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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780312945992
ISBN number: 031294599X
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 752
Printing Date: February 05, 2008
Publishing house: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: February 05, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 55586
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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Product Description:
One of the world's most acclaimed adventure writers returns to the world of ancient Egypt with the stunning sequel to the New York Times bestselling River God. In the wake of a sixty-year war over the reign of the kingdoms of Egypt, two young pharaohs have risen to claim power, but only one can succeed, deciding the fate of his empire forever...
The mission of Prince Nefer, rightful heir to the throne, is to rebuild a magnificent kingdom in the stark and tumbled ruins of the embattled city of Gallala. The desire of Lord Naja is to destroy his rival and rule the land with unholy supremacy. But Nefer has on his side the warlock Taita, a matchless ally and legendary priest of notorious powers...
To see their dream come true, Nefer and Taita must stay one step ahead of the depraved assassin, survive the tortuous shadow of her ever-pursuing armies, and outwit the shocking betrayals of is own flesh and blood. As Nefer's courage increases, and as Taita's magic grows more beguiling, so grows stronger the power of their tireless enemies....
Now, with the threat of tyranny and blood thundering closer and closer toward the vulnerable gates of Gallala, the ultimate battle for Egypt will begin...
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Rated by buyers 
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This is the 3td book in a series of four from Wilbur Smith and it's awesome I just finished it and am looking forword to the next, the Quest.
SD
Rated by buyers 
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(Warning: vomitorium not included!)
Say you have a beloved mate, and a best friend, too, and your dearest sister is that best friend's mate, so together you make a happy foursome of great, supportive friends, who will probably have a double wedding eventually, you're that close. Then, say one member of the perfect foursome dies an unspeakable (and I do mean unspeakable) death, leaving his/her mate wounded and alone, crippled and bereft, a virtual amputee. But, you still have YOUR mate, and the two of you are not going to postpone your wedding just because the other couple has been severed in half by cruel, sadistic fate.
Okay. Understandable. Life goes on.
But when you see the lone, bereft one on the road, heading away into the monastic future that is all he's got left, do you wave and holler, "Hey! Where ya goin? Aren't you coming to our wedding?!"
Uh...okay...let me cut this short. "Warlock" is an inexcusably sadistic piece of "men's adventure," strictly for the "man" who still likes to dismember an occasional cricket for enjoyment, but doesn't want anyone to see. Judging by the bestsellerdom of Wilbur Smith's "plot supported" works of porn, there are a LOT of you. And when I say porn, I don't mean the straight stuff, or even the kinky stuff. I'm talking sick. I'm talking wouldn't even be legal, without the "plot" material to prop it up and get it out there to the fans.
On to the nitty, now that I've dealt with the gritty: Wilbur Smith is so successful that he now scorns an editor, apparently. And boy, does it show! I've never read a historical novel so overflowing with anachronisms, many of them hilarious. He even uses French phrases! In an imaginary ancient Egypt setting, mind you. French phrases. Yep.
This novel is far from "well-researched" or "authentic" as Wilbur's fans keep insisting it is. For instance, he uses "cat gut" to stitch wounds. Oh, forget it, the list of mistakes like that is just TOO long.
In WARLOCK, Wilbur Smith created a wizard so mighty that, supposedly, there is none greater on earth. Yet this wizard's subsequent nearest competitor bests him thousands of times over, again and again, performing feats so amazing that, if the Warlock could do anything half as great, our heroes would be saved in just a couple of chapters.
Over and over, the bad guys prove better at everything than the good guys, ten times as able to survive, to withstand sand storms standing right out in the open that nearly kill the good guys who have taken cover. Characters who prove themselves incredibly skilled with weapons later can't hold their own even in the mildest skirmish, and as super-clever as they are, they make the stupidest choices imaginable, while the dumb, hulking villain outsmarts everyone, including the mightiest warlock ever to walk the earth. The villains stride through the story wreaking misery and havok without the slightest fear of reprisal or being stopped. The heroes can't even claim back their own crowns without worrying they might get arrested or shot. This, readers, is the opposite of "seamless" writing.
The tests the good guys are put through become absolutely predictable after the very first 2 or 3. We soon know the author is going to spend 30 or 40 pages getting the hero through it once again by the skin of his teeth, brutalizing more animals and killing innumerable secondary folk we have come to like as he goes merrily along. Each test becomes yet another ordeal for the reader, not just the hero. There are too many of these, and they go on far, far too long.
I skipped the Red Road entirely. Wilbur outmatches the antagonists to the heroes not to the point of making a worthy match, but to the point of utter unbelievability, even laughability. Get real, will you, Wilbur? And I don't want to leave without cutting you, like so many other reviewers have, for the misery you put so many animals through, dismemberment, live burial, slitted bellies, gashed throats, burnings and sacrificings, yuck, how can anyone call this a STORY? But, we are a desensitized society. When Wilbur Smith decides to make an unclish figure and saver-of-the-day out of a character who would yesterday be the president/chairman of NAMBLA, we don't bat an eye, we even cheer! People...we are ROME.
There is some beautiful word-weaving here, gorgeous imagery and descriptive writing that is perfectly dreamy. There is awesome potential, but Wilbur Smith would need (in addition to a strict, learned, ruthless editor) a very special co-writer to bring things to fruition, because he's got something missing from his heart...and I'm a little concerned it might be his soul...
Because Wilbur, there was absolutely no reason for Mirikara to accompany that other princess on that last mission. (Nefer should never forgive his beloved for taking Mirikara along, yet these overridingly human factors never ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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In searching the literary landscape for good historical fiction, it is always great to find good ole Wilbur. I would like to meet him and thank him for a wonderful yarn. It is not fair to compare this to his others novels, each are deserving of a read from historical readers, and other than Rutherford and Jennings there are no other historical authors who begin to stack up.
Intricate plotline, characters who demand emotion, and a backdrop steeped in fact and fantasy make this series thoroughly enjoyable. Mr. Smith will transport down the Nile and away from your everyday life. I love to escape in one of his books. If you like historical fiction do yourself a favor, read River God very first and then make the rounds. This is just good stuff.
Rated by buyers 
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This was a good read and and interesting follow-up to the River God. However, it didn't add much about Egyption history and many parts of the book were overly predictable. I would recommend it for Wilbur Smith fans, especially those who have read River God.
Rated by buyers -
I've read Wilbur Smith's novels, "River God" and "The Seventh Scroll", and although I thought both went on too long and tried to do too much, I loved them for their originality and the excellent drawing of the principal character, the eunuch Taita.
In Warlock, as in the two "Taita" novels mentioned above, Smith again tries to bite off just a smidge too much scope but where the earlier stories were so strong I found myself able to overlook this flaw, now the novelty of the setting has worn off and this time the characterization is less satisfying - much like Hollywood sequels that fail to measure up to the original films because they slavishly try to mimic the elements that made the original a success.
Additionally (regrettably), Warlock grants POV's (points of view) to a veritable slew of characters, and the resulting stew ends up as a multitude of mid-paragraph POV swaps, pat dialogue, and thin characters. There's Taita, of course, but I much preferred him as the egotistical, lustful-but-incapable, boasting genius in River God and Seventh Scroll. There, his flaws glared but you couldn't help but love him. Here, he is boringly perfect no matter who or what the opposition.
Of the others, Young pharaoh Nefer is perhaps the most rounded. He experiences setbacks and tries harder the subsequent time. Although we never really know him well enough to make the transfer into his skin, his character arc rings true as he grows toward manhood. Less convincing are the shallowly drawn love interests and the two bad guys. Between the antagonists they don't do a single redeeming thing in the entire story. Sorry, but I've come to like characters with a little depth, and here there isn't much to enjoy.
To his credit, what Smith does give is a strongly imagined story painted in broad, colorful strokes. Smith is expert at setting the scene and Warlock holds the reader while trying hard to exploit the presumed familiarity of the reader with Taita. Sorry, it just doesn't convince. The plot is convoluted enough, but each "homestretch" is easily predictable, and I guess the broad strokes are to be expected when the writer is cranking out a 650 page novel every year.
In my experience with his works, Wilbur Smith is best when he uses his rich imagination to tackle an entirely new theme with fresh characters and an exciting original hook. The Courtney's come to mind. The initial novels were by far the best of the lot. Of course, as an author myself, I know starting fresh is also the most difficult way to write, and not the kind of thing that lends itself to the one-a-year pace this author has been keeping of late.
In the end, I'm still a fan. I'll be reading the subsequent one, and the one after that.
If Wilbur Smith lived on the great lakes, he'd have written "The Secret Ever Keeps". He lives in Africa, so I had to do it for him. If you like Wilbur Smith, you'll love "The Secret Ever Keeps". Here's the Amazon page. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601640048/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/104-6302050-9055104
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