A Sparrow Falls [Paperback]

I first read When The Lion Feeds, The Sound Of Thunder and this novel about 15 years ago and have read them at least three times since. However, I'm always looking forward to getting to this novel.

I love the characters in this novel, Sean Courtney, of course; Mark Anders (the son Sean Courney never had), Storm Courtney. I feel a real connection to them all, even Dirk Courtney, Sean Courtney's handsome yet evil son.

The pace is swift and engrossing. The plot is vast in scope, from Flanders fields though the Johannesburg Strikes and the formation of land reform to conserve the animals that Sean Courtney made his fortune hunting.

General Sean Courtney first meets Mark Anders, a young sniper from his native Natal (Zululand). Mark is sent out to hunt a German sniper in no man's land and is badly wounded.

On returning to South Africa after months in hospital, young Anders discovers that his Grandfather has been murdered and his land taken by Dirk Courtney for an ambitious project to create farmland from Ladysburg to Chaka's Gate (a fictional wilderness) on the Indian Ocean coast.

Mark sets out to find what really happened to his Grandfather and to bring those to justice who killed the old man.

It seems Mark's and General Courtney's lives are destined to intertwine, but Mark doesn't know whether the man he admired in France is involved in the conspiracy.

The General's beautiful daughter, Storm (concieved in a thunderstorm during the beginning of the Boer War) is a spoiled socialite who Mark immediately falls in love with when she and her father enter the car show room where he works in Durban.

General Courtney is delighted to see the young man again as he greatly admired him as a young man of great destiny. He sets out to win over Mark and to mould him.

It is with a heavy heart that Sean eventually learns what his son has done and sets out to help Mark get the proof he needs.

Their relationship blossoms into that of a father and son, but tragedy is close at hand...

This novel has everything. It isn't a great work of literature by any means, but it is extremely engaging. Now that's not something you can say about some of the "great works of literature" is it? The writing is tight and well-paced and although the characters are not exactly three-dimensional, it works.

Can be read as a stand alone, but I recommend reading the previous two as you will get to know Sean Courtney better that way. But it isn't necessary, as I know people who have thouroughly enjoyed this novel as just that.

We begin in the first World War where Sean first meets Mark and there is an instant respect and fondness between the two. After coming back to South Africa only to find his grandfather dead, Mark embarks on a path which eventually brings him to the truth about his grandfather, to Sean and his family, to his life long abition protecting the wildlife, and to a girl who he falls in love with. Another string to Wilber Smiths bow is his brilliant description of romance and love. Its incredibly moving the way he describes the intimate scenes between a man and a woman. Without giving away anything, all I will say is that the ending to this book is so poignant and stunning that it will leave you shocked for a long while after you've finished it. Do yourself a favour, read this book, and its two predecessors, 'When the lion feeds' and 'The sound of thunder'. They will awake a new, special emotion within you that you never realised you had.

A time of change in this fledgling country Sean faces the turmoil of brewing communism, racism and civil unrest against a background of his own family problems. His estranged son Dirk with his almost insane quest for power uses any means including murder to get what he wants. Dirk embodies everything Sean hates in a man but he is torn to emotional pieces by the dilemmas which face many parents with offspring who have strayed beyond redemption.

Sean's daughter Storm is the source of his greatest joy but has been brought up in a manner fitting the decadance of the time. Ruth is at his side throughout as his soul and anchor but Sean mourns the loss of his one remaining blood son in the war. Mark Anders fills this gaping hole in Seans life and awakening Sean to a new way of thinking about the land in which they live.

The story is laced with fact and centres on Mark Anders and his trials and tribulations with himself, his loves and his beliefs.

In the best Smith tradition you are taken on an emotional roller-coaster. With consumate ease he lays bare the hearts and thoughts of his characters in a way that provokes a searching of the soul even on the part of the most casual reader.

Africa is described in Smiths usual awe inspiring way and you are transported to this time and place without even realising.

There are defining moments in every nations history and the story ends at the dawn of wildlife conservation as we know it today - but it all could have been so different.