TRIUMPH OF THE SUN

As the city of Khartoum is attacked in 1884, British subjects Captain Penrod Ballantyne, trader Ryder Courtney, and Consul David Benbrook and his three daughters fight for their lives and freedom. Tim Pigott-Smith reads action scenes with plenty of emotion, making listeners feel the horror of a man dying from burns in a sea battle, a beheading, or a torture device designed to crush a man's windpipe when he tires of pitting himself against it. His rapid-fire, breathless narration as he reads the epic action adds to the pulse-pounding tone. To abridge or not to abridge? Wilbur Smith himself says he enjoyed this slimmed-down reading, which moves as swift as an arrow to its conclusion. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]