have. But I think that his role will appeal to most men who read that book.
Has anyone here seen, "Gold", the movie based on "Gold Mine"? Roger Moore was the hero, but I'm trying to recall the actress. I think she was played by Susannah York, who used to rev my engine. If you can't place her, she was the wife of the RAF squadron leader, played by Christopher Plummer,who was burned badly in his Spitire in, "The Battle of Britain."
I've always been partial to African adventures, especially those by Smith and by the late Robert C. Ruark. An acquaintance of mine now writes a great series about an American woman in Kenya in 1920. They're basically mysteries.
A bit too PC in places for my taste, they are nonetheless good books, well written. And her heroine does carry a rifle. It's a rarity for good guys in books and on TV to have guns, unless they're police or soldiers. I laud her efforts and will cheerfully plug her next book, "Treasure of the Golden Cheetah", due in September. "The Leopard's Prey" was released this Spring.The author is Suzanne Arruda. You can read about her and her books on her splendid site,
www.suzannearruda.com
But Smith's books have a more visceral masculine tone, and he stands virtually alone in writing modern Africana that isn't Politically Correct.
Read the interviews on his site to get a feel for the author. He is certainly one of the most successful writers in history, and largely deserves to be. He is also one of the very few authors to have shot buffalo and lion,and to have seen the aftermath of African terrorists at work. He has walked the same ground as did Simon van der Stel and other early European settlers in South Africa, and to be able to make those days come alive in print.
Smith is also an accomplished angler, who has fished for oceanic species. He is a remarkable man, by any standard. I want very much to meet him some day.
T-Star
