:books Novel Ideas THE TRIUMPH OF THE SUN Wilbur Smith (Pan Books, p.p 630, B350, Available at Asia Books) Wilbur Smith is arguably one of Africa’s best advocates and undoubtedly one of its best authors. Almost all of his 30+ adventure stories are woven into the key historical events that have shaped this gigantic continent. His latest in the series, Triumph of the Sun, is as much an account of the fall of the Sudanese capital Khartoum in the late 1800’s as it is a compelling story of a love-triangle ripped apart in the vestiges of war. The ancient Sudanese capital, on the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, is under siege from the Dervish – a fanatical extreme Islamic movement who use the pretext of war to unite Arab tribes against the Egyptian “Turks” and the European “Franks”. With eerily familiar scenes of religious intolerance and human rights abuses, the story traces the lives of the British Consul in Khartoum, who is trapped with his three daughters, awaiting extraction by a British relief force. For Wilbur Smith fans, it also sees the blending of his two fictional families, the Ballantynes’ and the Courtneys’, giving us two very different heroes each playing a key role in the development of the plot. Opposite them Osman Atalan is a cunning Beja warrior, who rises rapidly from the ranks from an Emir (tribal leader) to be the right hand man of the Spiritual Leader of the Dervish, who realizes his hold on power is based in the “holy war” uniting the tribal enemies against a common foe, which extends beyond the sacking of Khartoum. In very uncharacteristic fashion, after 600 pages of intricate detail about the rambling journeys and adventures spanning the Nile from Cairo to Ethiopia, Wilbur Smith squeezes the entire battle for the British liberation of the Sudan into the final 20 pages of the book. It glosses past a few magnificent literary magnets (like the role of the fledgling Winston Churchill in what was to become the last cavalry charge of all time). As the story gallops to its conclusion we felt a little robbed at the abrupt end to the bitter feud between two mortal enemies (which consumes us throughout the book). Despite this, Triumph of the Sun is true to Wilbur Smith’s genre, and is an enthralling read. Rakau
A CHAMELEON’S TALE Mo Tejani (Paiboon Publishing, p.p 265, B450 released this month) Mo Tejani was a happy kid, who was bitten very early on by the travel bug. If he skipped home for the weekend he didn’t simply camp at the neighbour’s house. He was across the border exploring some exotic land, living with tribal warriors, or mastering a new language. And by the time he’d scaled Mt Kilimanjaro, his destiny was sealed as a pioneer of the wilderness. During Mo’s teens, his life was irrevocably changed when he – along with 80,000 other Asians – was expelled from his Ugandan homeland by Idi Amin. Having watched his friend die in the streets at the hands of government troops, and seen his own family divided in the mass exodus, he found himself on his own in a new country with foreign values and little understanding of his situation. Stripped of his roots, Mo became a global chameleon, moving constantly, and blending into each new environment as best he could. Understanding the trauma of having your life up-rooted, he found his calling working in refugee camps for different aid groups all over the world. Mo would be the first to immerse himself in his new environment – learning the language and customs, and really getting to know the people. His mission was to equip refugees for resettlement by learning what to expect in their new environment. As a displaced person, Mo related better to the refugees than he did to the organization staff, many of whom he thought had ulterior motives for advancing their causes. As Mo travelled the world, from one ethnic hotspot to the next, he always took time out to explore and conquer the elements. From overland treks to Macchu Picchu while working in the jungles of South America, to scaling the peaks of some of the more remote mountains of Nepal, Mo has been to places most of us don’t even know exist. His journeys are eye-opening, and his narrative precise and poignant. A Chameleon’s Tale is an easy novel to read, and a hard one to put down. Rakau
THE RECKONING: A TALE OF THE VAMPIRE OF SIAM Jim Newport (Willat Publishing, p.p 262, B385) The character got under his skin and into his blood. In the final part of the The Vampire of Siam Trilogy, Jim Newport reports that he is merely a vessel, commanded by the beast himself to finish the tale of Ramonne Delacroix. Delacroix is an 175 year old resident vampire of Bangkok, who wreaked terror on victims for three centuries until he was ‘reborn’ into the modern-day setting. After acting out his last task as a hitman for a notorious Thai gang lord, Ramonne begins to realize his new role as bloodsucker with a conscience. He retraces his past to Cambodia, where he once explored the remains of Angkor Wat with best friend and mentor, Henri Mouhot. It was in a cave of the Bayan temple that the ancient vampire Zhoupeng bit Ramonne and lent him to his fate. Now, contemporary Cambodia is under threat again as Zhoupeng joins forces with the Khmer Rouge to embark on a killing rampage and pilfer invaluable artifacts from the Angkor Wat ruins. This latest endeavour affects Martin Larue, who has founded an orphanage just outside the temple ruins. Larue is no stranger to vampires, having befriended and being aligned with Delacroix when he was living in Bangkok. Since becoming enlightened and moving to Cambodia to start a new life, his adopted nest of 12 children and his life partner Areeya have become everything to him. As the story unfolds, we learn to empathize with the soulless Ramonne, who despite his life as a “forsaken one”, has the heart to face his own demons and the unabashedly evil Zhoupeng in a supernatural showdown like no other. In the meantime, Newport’s tale evokes fantastic imagery of Thailand and Cambodia past and present, and his tale is delivered with enough wit and action to make for a reading frenzy. Simply put: It’s Anne gone sticky Rice. AM
56:metro july 2006
144 books.pmd
56
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