Assegai

Courtney - Assegai, Book 1

By: Wilbur Smith

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

From directly overhead he heard the loud flapping of heavy wings, and another vulture rose from beyond the screen of banana plants. Leon felt the chill of dread. If the brutes are settling that means there's meat lying out there, dead meat.

King and country. No matter the cost.

With the backing of his uncle, General Penrod Ballantyne, young Leon Courtney joins the King's Rifles of Nairobi. When he becomes discouraged by the dishonesty of army life, his uncle recruits him for a special mission - spying on the Germans in East Africa, whom the General suspects are preparing for the Kaiser's war. Posing as a professional game hunter, Leon is tasked with gathering information on one of his clients, wealthy industrialist Otto Von Meerbach.

Leon finds himself falling for Von Meerbach's beautiful mistress but never forgets that his real mission is to destroy the enemy. But how easy will he find his task when his true enemy is closer to home than Leon ever expected?

A Courtney adventure - book 1 in the Assegai sequence.

©2009 Wilbur Smith (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Wonderful adventure!

Excellent period piece! I learned a bit about a time that isn't addressed much these days in the 20th century.

A good WS Tale

It is a treat to get more of our history, albeit a tad "embellished".Great story.

Awesome!

fantastic read! Wilbur Smith is a phenomenal writer! I love the historical context of the book! I would recommend it to anyone !

Great book, wonderful reading

Imaginative historical fiction and perfect reading for listening to the story and absorbing every detail.

Excellent! Kept me up too late several nights

The story was excellent, listening to it late into the night and then over into the early hours of the morning caused me to be very tired the next day. Something I should not do, however, knowing something about Africa, the Rift Valley, and having a brother who has been on Safari four times makes me ready to follow along next year when he goes again. Understanding how life is here in America and hearing other’s experiences on Safari in the dark continent has me at least ready for the author’s next installment of adventures in Africa!

Headline (NOT optional it seems)...

A bit slower than the others in this series, but still an exciting epic adventure, with a wonderful performance.

Classic Wilbur Smith.

Sean Barrett is my favorite performer of the Smith books. Formulaic but well done. Entertaining and very enjoyable. I’ve read most of the other Smith books and wanted to revisit Africa.

wow what an awesome story

Seems as though Wilbur Smith's books not only get better chronologically, but they also become more meaningful to me.

Assegai offers special twists, moving from the traditional war and battle stories to hunting with a bang. Boy does Smith deliver. This is honestly one of the best hunting and African novels I have read. Painting vivid pictures of hunting's particular excitement, but the description if Africa and safari are clear, memorable and accurate.

Everything written brings back my memories. THANK YOU

ONE OF HIS BEST

I tried binge listening to Wilbur's various series but gave up after three because the soap operish quality of the storylines discouraged me. However of the three - and also in recollection of having read the same books years earlier - I think this is one of his best novels. It moves fast, contains real characters, doesn't limp along from one inevitable personal disaster to the next, and doesn't endlessly repeat the same formula.

Well narrated- many characters superb.

Bit too much violence but settings good. Liked the link to real events. Characters and history of the region. Made me go off and check a map.