The Quest – book review

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Wilbur Smith’s most recent book in his Egyptian series “The Quest.”  I am a huge fan of Mr Smith.  His book “River God” is my all time favorite book.   So with great anticipation I was ready to get lost in ancient Egypt with my old friends.  This book, for a Wilbur Smith novel,  was a new experience for me; I had to force myself to finish the book.  I reminded myself how much I loved “River God” and surely this will get better. I bull-dogedly finished the book and was disgusted.  I have no idea What Mr. Smith was thinking? What did he do with the Taita? Is Mr. Smith going through a mid-life crisis and this is how he expressed it? 

Taita had been a eunuch since his teens and spending a lifetime of evolving above human fallacies and weaknesses, at the age of 170 Taita all of sudden succumbs to lusty desires and whims and through the fantastical theme of this book, Taita re-grows his “manhood” and takes up with the re-incarnation of Fenn/Lostrus who is only a young teenager.  Huh? When did the Egyptian series abandon the historical fiction and become a fantasy?

I think Wilbur Smith should claim someone assuming his name wrote this book while he was in a comma. This book is so bad it has even tarnished my memory of “River God.”