Desert God

Being a Wilbur Smith fan for over 20 years, I highly anticipated the latest novel in the Ancient Egypt series. The return of Taita, one of the most annoying book characters that I ever came across. Vain, arrogant, but still central in some of the best adventure novels ever written (in my humble opinion).

However, I found this latest novel disappointing. I remember reading somewhere that Wilbur Smith is now assisted in writing his novels by others, and it starts to show. Taita is a mere shadow of the vile character that he was in earlier books from the series (River God, a master piece...) and the plot is stretched thin over too many pages. All of a sudden, the book ends and the main story is not finished yet. I have the awkward feeling that we will see an Ancient Egypt part #6 or even part #7 in due course to finish the plot, but I am not sure that you can count me in on that one.

That said, it is still a nice read, and a well written adventure story. But it lacks some of the enchantment that drew me deep into the eearlier novels. Times change, and not always for the better.