Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding easy read
Review: Mr. Smith has given a history lesson that would work well in any school. From the very first page he manages to enlist the reader as a member of this band of adventurers. I was almost able to see myself battling alongside Hal and his companions as they traveled the seas and coastlines of south Africa. It was hard to put this book down and I hated for it to end
Rating:
Summary: The third best of all of his books!
Review: A friend of mine sent this book to me from England so I got a head start on the U.S.. The problem with the book is I couldn't put it down. Now I have to wait another year or two for Mr. Smith to write anothe great book. The adventure never stops from the first page to the last. You love Hal and hate his enemies. You may get sea sick from the rolling of his ship. You will be aroused by his affair. Once again, do not pass this book on to a friend. You won't get it back
Rating:
Summary: What a magnificent book!!!
Review: Wilbur Smith has become one of my favorite authors. "Birds of Prey" was packed full of action, adventure, and romance. What more could one want in a novel! Much attention was given to detail. Be prepared to have your nautical dictionary at hand. Hal Courtney and the other charcters were developed in such a way that the reader has a genuine interest in their well-being. The plot is fast paced and keeps you turning the pages. I highly recommend this book, as well as, "Elephant Song", "River God", and "The Seventh Scroll". I can't wait to read the next Wilbur Smith novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Pirate Blather
Review: If you spend enough time browsing around in bookstores you learn a few things. A pretty obvious one is this: if a novel has a very lurid cover and only a very few positive blurbs on the inside cover, it is probably not very good. But some indicators are a little more subtle. For example, if you come across a prolific author you've never heard of, yet one who writes in a genre for which you are constantly on the alert . . . well, this is usually a very bad sign. One should heed such signs. Too bad for me, I didn't.
It is a pirate story, which probably explains my lack of caution. How can one resist colorful rogues, cutlasses, shipboard battles, hidden treasure? Of course, most of us can't. Which is why so many of them are published, and why there are so few good ones.
In this one the pirates are English privateers, plying their trade off the coast of southern Africa and looking for rich Dutchmen. The captain is Sir Francis Courtenay, a pious and stern taskmaster. Along with him is his son, Hal, the youthful protégé. They are the good guys of the book, the ones we are supposed to root for. Except it is a little hard to do so. We are told that the captain is brave, strong, and smart, and loved by his men. But in reality, he comes across as school-marmish, a bespectacled, bewildered victim. The son is also supposed to invoke our admiration, with his handsome virility and strength. But he comes across as a loutish blockhead; the Beverly Hillbilly Jethro with a pirate costume.
The bad guys are really, really bad. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. What is worse is that the author stacks the deck against them. One of the more despicable characters, walking into a room, is described as, "smarming" into it. As he is portrayed from beginning to end as the practical embodiment of evil incarnate, is this really necessary? The lead female bad-guy is a vicious, sadistic bisexual, who taunts sailors on an approaching ship by flaunting her bare breasts at them! As she happens to be the wife of the governor of the Dutch colony in 1667 South Africa--1667--this is not only unbelievable, but ridiculous.
The dialogue is awful. Everyone speaks to each other in blunt, un-nuanced banalities. The hero's girlfriend can't walk near him without telling him how wonderful he is. "'Where did you learn to please a girl, so?' Sukeena asked breathlessly." His response: "'Tis simply that we fit together so perfectly. My special places were meant to touch your special places.'" You almost want to retch. Enemies, whether the good guys or the bad guys, taunt each other mercilessly at every opportunity, like nasty children on a playground. Here is the less-than-inspiring bit of dialogue between the hero and his mortal enemy, shortly after the start of their climactic sword fight: "'First blood is mine, I think, sir?' 'It was sir,' Hal conceded. 'But whose will be the last?'" This is the best he can come up with? What a simpleton.
What is really frustrating is that there are occasional fragments of good writing, particularly when the author describes the African landscape and its wild denizens. A hippopotamus, angered by their riverboat, charges them: "The hippo was moving along the bottom in a slow dreamlike gallop, clouds of mud boiling up under her hooves." Here is a description of a water buffalo, sensing danger from an unseen hunter: " . . . He stopped and raised his huge black head. As he lifted his muzzle to test the air, his nose was wet and shining, and water drooled from his mouth." These kinds of things are very engaging.
But alas, the book is primarily about humans. Humans who are pirates, to be sure, who fight on the high seas, who are captured and tortured, and who trek across wild Africa. But they are to a person a dull, insipid, witless lot, and by the end you realize that despite their adventures, they were really not much fun to hang around with at all. [...]
Rating:
Summary: Texas Reader
Review: This book was great. The action was good and the characterization superior. One really cares about the characters. I can hardly wait to read more!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Adventure
Review: Hal Courteney is still being trained to the ways of the sea. When his father, Sir Francis Courteney, is captured, tortured and killed by greed and betrayal, Hal is left in command of the few surviving crewmembers. Somehow Hal has to escape from captivity and regain his birthright, provide for his men, and fulfill the debt that he owes to those responsible for the destruction of his father. Swashbuckling adventure. I can see Errol Flynn's sword flashing through these pages. - Recommended to me by a nephew, it's good to see that good taste in reading has been passed down the family.
Rating:
Summary: A good book- although I COULD put it down
Review: I have enjoyed several of Wilbur Smith's books and chose to read Birds of Prey based on its reviews. There were parts of the story that I enjoyed but I found some of the graphic sex scenes to be disturbing and totally unnecessary to the plot. Smith went into such detail during some events of the story (like the weird sex scenes) and yet the last part of the story seemed to be rushed through. I found myself interested in the story but not dying to know what was going to happen next (like I felt while reading some of Smith's other books like The Seventh Scroll and River God.) Wilbur Smith is an excellent author and I will probably read Monsoon which is the continuation of Birds of Prey. I hope to be swept up in the adventure and NOT able to put THAT one down.
Rating:
Summary: delivers another power packed punch
Review: following the story of this family is fabulous:
swashbuckeling, pirates, ships, a little history, steamy romance - who said pirates are only for guys? I love this series and can't wait to read more! As for this book: great.
Rating:
Summary: Another homerun for Wilbur Smith
Review: This is the third Wilbur Smith book I've read following River God and Seventh scroll and it REALLY is as good as the reviews say. I loved it, and can't wait to jump right into Monsoon to see what happens to Hal next.
Rating:
Summary: Rrrrrr! eally good book!
Review: This has to be one of my favourite books. It was my first Smith book and he definitely lives up to the hype. Its every thing a good adventure novel should be, with well defined characters, loads of sword swinging action, intrigue, betrayal and even a heavy dose of eroticism thrown in for good measure. I like his style of writing. He possesses an almost liquid command of prose that seems to flow from one sentence to the other, never yielding to monotony. That is the mark of a good writer, a talent that a lot of modern-day authors lack. Since 'Birds of Prey',I have read a list of other Wilbur Smith books and I'm yet to be dissapointed. If you like a good Indiana Jones/James Bond/Treasure Island/Historically correct book, check out Smith without hesitation.
The man is the Stephen Spielberg of adventure novels, not the mention an engrossing storyteller. He'll hook you from the first page. AHHH,the pleasures of a good read are underrated!
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