Book: The Quest by Wilbur Smith

[Krishna]

** Original post July 31 2012 **

This is the fourth book in the Taita series. Unusually for Wilbur Smith, he tried out the ancient Egyptian scene (instead of his usual South African based books,  including River God, which has been reviewed here earlier.  With its phenomenal success was born the series. The second book, the Seventh Scroll, (Reviewed earlier) was the worst in the series which talked about two archaeologists following “Wilbur Smith the Historian’s” clues (yes, really) to unearth the tomb of the Pharoah mentioned in the River God. After being chastised by the relative failure of the book, he returned to his forte of Ancient Egypt to continue Taita’s adventures with the Warlock, ( Also reviewed here) which was also a great success. This one is a sequel to that one. It is interesting to see the tilt into magic and supernatural in this one, as compared to the first book, where the magic was incidental.

With this book, he continues the story of Taita, who now is really old, and pours a lot more magic and supernatural powers into the
story.

Taita now wants to help the Pharoah to combat an evil that stalks Egypt and indeed all of North Africa. The mighty, inexhaustible Nile has almost stopped flowing and the people are suffering all around. With the muddy swamp that is the Nile has become, there are also carnivorous man eating toads and other weird creatures that have suddenly appeared, and the remaining trickle of water has turned red like blood, making it unusable for both agriculture and drinking. People appeal to the Pharoah for help who has no idea what is
happening.

In the meanwhile, Queen Mintaka falls under the spell of some priests, headed by Soe, who promises her that a new Goddess has the power to cure the ills of the kingdom, as well as return to life the dead children of hers that she mourns with all her heart.

This all happened after Taita left Egypt on a pilgrimage that takes him to an advanced set of priests in the temple of Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning (and so, presumably, to India, though the author never says where) where his Inner Eye is opened and enhances his already considerable powers. When he returns, he divines that the misfortunes afflicting his beloved Egypt is the work of Eos, who is Evil Personified, and has lived for many thousands of years, inflicting misery in different parts of the world, and has constantly strived for world domination.

He realizes that she has to live in a hot place, at the centre of volcanoes and hears of a possible location in the Southern Africa, where a ring of volcanoes exist where Nile flows through. He picks Meren Campbyses, his able and loyal General and sets out to find and conquer her. In the midst of all this, Queen Lostris, the only love of his life (and who features in a major way in River God) sends signals that she is about to be reborn and return to him.

The story also involves Imbali and Nokonto, Sidudu, who was released from oppression by Meren and falls in love with him. It involves Fenn, a young girl rescued by Taita before he realizes that it is Lostris who has come back to him.

He meets other characters, evil and good, including re engineered intelligent large apes, regeneration of lost human organs – Meren’s eye, which is completely damaged, is regrown, and also gains back all the years he had lost in living them in the process.

The book is pure Wilbur Smith, and follows his formulaic plot, with good and evil characters duking it out, and also with enough gore, sex, blood and yuckiness to satisfy his fans.

The ending is very disappointing, in a way, though that is explicitly engineered to provide space for the next Taita book. (But that was not even necessary to do so).

It is as captivating as most other Wilbur Smith’s books, and has the tension that is normal in his books.

Another good read from Smith, but not as good as the Warlock or even River God, in my opinion.

Let us say, a 6/10

— Krishna