 "Seventh Scroll" | 2009-09-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: AT8P027E68U38 |
| I enjoyed this book just as I do almost all of Wilber Smith's books. This one was an excellent read and I found out it was hard to put down each time I started to read it. The plot just sucked you in. This was the 2nd book of a series, and with out reading the the 1st book, it would be a bit hard to know the whole plot, just like opening a thousand page book and starting on page five hundred. |
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| "Great sequel...4000 years later!" | 2009-03-31 |
| - Reviewed By topdragon |
"The Seventh Scroll", by Wilbur Smith is the follow-up to "River God", one of the best historical novels I have read in a very long time. "The Seventh Scroll" was meant to be read after "River God" but it is not exactly a sequel. It actually takes place in the present day with a couple of archeologist types who are out to discover the hidden tombs that were depicted in the first book. What an intriguing concept! What we got to live through before is now seen through the eyes of history, including all the distortions of history that are bound to happen. Afterall, what we assume to be true through archeological research isn't necessarily the way it really happened.
The author does another intriguing thing in this book. He inserts himself into his own fiction, having a main character refer to Wilbur Smith as having authored the fictional "River God" from information uncovered in the first 6 scrolls found in the tomb. Of course it is the 7th scroll that the characters are after in this second book. This leads to some funny moments as the two main protagonists argue about just how accurate Wilbur Smith was in the first book; one of them goes so far as to dismiss Mr Smith as a hack writer who changes the historical record in order to include more sex and violence. It's a twisted loop whereby an author actually negatively critques his own work...I guess you have to be pretty secure in your own writing career to do that. Regardless, it works wonderfully here.
The book itself was only slightly less enjoyable than the first. When you get right down to it, this is a pretty straight forward adventure/treasure hunting story along the likes of "Romancing the Stone". But Wilbur Smith is an outstanding writer who has a knack for making you read just a little more and then still more despite any deadlines you may have to deal with. You know the two main characters will hook up by the end but its not predictable how that happens. The dangerous scenes in the book are really dangerous and the suspense is spot on. As for historical accuracy...everything sure seemed to be accurate based on my limited knowledge of ancient Egypt and my trip to that country a few years ago. I hadn't planned on reading this series this year but now I am already looking forward to the third book, "Warlock", where we get to return to the ancient times and see what happens next!
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 "Enjoyed it - but not a quick read" | 2008-09-13 |
| - Reviewed By licinda |
| Working in Ireland for nearly two months I picked this up in a second hand bookshop and figured it would keep me occupied for a week. Three days later I finished the book and was wondering why I'd not read anything by Wilbur before. He has a command of word that many authors don't and this book combines the thrill of finding an unknown tomb, a mystery, romance and treasure hunt. Not many men can write a good romance amid all the other action but this guy nailed it. |
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| "A Rip-snorten African Adventure" | 2008-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By farcity1012 |
Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. I seem to have angered a Mormon over my negative reviews of books attempting to proof the Book of Mormon is an ancient document and not Joseph Smith's religious novel.
This person gives me a negative vote almost as soon as my reviews are posted. Oh, well. To be so threatened by the facts.
The plot of the "Seventh Scroll" grabbed me and wouldn't let go. A woman archaeologist and her husband find an Egyptian scroll that leads to the lost tomb of a pharaoh. The husband of Royan is murdered for the scroll, Royan escapes, and is soon aided by an Indiana Jones character named Nicholas. The wealthy Nicholas funds an expedition, and Nicholas and Royan head off to Ethiopia and find a lost tomb that had been ingeniously hidden by a river.
I don't want to give the story away, but I really got lost in this grand adventure. I had to overlook the fact that Smith referred to his previous novel "The River God" in this novel. That takes the reader out of the story, in my opinion. It sounded like an ad for "River God," and makes me less likely to read that novel.
Overall, it kept me turning the pages. If you haven't read "Cry Wolf," by Wilbur Smith, then you are in for another treat of an African adventure. An Indiana Jones character in the 1930s takes a convoy of armored cars into the Ethiopian highlands with the Italian army in hot pursuit.
We should all urge Hollywood to make these two novels into movies. We need some new takes on the Indiana Jones genre. Go for it, Hollywood!
Click here for Cry Wolf: Cry Wolf |
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| "Another excellent Wilbur Smith novel" | 2008-04-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3BY0O5ZK0HQTI |
After reading River God I had to jump right back in to another great Wilbur Smith book. It ties in nicely with River God - both are excellent books although I enjoyed Rived God slightly more. Wilbur Smith's books are great I just wish I had time to read them all.
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 "Double-O Jones" | 2008-03-25 |
| - Reviewed By aonarach |
In this sequel to "River God", Wilbur Smith leaps forward 4000 years to tell the story of archeologists, adventurists, and opportunists as they converge on the secret tombs of Pharaoh that Taita, the brilliant slave, constructed in Ethiopia during the exodus of that earlier story. The opportunities for continuity were enormous, but sadly, Smith does not develop these opportunities.
His main character is a refined British adventurer, a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones, whom Smith endows with virtue and a cunning, clever mind, even though this character stalks an endangered species for the purpose of killing it as a trophy, and removes ancient Egyptian artifacts for later sale at auction. The female love interest is an Egyptologist who inexplicably looks past this behavior with adoring eyes. Woven throughout are mercenaries, insurgents, wealthy bad guys, and traitors: so many characters that "The Seventh Scroll" would have become a "War and Peace" of Africa had Smith fully developed these separate story lines. And then there is a backstory that is not fully described: the discovery of ancient scrolls in Egypt, the seventh of which alludes tantalizingly toward an undiscovered tomb that might contain enormous wealth. This story alone could have introduced the quest and the action in a satisfying continuation of the earlier story, yet Smith skips over this. Rubbing salt into the wound, Smith inserts himself and his book, "River God", into the story, as Clive Cussler does in the later Dirk Pitt novels. This gimmick collapses the suspension of disbelief to become annoying.
These are harsh words for the follow-up to a marvelously-written novel. "The Seventh Scroll" is readable as a light (although long-winded) adventure story, just wince at the corny dialog and wooden characters and focus instead upon those few connections to Taita that extend the story in "River God" just that little bit further. |
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