Customer Reviews

Gold Mine

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Gold Mine" is a great adventure book. Rod Ironsides becomes manager of the Sonder Ditch and must fulfill his duty the best he can. Rod becomes involved with Terry Steyner, the wife of Rod's manager. Eventually, Rod has to make a plan for the drilling of the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is full of water and any slight miscalculation could prove fatal.

From beginning to end, "Gold Mine" is one of the most exciting books I've ever read and I recommend anybody who likes adventure books to pick it up right away.

GOLD MINE is about a stock market manipulation scheme affecting the stocks of South African gold mining companies by sabotaging the mines. Much of the action of the novel is set in a gold mine. The extensive descriptions of the mine, mining methods, and processing methods are clear and accurate-with one possible exception. Mr. Smith's use of the term "heavy media separation" seems to conflict with standard usage. I found the characters to be shallow-which really means that I could not identify nor empathize well with them. But this is, after all, an action novel, and it is quite entertaining as such. The plot is predictable, but not plodding.

There is some criticism of this book it's too short or too simple, and in a way, it's justified. This book is 37 years old! Would you compare a 37 year old movie with today's movies? Or even fashion, or a football team's playbook? Things get better, writers improve.

Having said that, I still like this book. I don't know anything about gold mining, but it seems technically sound. True, the characters are simplistic, the plot is simplistic. Villians are evil and get their just due. Good guys win. There are no double or triple twists in the book. It's just simple straightfoward story about gold mining and a few characters in it.

A simple straightfoward story with a nice ending. Heck, that sounds better by the minute! In fact, that's what I wish the world would be like today, where you know who the good guys are and you know who the bad guys are and they lose! Yeah, that's what we need more of! Two thumbs up, definitely!

Transport yourself back to good old 1970 and enjoy this book! You need a break from 2007!

I've read many of Wilbur Smith's novels and enjoyed them tremendously. This book falls into the category of a short story for the author. It was entertaining but didn't have the depth of detail that his longer books have. I got the feeling that this could have been a longer novel cut short for some reason.

The story is ok but the good part of this book is the setting. Wilbur Smith knew the big gold mines first-hand and wove that into the story.

Set in the South African gold mines it is a story that manages to switch between the lives of the miners and their corporate bosses and yet cleverly interwoven to be a seamless reading experience. The one thing the miners & their bosses have in common is greed. I wasn't instantly hooked & it's probably not Wilbur's best work ever, but it's still a worthwhile read.

The story lacked deep character development and seemed to rush through setting the stage for the drama. I would've enjoyed learning more about Big King. Not in the same league as his other novels.

As usual Wilbur Smith has proved to be an incomparable author. I wish he could write more!!

This is right in line with most of Wilbur Smith's books. The development of Africa on the backs of the impoverished blacks. A theme throughout all of his books is the coexistence of these diverse groups and the mutually beneficial relationships that can and do exist between them.

This book falls about in the middle of his tales of Africa. I liked the earlier books on the development of gold mining in Africa better but once you are hooked on Wilbur Smith you have to continue until all are read.

One of his book, "Eagle In The Sky" was the best book ever. "Gold Mine" is also a good book. And "Train rom Katanga" AKA "Dark Of The Sun" saved my life in Viet Nam