The Sunbird By Wilbur Smith

When I visit my library, I always wander through the stacks and after examining favorite authors I always seem to be drawn to the works of Wilbur Smith. The Sun Bird was written in 1973; the price on the cover was $7.50. I read it years ago but the story tugged at my memory so I reread it.

This was a wonderful tale! A marvelous factual history of South Africa combined with an imaginative and detailed story; the idea of a Phoenician city and culture established 2000 years ago.

A series of aerial photographs shown to a prominent Archaeologist and a wealthy industrialist, Louren Sturvesant, seem to indicate that an unknown city may have been photographed. The Archaeologist, Benjamin Kazin, has been writing about the legendary, city of ‘Ophir, the prehistoric gold-working civilization of Central Africa with special reference to the city of Zimbabwe and the legend of the ancients and the lost city of the Kalahari.
The photos are enough for the industrialist to finance an exploratory expedition.

Louran and Ben are lifelong and very close friends. Loren has always been a leader, excelling in sports, hunting and business. Ben, with a physical disability is a hunch back; strong and intelligent and willing to follow Louran anywhere.

A small group of dedicated men and women travel to an isolated desert
location only to meet with disappointment after disappointment until only Ben Kazin and his assistant are left alone for an additional month to look for some indication of a city or a culture. As water supplies begin to run out the discover, by following birds and monkeys, the entrance to a huge area that contains a deep pool and on the walls, there are ancient drawings and paintings and a marvelous, giant sized, painting of an ancient warrior. The expedition returns and excavation begins. The dig reveals only a paucity of information until careful examination of the warrior painting enables the party to discover an area that produces written records engraved on gold sheets that tell the history of the civilization. The history, also, describes the fall of the city. The author of these scrolls was a hunchback named Huy.

Wilbur Smith has the imagination and the ability to create danger, suspense and grand adventure where his characters are faced with unique and mysterious puzzles that must be unraveled as the story reaches it’s climax. Just when you think the story has ended, a long and detailed imaginative story is told about the last king of the city, Lannon, and his loyal counselor. the hunchback, ax wielding warrior named Huy from the time that Lannon took kingship through the battle for the city that cost Lannon and Huy their lives. It seemed to me to be a parallel life to that of Louran and Ben. I, really liked this story (again).