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This book has really divided Wilbur Smith fans and I can see why. I have read nearly all of Smith's books and this different to this others works. It focused much more on magic and witchcraft than the historical fiction I am used to. This is why I imagine other Wilbur Smith fans have disliked the book. The storyline was rather unbelievable but then I think this was the point, the book was supposed to be fantastical rather than seriously believable. If you could look beyond this then the story wa...
I can't believe I'm rating a Smith book 1 star. His books were some of the first adult books I read, and I relished them. I loved River God and Taita was a great character. In River God there was intrigue, character development, clever manipulation, love and hate and all set in a luxurious, exotic Egypt. None of things were present in The Quest, instead we spent more than half the book traveling for years (How many times did they eat wild spinach along the way?), and nothing much happened. There...
I only got through about 30 pages before I decided it wasn't worth my time and brain space to read more about the raging nymphomaniac goddess who sucks the souls out of the 'enlightened', strange sexual encounters between everyone conceivable and graphic physical operations. Really? All within 30 pages? Not sure if the author was just trying to grab your attention in the beginning to keep you interested, but if he was, I would have hoped he was capable of writing something at least remotely inte...
This is a big book, but not as big as Goodreads suggests. I have the first edition hardback and it runs in at 504 pages, not 718. It is very detailed too, therefore hard to keep up with all the places, tribes and characters so I am glad I am not a student writing about it in an exam. Nevertheless, don’t get me wrong, it is worth persevering with as a rollicking read if you like long adventure quest books. There are con sides, which I will deal with first. One that made me feel queasy was the app...
Appalling.Meet Taita, the lead character: writer, sculptor, painter, architect, engineer, surgeon, strategist, politician, warrior, athlete, historian, geographer, philosopher, mystic, philologist, adventurer, musician, chess player, veterinarian, actor, utterly handsome and wise beyond measure. He is also a Caucasian 154 years old eunuch living in the ancient Egypt.He is a slave too, but he does and goes as he pleases."The Quest" starts with Taita going to a lama monastery in the middle of Dark...
The Quest was everything I love about a book. Epic historical adventure story with well-defined good vs. evil characters of an interesting time (ancient Egypt) with fascinating characters, magic, mythology, intrigue, battles, and surprises, set against an unlikely journey. You follow the adventures of the wise Taita, an old magus (wise-man / teacher / magician) who has already lived the life span of 4 generations of Egyptians, as he is sent by the Pharoah to uncover why the Nile has dried-up by
The Quest goes from fantasy to being totally unbelievable.
Short description of plot: This was about an elderly man using his power, influence, and benefits to groom a child in preparation for when she was old enough to have sex. While i liked the Egypt series, this key element began to make me uneasy and increasingly troubled me throughout the book.While this book becomes more blatant in a magic and fantastical genre, carried on from "Warlock" i didn't mind it. This could be seen as either a reality that directly happened after "Warlock" or a made up s...
Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Publisher Says: Wilbur Smith has earned international acclaim for his bestselling River God, The Seventh Scroll, and Warlock. Now, the unrivaled master of adventure returns with the eagerly awaited sequel to his thrilling Egyptian series with his most fantastic story yet. The Quest continues the story of the Warlock, Taita, wise in the lore of the gods and a master of magic and the supernatural.Egypt has been struck by a series of terrible plagues, killing its crops and c...
Really wasn't impressed by this book. I loved Warlock, and I loved the manner with which the supernatural was dealt; it could be real, but it could also be coincidence and natural phenomena that the people of those times would interpret as real. That's fine with me. However, The Quest treats magic as totally real and goes into far fetched stuff like astral projection and talking in each others minds. If you're going to write fantasy, write fantasy; don't start a series with historical fiction an...
OK, so I loved 'River God' and the 'Seventh scroll' and I also liked 'Warlock' which are the only reasons I got lured into buying this book. The first two books of the "Egypt chronicles" were great because (I now realize) they are actually based on a true story. However, now that Taita has continued to live beyond reasonable age (200 years or so?) I think Wilbur Smith has finally lost all touch with reality in this last book, and has lost my attention along with it. Not that I'm not into Sci-fi
I've enjoyed Wilbur Smith books for 25 years but this one will be my last. I only managed to read the whole thing because I was traveling and didn't have any good alternatives. Also, I couldn't quite believe how bad it was. The mystical elements, while out of place, were hardly the most jarring aspects of the story. I was able to accommodate the genre shift, but couldn't abide the predictability and juvenility of the storyline. The story reads like an old man's dirty fantasy of immortality. Wher...