The Quest is a thrill ride

By Robert J. Wiersema

Blockbuster man; Wilbur Smith is a storyteller who knows how to keep readers wanting more -- his ancient-Egypt series is a thrill ride

In the historical transition from oral storytelling to written narrative, something was lost. Storytelling has an ineffable quality -- a sense of timelessness, of boldness and narrative intensity -- that many skilled writers, especially those who write outside of genre, lack.

Not all of them, though. Writers who can capture the outsize quality of storytelling without sacrificing literary quality are those whose works resonate deeply across a spectrum of readers. Neil Gaiman, Bryce Courtenay and Kelowna's Jack Whyte spring to mind.

Another such writer is Wilbur Smith. He's a consummate storyteller with all the literary chops a reader could ask for. Smith, who is 74 and lives in South Africa, grew up in Rhodesia (now Zambia). From an early age, he was inspired by the continent around him and by the depictions of Africa he read by authors as disparate as C.S. Forester and Ernest Hemingway.

A combination of fictionalised family history and detailed African insight formed the core of his first published novel, When the Lion Feeds, written when he was an unhappy civil servant in his early 30s.

To say that Africa has formed the backdrop for his 30 novels is something of an understatement. In his hands, Africa serves as a pivotal character rather than merely a landscape. In his two primary sagas focusing on the Courtney and Ballantyne families, he not only depicts the larger-than-life adventures of these families but also traces the recent history of the African continent, from exploration through colonialism into the modern period. These books are well-loved bestsellers, translated into 26 languages.

In his Egyptian series, Smith moved back in time to explore the romance and intrigues of ancient Egypt. Although this shift, and the inclusion of significant magical and mythical elements, initially alienated some of his faithful readers, the books have become bestsellers and won over most of the skeptics.

The Quest, the fourth novel in the Egypt series, begins with the warlock Taita and his faithful companion Meren, a celebrated warrior, arriving at the hidden temple of Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom and degeneration, after a treacherous five-year journey. As one of the leading champions of the Truth in its eternal conflict with the Lie, Taita is granted the gift of the Inner Eye, which is, among other things, an ability to read the auras of people around him to discern their true nature.

On their return to Egypt, Taita finds his new gifts put to the test. The country is suffering under a series of plagues, huge carnivorous toads are breeding along the banks of the Nile and, worst of all, the great river has dried to a mere trickle.

The life-giving annual Nile floods have failed to appear for seven years and the kingdom is in peril, with the Queen in the thrall of a mysterious preacher who has won her away from the old gods and convinced her to worship a mysterious goddess who promises to bring her dead children back to life.

Taita, who knows the new goddess is, in fact, a witch and a servant of the Lie, undertakes a quest beyond the borders of the known world, deep into the southlands. Travelling beyond maps, he, Meren and a quickly killed-off force of Egyptian soldiers undertake to find and defeat the witch, release the Nile from its bonds and bring the kingdom of Egypt back to life.

To achieve these ends, the forces of good will face near-starvation, cannibalism, betrayal, disease and more hazards than bear casual description. The Quest, like all best epics, is episodic, a series of peaks building not only to Taita's confrontation with the witch Eos but to the repercussions of that event.

It's a bold, expansive, thrillingly ramshackle runaway of a book, clearly influenced by such classics as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines but with a distinctly modern, and adult, flair. In it you'll find graphic violence, cringe-inducing surgery and a surprising amount of sexual content. (I would have loved this book as a 12-year-old.)

Characterizations are broad, though surprisingly effective, and Taita and Meren come vividly to life. The Quest isn't the sort of book you read for nuance, but it is almost as effective emotionally -- particularly when it concerns Taita and his lost love, Queen Lostris -- as it is thrilling.

The Quest is unlikely to be shortlisted for literary prizes or to appear on many year-end best-of lists. Instead, like all of Smith's books, it's the sort of novel that thrills readers, keeps them awake reading and sends them into bookstores and libraries in search of the next instalment.

It's the sort of book readers live for, the sort that sates, however fleetingly, the primal need for story that so often these days doesn't get fed.

Robert J. Wiersema, Vancouver Sun, Saturday, May 19, 2007

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