Shout At The Devil by Wilbur Smith

This was my first Wilbur Smith book and I have to say, I loved it!

It is the eve of WWI, tensions are mounting all over the world and the people brace for the imminent bloodshed. Down in German occupied East Africa however, laughing in the face of Death is an unlikely duo: A flamboyant Irish American, Flynn O'Flynn, who proclaims himself to be the best ivory poacher in Africa and the perfect Englishman, Sebastian Oldsmith. The latter, on his way to Australia, ends up in Zanzibar where his belongings are stolen. An unwily Oldsmith is then recruited by Flynn, who shows him a letter from the German emperor himself, requesting Flynn to shoot up all his elephants because they were 'eating up all the grass and smashing up all the trees and things'! 

What begins as a comic escapade transforms into horrifying reality as WWI sets in and death strikes those dearest to them. The plot becomes grisly all too soon and the next thing you know people are dying left and right in manners I wouldn't care to recollect.

Nobody writes like Smith. He manages to craft detailed descriptions of Africa, it's people and their ways while at the same time bringing out an edge-of-your seat thriller. There is action right from the start, chases by land and sea, nasty crocodiles and nastier Germans, massacres, ambushes and disease. The level of detail he gets into is not for the faint hearted. Days after reading this book, the images of a dying Portuguese pilot and the graphic scenes of elephant slaughter is still all too vivid in my mind. But seriously, sentences like '...the kidneys popped like overripe Satsuma plums' made me reconsider dinner!  

What I loved here apart from the plot itself was that the villains, the Germans, were not portrayed entirely as the bad guys. Some of their seamen were cast as courageous, chivalrous and heroic. The story has a ring of authenticity to it, no part of it seemingly fictional or any person in the cast super-heroic. I found this lacking in the works of many authors, even some whose books I really like.

This book was unique and was a refreshing experience for me, very different from others in the same category. I look forward to reading more of Smith's books. 

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Pulling off 900 or so odd pages is a hard enough task for any author. But to make it doubly interesting to the reader is something only a few authors can dream of, and Tom Clancy is definitely one of them. All of his books overdose on detail so much that you can hardly keep track of the places, terms and such. But that is exactly what you'll love him for! In fact, I've come to believe, if a person remembers at least half the details in his war novels, he'll probably be shipped off by the NSA!

John Clark is back! But this time around, unfortunately, he is just a 'suit', a guy with a 'boring', as he calls it, desk job. Domingo Chavez, the adorable-yet-deadly Latino son-in-law of Clark heads a covert counter terrorist team based out of U.K under the able guidance of Clark. The team has many successful encounters under its belt and is earning its recognition. But looking closer and closer into the issues they'd dealt with, they begin to realize that they are dealing with something far greater and deadlier, something on the scale which they can hardly fathom.


"Look closely, because the closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see." -You know where this came from! (Best read in your mind in Morgan Freeman's voice)


The range of topics and ideas this book explores is quite astounding. An élite multinational counter terrorist force; a bunch of deadly eco terrorists who are hell bent on taking over the world; the Irish revolutionary army, the Basque terrorists of France and so much more. Clancy is a master of mystery, he builds up the theme very subtly and soundly, that only after reading through more than half the book do you really get the big picture, and that too, very vaguely. The multi stranded narrative is quite complex and weaves back and forth between multiple characters, scenes and back stories. But for all that, it is not in the least a pain to follow. A seemingly impossible task, you also remember many names almost as if by magic!

Lots of authors force their ideas upon you, we have no choice but to agree with their ideology and follow the plot. But Clancy is different, he tries to be a chronicler, he shows us the situation and delves deep into the minds of the people who are central to the story. This enables us to get a true feeling for the situation and perhaps think it out ourselves. I know because I did, and I have to tell you, it is extremely hard to think about a thriller like this one because all you can think about is to finish it as soon as possible!

One of the best books I've ever read, this book is more than worth a read. I read it for 7 hours straight till 4 in the morning! And also, many gamers would recognize, this book was made into a immensely popular game series.