Keihästen sankarit

kindle addition

The book is every reason why everyone should read Historical fiction. Leads the reader through a different time and place and broadens your vocabulary. ( )

The beginning and end of this book are very good and very exciting, but in the middle it drops off so much that I almost gave up on it. Perhaps it's because I'm spoilt having read so much H Rider Haggard, but the endless safari/hunting scenes in the middle paled in comparison to those in Haggard's African books. They were too drawn out and just lacked the excitement I'm used to in such scenes. However, it is not fair to concentrate on this middle bit when, as I said, the beginning and end are really very good. Cut some of the padding in the middle and this would have got at least four stars from me. Definitely worth reading if you like period African adventures, just don't expect another H Rider Haggard. ( )

Smooth writing and story telling but it's just.... blah? Predictable, dull, yawn, forgettable. A book I'd read on a plane, and leave behind for the next passenger. ( )

In 1913 Leon Courtney, an ex-soldier turned professional hunter in British East Africa, guides rich and powerful men from America and Europe on big game safaris in the territories of the Masai tribe. Leon has developed a special relationship with the Masai. One of Leon's clients is Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German industrialist whose company builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser's burgeoning army. Leon is recruited by his uncle Penrod Ballantyne (from The Triumph of the Sun) who is commander of the British forces in East Africa to gather information from Von Meerbach. Instead Leon falls desperately in love with Von Meerbach's beautiful and enigmatic mistress, Eva Von Wellberg. Just prior to the outbreak of World War I Leon stumbles on a plot by Count Von Meerbach to raise a rebellion against Britain on the side of Germany amongst the disenchanted survivors of the Boer War in South Africa. He finds himself left alone to frustrate Von Meerbach's design. Then Eva Von Wellberg returns to Africa with her master and Leon finds out who and what she really is behind the mask... Assegai is the latest of the Courtney novels.