Power of the Sword [Hardcover]

Wilbur Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 1999

They were half-brothers, raised in different worlds in the same country, and destined to be lifelong enemies. Manfred De La Ray and Shasa Courtney, sons of Centaine de Thiry, were blood enemies from their very first boyhood encounter. Caught up in the tumult of South Africa's histroy through two decades, they found themselves adversaries in an age-old war of savagery to seize the sword of power in their land. Sweeping from the teeming goldfields of the highland to the secret citadels of Afrikaner power, from the clamouring stadiums of Hitler's Berlin Olympics to the raging war over Abyssinia, their story was to become a rich, thrilling adventure, an epic saga of rivalry and revenge, of winners and losers in a struggle where only the ruthless survived.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 880 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (November 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333782070
• ISBN-13: 978-0333782071
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wilbur Smith was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. After the successful publication of WHEN THE LION FEEDS in 1964 he became a full-time writer, and has since written 30 novels, all meticulously researched on his numerous expeditions worldwide. His books have been translated into twenty-six different languages

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Probably Hold Wilbur Smith to a Higher Standard, July 17, 2011

By 

Henry Brown "Hank" (WESLEY CHAPEL, FL, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Power of the Sword (Hardcover)

Smith's chosen genre is one I guess I'd label "historical adventure." He follows the Courtney family's generations through different periods of history, but always somewhere in Africa, so far as I can tell. Some of his novels strike me as sagas while others, like this one, might be described as "epics." For some reason Africa has always fascinated me, and the continent comes alive through Smith's skillful prose.

This novel's setting is South Africa, from the early days of the Great Depression up to the beginning of Apartheid. I've long considered Wilbur Smith an armchair social anthropologist, and it may not be as evident in the characters of this book, but he certainly gave every last one of them some serious flaws...so much so that it's difficult for me to decide who the hero is. I guess I'd have to name Centaine Courtney as the heroine. She may be an adulterous, ruthless capitalist opportunist who destroys those who get in the way of her ambitions with no remorse, but the author bothers to show sympathetic traits in her perhaps more than any other character.

She seems like a choir girl compared to ganglord/political organizer Moses Gama; his half-brother Swart Hendrick; Centaine's bastard son Manfred, who grows up to become a fanatical Nazi; or even her ostensibly legitimate son, Shasa, who grows up to be a pampered, womanizing, shallow fop. I think my sympathies lied mostly with Lothar De La Rey, father of bastard Manfred.

At the very beginning of this tale, Lothar has just gambled all he has on a fishing business and through cunning and determination, has just brought in a haul that will pay all his debts and put him on firm footing to build an inheritance for Manfred. That's when Centaine shows up to utterly wreck him and his business. She has bought up his debt and now prefers to let his fish rot in the cargo holds than to let him can them and use the profits to get in the black. She has bad blood for her former lover and it's about to cause a vicious cycle.

Lothar decides that an eye for an eye is in order, and plans a robbery of Centaine's diamond mine. It's a clever and detailed plan, actually, with multiple safeguards...all rendered moot by fate, Centaine's tenacity, and, most of all, Lothar's fits of mercy. It goes downhill from there, and I must admit I skimmed a bit when I got too disgusted with the characters. Not just the deceit of Moses or his revolting behavior; or the corruption of the weak-minded Swart Hendrick; but also the gullibility and stupidity of the book-smart Manfred. And what he does to the girl who sincerely loves him. Of course my disgust is probably testament to the author's masterful orchestration of the elements of fiction.

Half brothers Shasa and Manfred are on a collision course that has ramifications well beyond the looming global conflict. When they do come full circle, their meeting was rather disappointing for my taste. Still, even at his worst (?), Wilbur Smith is a master storyteller, and despite my issues with this book, it's rich with South African history, geography and cultural insights. And for those who like family dynasty drama on an epic scale, this book is dripping with it.

Henry Brown is the author of the heroic fantasies Tales of the Honor Triad, as well as the military thriller Hell and Gone. He is the columns editor at New Pulp Fiction, and does some blogging of his own at the Two-Fisted Blogger.