A formulaic novel, even for for Wilbur Smith. Elements seem to be taken from his earlier books Monsoon, A Time to Die and assorted other works to combine a quasi-new piece that aims to incorporate the best of the old with a twist of the new - sadly though, the twist is lacking while the older novels stand alone and unsurpassed. The Triumph of the Sun begins extremely slowly, with the alleged new characters nonethless very familiar to a Smith reader. The female leads borrow their qualities from the women in Monsoon - one women headstrong and desirable to two men, the other younger twins indolent and fawning who eventually grow to be the true love interests and the more fascinating characters.
The male Courtney character is exacting, precise and dull. Every Courtney novel has this man - compassionate, rugged, resourceful and ruthless. The new reader will be impressed, the casual reader nostalgic and the habitual reader will undoubtedly be rolling his eyes. Inject some flavour! Some depth! A character can be intriguing to a reader without the author deigning to pepper him with cliched contrasts and hollow subtlities. Simply writing a character as dashing and domestic does not a hero make.
While this was my first time encountering a Ballyntyne, I see elements of Hornblower and Sharpe here as to make this novel nothing more than a composite of other, better works before it. Sigh.
The novel builds inexorably to the battle of Khartoum, an actual historic event that took place in the late 1800s. Being somewhat familiar with English war history, I noticed several glaring errors in the author's account which I attributed less to Smith's lack of research (which is always full and extensive) and rather to his artistic liberty. Found in this novel are the very real General "China" Gordon, the self-proclaimed Dervish Maudi and his entourage, and a young Kitchnener who, sadly, doesn't make an entrance until late into the novel and even then, a brief one. The battle descriptions and historical flirtations are what saved this novel from being tossed in the bin.
However, the real gem of the book are Smith's evocotive descriptions of Arabic life (again, shadows of Monsoon) and the Arabic culture, mirroring on a much smaller scale of both qualitiy and depth T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
The novel finally dies near the end where a confluence of events seem rushed, as if the author was hurried by his published to complete an ending. All in all, a solid peace of work that falls short of the author's earlier prose and one that I trust will be soon be forgotten in favour of the better writing before it.
