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Hungry as the Sea
Through shipwreck and hurricane, in the ice of the Antarctic and the thundering surf of the African coast, Nick Berg is a man in his element, fighting back against the ruthless ambition of the arch-rival who stole his wife and son and robbed him of an empire.
The "Golden Prince" is deposed; once the flamboyant chairman of a huge shipping consortium, now the captain of a salvage tug.
Then a cruise ship, stranded with 600 people in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, could be his chance to fight back. His heroic salvage of the liner sweeps him back to even greater power and even more deadly conflict with the man who has supplanted him as chairman.
The "Golden Prince" is deposed; once the flamboyant chairman of a huge shipping consortium, now the captain of a salvage tug.
Then a cruise ship, stranded with 600 people in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, could be his chance to fight back. His heroic salvage of the liner sweeps him back to even greater power and even more deadly conflict with the man who has supplanted him as chairman.
504 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Wilbur Smith
426 books4,042 followersWilbur Smith was the bestselling author of many novels, each researched on his numerous expeditions worldwide. His bestselling Courtney series includes Assegai, The Sound of Thunder, Birds of Prey, Monsoon, and Blue Horizon. His other books include Those in Peril, River God, Warlock, The Seventh Scroll, and The Sunbird.
His books have been translated into twenty-six languages and have sold over 120 million copies. Smith was born to a British family in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, in Central Africa, and attended Rhodes University in South Africa. By the time of his death in 2021 he had published 49 books and had sold more than 140 million copies.
Wilbur Smith died at his Cape Town home on November 13, 2021. He was 88 years old at the time of his death.
His books have been translated into twenty-six languages and have sold over 120 million copies. Smith was born to a British family in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, in Central Africa, and attended Rhodes University in South Africa. By the time of his death in 2021 he had published 49 books and had sold more than 140 million copies.
Wilbur Smith died at his Cape Town home on November 13, 2021. He was 88 years old at the time of his death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
January 20, 2023
Jan 16, 9am ~~ This is my first official reading of Hungry As The Sea, but I have read it twice in my pre-GR years. I must be getting more critical in my old age because I remember liking it much more Back In The Day than I did this time around.
But it is still a Wilbur Smith book, and that means fast pacing, dramatic adventure, nearly unbelievable feats of strength by the main characters, incredibly male men and incredibly female women. Oh, and a lot of blood and guts due to violent deaths. That is always something to keep in mind with WS.
When we first meet main character Nicholas Berg he is at the very bottom of a low point in his life. He was married to a beautiful woman, had a young son, was boss of world renowned shipping company Christy Marine, and was developing projects that could revolutionize the way crude oil was transported.
But that was before the divorce.
Now Nicholas is angry, hurt, broke, owns nothing except two salvage tugs: one still at the shipbuilders in France and the other in Cape Town South Africa, where the crew are nervously awaiting the arrival of their new tug master, Nicholas Berg himself. Rarely does an owner act as Master. They have heard stories about him, but could he really know enough to be in charge of the hazardous situations a salvage tug encounters?
They will soon find out, and the whole experience will either bring Nicholas back to roaring life or destroy him forever. Add in a little romance and a few encounters with the ex-wife and her new husband (who oddly enough is now in charge of Christy Marine) and you get an idea of the dynamics of the story. Oh, and of course I forgot the hurricane and the potential environmental disaster lurking in the later chapters!
I usually love WS, but somehow this time through the book felt a bit over the top. The first section was the most intense, anything in Antarctica is, you know. But gradually I lost interest and began to wonder just how superhuman Nicholas Berg might really be. There are limits to anyone's endurance, after all. So I ended the book with more than a few eye rolls, and not all of them caused by the events happening on the pages. Some of my eye rolls were triggered by the pages themselves.
I have no idea how I could read this exact edition at least twice before and not remember this, but there were four pages towards the end that were blank. Not four in a bunch, they were spread out, but it meant I was all involved in the action, held my breath, turned the page, and there was no print on it! Have mercy, I couldn't believe it. Luckily it was easy enough to figure out from the following pages what had happened in the blank spot, but when it happened again a few pages later I looked ahead to get prepared. What if some really vital information was missing?!
It wasn't, but it was still a shock all four times.
This year I had six stand alone Wilbur Smith novels planned for my reading, but I have removed one of them since I read it last in 2021 and that is really too soon for a reread. So I will eventually be dipping into four new-to-me titles.
Hope there are no blank pages in them! lol
But it is still a Wilbur Smith book, and that means fast pacing, dramatic adventure, nearly unbelievable feats of strength by the main characters, incredibly male men and incredibly female women. Oh, and a lot of blood and guts due to violent deaths. That is always something to keep in mind with WS.
When we first meet main character Nicholas Berg he is at the very bottom of a low point in his life. He was married to a beautiful woman, had a young son, was boss of world renowned shipping company Christy Marine, and was developing projects that could revolutionize the way crude oil was transported.
But that was before the divorce.
Now Nicholas is angry, hurt, broke, owns nothing except two salvage tugs: one still at the shipbuilders in France and the other in Cape Town South Africa, where the crew are nervously awaiting the arrival of their new tug master, Nicholas Berg himself. Rarely does an owner act as Master. They have heard stories about him, but could he really know enough to be in charge of the hazardous situations a salvage tug encounters?
They will soon find out, and the whole experience will either bring Nicholas back to roaring life or destroy him forever. Add in a little romance and a few encounters with the ex-wife and her new husband (who oddly enough is now in charge of Christy Marine) and you get an idea of the dynamics of the story. Oh, and of course I forgot the hurricane and the potential environmental disaster lurking in the later chapters!
I usually love WS, but somehow this time through the book felt a bit over the top. The first section was the most intense, anything in Antarctica is, you know. But gradually I lost interest and began to wonder just how superhuman Nicholas Berg might really be. There are limits to anyone's endurance, after all. So I ended the book with more than a few eye rolls, and not all of them caused by the events happening on the pages. Some of my eye rolls were triggered by the pages themselves.
I have no idea how I could read this exact edition at least twice before and not remember this, but there were four pages towards the end that were blank. Not four in a bunch, they were spread out, but it meant I was all involved in the action, held my breath, turned the page, and there was no print on it! Have mercy, I couldn't believe it. Luckily it was easy enough to figure out from the following pages what had happened in the blank spot, but when it happened again a few pages later I looked ahead to get prepared. What if some really vital information was missing?!
It wasn't, but it was still a shock all four times.
This year I had six stand alone Wilbur Smith novels planned for my reading, but I have removed one of them since I read it last in 2021 and that is really too soon for a reread. So I will eventually be dipping into four new-to-me titles.
Hope there are no blank pages in them! lol
August 8, 2012
This is a good book; maybe not Smith's best, but certainly above average for the genre. The combination of solid plotting and engaging technical detail (who knew there could be such a thing?) makes for an eventful and thought-provoking read.
The then-contemporary storyline covers salvage workers on the world's oceans. It doesn't sound like the most entertaining of subjects, but in Smith's hands it's both suspenseful and exciting. The initial extended set-piece involving the attempted salvage of a ship and the rescue of passengers in some extremely hostile icy contains is excellent and really kicks things off on a high.
The middle section of the story does get bogged down a bit with a romantic sub-plot, although the hero is interesting enough to keep you reading. Things build to an inevitable climax which makes use of some plot contrivance but nonetheless doesn't disappoint. The villain in this one isn't quite as diabolical as in some of Smith's other novels but nonetheless I found this to be, as a whole, a well-plotted and enjoyable book that I'm glad I found the time to read.
The then-contemporary storyline covers salvage workers on the world's oceans. It doesn't sound like the most entertaining of subjects, but in Smith's hands it's both suspenseful and exciting. The initial extended set-piece involving the attempted salvage of a ship and the rescue of passengers in some extremely hostile icy contains is excellent and really kicks things off on a high.
The middle section of the story does get bogged down a bit with a romantic sub-plot, although the hero is interesting enough to keep you reading. Things build to an inevitable climax which makes use of some plot contrivance but nonetheless doesn't disappoint. The villain in this one isn't quite as diabolical as in some of Smith's other novels but nonetheless I found this to be, as a whole, a well-plotted and enjoyable book that I'm glad I found the time to read.
February 23, 2011
Wilbur Smith is one of my favorite authors. He is also one of the most frustrating because I either tend to love his books (most of them) or just hate them (Sunbird? oh please!) I'm happy to say that this falls in the former category. The edition I just read is from 1978 and basically fortold the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This book is full of adventure, intrigue, revenge and romance. One of the best adventure books I've ever read.
September 5, 2011
2.6
Let me explain
5 descriptions of weather -rivaled only by those in David Brin's Earth?
4 descriptions of the movement of the sea.
-1 descriptions of love interests' POV/gaze. yuck.
AVG 2.6
March 15, 2011
I'll read anything that has storms and ocean-going salvage tugs. This book has both, in addition to a vendetta, corporate and individual malfeasance, and romantic rivalry. The parts of the book dealing with those latter elements are the weakest. But Smith writes really well about ships during storms; the salvaging of the ocean liner in the beginning is riveting. One reviewer on Amazon complained that Smiths gets too technical and detailed during the storm scenes. Hell, man. That's the best part!
There were times, however, when I felt I had fallen into an As the World Turns version of Alice in Wonderland. The story revolves around the rivalry of Duncan Alexander (the bad guy) and Nicholas Berg (the good guy) for control, of Christie Marine and the attentions of Chantelle Christie, owner of the company and a large fortune. The “child” at issue is the “Golden Dawn,” and immense (7,000 foot) super tanker (my incredulity at the size was beginning to become an irritant) designed by Nicholas but built by Duncan after Duncan forced Nicholas from the company. The inevitable then takes control of the plot, you know, Duncan cuts corners, the ship in Nicholas’s view is unsafe, and the maiden voyage will be carrying Nicholas’s son by Chantelle. Yawn. Nicholas, meanwhile, has built his dream salvage tug. You can guess where this is going.
Four stars for the storm scene in the beginning; one for the soap.
Read Jan de Hartog or Farley Mowat instead.
There were times, however, when I felt I had fallen into an As the World Turns version of Alice in Wonderland. The story revolves around the rivalry of Duncan Alexander (the bad guy) and Nicholas Berg (the good guy) for control, of Christie Marine and the attentions of Chantelle Christie, owner of the company and a large fortune. The “child” at issue is the “Golden Dawn,” and immense (7,000 foot) super tanker (my incredulity at the size was beginning to become an irritant) designed by Nicholas but built by Duncan after Duncan forced Nicholas from the company. The inevitable then takes control of the plot, you know, Duncan cuts corners, the ship in Nicholas’s view is unsafe, and the maiden voyage will be carrying Nicholas’s son by Chantelle. Yawn. Nicholas, meanwhile, has built his dream salvage tug. You can guess where this is going.
Four stars for the storm scene in the beginning; one for the soap.
Read Jan de Hartog or Farley Mowat instead.
January 9, 2022
Non proprio il mio genere preferito ma si è rivelato un romanzo entusiasmante e coinvolgente. Il perfetto esempio dell'effetto ciliegia: una pagina tira l'altra. L'eccelsa capacità descrittiva ed empatica dell'autore mi hanno travolta: mi sono persa tra le onde in balia di una tempesta, ho provato paura ed eccitazione per il pericolo, mi sono infreddolita tra i ghiacciai, sono stata accecata dal sole e dal ponte ho osservato i cambiamenti del vento. I lettori poco avvezzi alla nautica potrebbero trovare alcune parti tecniche un po' noiose... Io le ho amate!!
January 28, 2013
Another great book from Wilbur Smith. This time about a man, Nicholas Berg, who owns a salvage company and rescues disabled ships at sea. The first rescue in Antarctica is unbelievable as is the last one in the Caribbean during a hurricane. His rival in all things, Duncan Alexander, is a real ass and you will rout for his downfall from the first minute he enters the pages. What a greedy jerk!
I thoroughly enjoyed this around the world roller coaster ride of adventure and romance.
I thoroughly enjoyed this around the world roller coaster ride of adventure and romance.
March 6, 2014
Wilbur Smith - Hungry as the Sea - Unabridged
Read By: Robert Gladwell (he sounds the worse for drink, rly!)
Duration: 19:43
Description: Nick Berg sets out to salvage a cruise ship stranded with 600 people in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic.
winter 2012
seven seas
adventure
tbr busting 2012
filthy lucre
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” - Voltaire
Read By: Robert Gladwell (he sounds the worse for drink, rly!)
Duration: 19:43
Description: Nick Berg sets out to salvage a cruise ship stranded with 600 people in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic.
winter 2012
seven seas
adventure
tbr busting 2012
filthy lucre
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” - Voltaire
November 15, 2011
This book totally surprised me. It starts off very technical, but interesting. If you ever told me I would like reading about the details of search and rescue and recovery of damaged oil tankers I would have said no way. It brings you along and without realizing you have gone from an interesting how to manual to a story and then you have to keep going. It was informative, thrilling and captivating. A must read for anyone who likes sea stories and a should read for land lovers.
August 12, 2017
A good adventure-thriller book by Wilbur Smith. The protagonist is a well-rounded hero who manages to fight against both natural elements and a fierce human enemy at the same time. The story also shows how a stormy ocean can challenge the structure of huge oil tankers.
May 25, 2020
Capolavoro nel suo genere. Mare, avventura e machismo in puro stile anni ‘80.
March 6, 2009
My first Wilbur Smith book. Never looked back! A great storyteller.
May 1, 2023
Very good sea adventure; sea-going tug tries to reach the Golden Adventurer before his competitors do. Battling competitors, South Africa storms, ex-wife with new husband...
September 1, 2020
Despite the fact that the author of the book was Wilbur Smith, when I started reading and saw that the story involved a ship being rescued by a powerful rescue boat, I put the book aside! What a mistake ! Later, I continued reading where I had discontinued. There was no putting the book down from that point.
The boats / ships totally intrigued me, but as with other books by this author, the story involved strong and forceful personalities, and women who complicate men's lives. I write this knowing that there are men that just can't walk away from an ex-wife who was unfaithful, took their property, and prevented them to the best that she could from recovering. And yet, no matter how intelligent or powerful in business a man might be, when that same woman appears in front of him beautifully as he could ever remember, he forgets her poisonous character and he might as well slobber on the floor at her feet like a puppy.
To the good, however, I learned not only about rescuing boats, and international shipping but also, how they insure boats and how they determine payment for the rescue or salvage of distressed boats. And I had hope for the 'hero' Nicholas Berg, but he didn't prove himself worthy of any woman.
The boats / ships totally intrigued me, but as with other books by this author, the story involved strong and forceful personalities, and women who complicate men's lives. I write this knowing that there are men that just can't walk away from an ex-wife who was unfaithful, took their property, and prevented them to the best that she could from recovering. And yet, no matter how intelligent or powerful in business a man might be, when that same woman appears in front of him beautifully as he could ever remember, he forgets her poisonous character and he might as well slobber on the floor at her feet like a puppy.
To the good, however, I learned not only about rescuing boats, and international shipping but also, how they insure boats and how they determine payment for the rescue or salvage of distressed boats. And I had hope for the 'hero' Nicholas Berg, but he didn't prove himself worthy of any woman.
December 1, 2012
Hungry as the Sea has all the action, suspense and romance a 400-pager can hold. It is Dirk Pitt on 500 acid trips! When Nick Berg accepts the challenge to save his own supertanker from turning the oceans from a big oily mess, he gets more than he bargains for. He'll have to fend off the competitive wiles of Duncan Alexander, a rich tycoon who cares little for the environment and plenty about making money. He'll also have to fight off hurricane winds, oil slicks and a beautiful ex-wife who plans to steal him from his one true soul mate, the mega-babe of Miami U., Samantha Silver. Indiana Jones himself would be seasick with all this much adventure. We're talkin' sex out the wazoo and stunts outa a Bruce Willis movie! It even has a message about our enviroment, and may have predicted the tragedy of the BP slicks of a few years back. Nick Berg is "right ahead" and "right on"!
March 23, 2023
I usually love Wilbur Smith books, but unfortunately this one just didn't do it for me. The story starts off well, but then gets dragged into this false romance between the protagonist (Nicolas Berg) and a young blonde woman (Samantha Silver) who he rescues on a cruise ship salvage mission. The story then leads into stopping a oil tanker carrying 100 million tons of deadly crude oil from the South Arabian Gulf to the Orient Amex refinery in Galveston, Texas. The problem is that the design of Golden Dawn is far from flawless and that the El Barras crude has a cadmium sulphate constituent of between 2000 and 40000 parts per million. There has probably never been a more deadly cargo in the history of seafaring. In spite of Nicholas Berg's persistent efforts, nothing can stop Duncan Alexander. The Golden Dawn is about to undertake her voyage from the Arabian Gulf around Good Hope, one of the most dangerous seas of the world with a cargo that could wipe out virtually every creature living in the sea...and there's a tornado thrown in as well just to spice things up.
Wonderfully researched, however the story just didn't interest or captivate me. Characters just felt plastic, stereotypical and unrealistic. Masculine chauvinistic man and nymphomaniac woman. I don't know what world Wilbur Smith lives in but all the men and women are all the same in his book's. Weak woman and strong dominating men. This to me always is his downfall and ruins a good adventure story.
Overall, I wouldn't recommended this book, but at the same time there are some good action scenes and well researched information about ships and the sea. Let down by poor romance and annoying characters. Three stars. 😒💏🛳
Wonderfully researched, however the story just didn't interest or captivate me. Characters just felt plastic, stereotypical and unrealistic. Masculine chauvinistic man and nymphomaniac woman. I don't know what world Wilbur Smith lives in but all the men and women are all the same in his book's. Weak woman and strong dominating men. This to me always is his downfall and ruins a good adventure story.
Overall, I wouldn't recommended this book, but at the same time there are some good action scenes and well researched information about ships and the sea. Let down by poor romance and annoying characters. Three stars. 😒💏🛳
April 20, 2017
Certainly confirmed my observation of the ocean. As beautiful as it is watching those waves roll into shore, never turn your back.
You have to admire those who work on it. Their lives at risk everytime they step aboard a boat, no matter what size or destination.
Solid read. Smith always delivers plenty of adventure with a strong male/female lead with a touch of romance and his obligstory ex scene.
You have to admire those who work on it. Their lives at risk everytime they step aboard a boat, no matter what size or destination.
Solid read. Smith always delivers plenty of adventure with a strong male/female lead with a touch of romance and his obligstory ex scene.
August 28, 2023
Very good book. Full of depth and intriguing storyIines. For a story that is 45 years old it resonates closely with many of the environmental concerns that we are experiencing today.
October 29, 2010
• HUNGRY AS THE SEA by Wilbur Smith, William Heinemann
430 pps. 170,000 words, no chapters, broken by asterisks.
A damn good yarn with romantic interest. Set at sea and portraying the trials of a salvage tug boat captain and shipping magnate fallen from grace and left by his wife. The hero meets his romantic partner when he dives into icy seas to rescue her after she tries to save the lives of the passengers of the cruise ship he is trying to salvage. The fight between him and the man who stole his wife and company is central to the story. There is much about the sea, the vessels, shipping companies and pollution caused by oil. It is an informative and entertaining read which I found very readable. A page-turner.
430 pps. 170,000 words, no chapters, broken by asterisks.
A damn good yarn with romantic interest. Set at sea and portraying the trials of a salvage tug boat captain and shipping magnate fallen from grace and left by his wife. The hero meets his romantic partner when he dives into icy seas to rescue her after she tries to save the lives of the passengers of the cruise ship he is trying to salvage. The fight between him and the man who stole his wife and company is central to the story. There is much about the sea, the vessels, shipping companies and pollution caused by oil. It is an informative and entertaining read which I found very readable. A page-turner.
February 13, 2014
While I'll admit to not being really crazy about Mr. Smith's more recent works, I have to say his early stuff is what got me reading. This book in particular sticks with me. This man knows how to tell a yarn.
August 19, 2014
This is my favourite Wilbur Smith book ... despite the fact that I get violently sea sick in real life, I love the story of adventure and romance on the high seas ... Nick is a modern day piratical figure and his heroic deeds deserve a movie ...
June 18, 2015
This book is amazing. It does start out slow but picks up the speed after the first 100 pages. It gives us the perfect mixture of romance and action. I strongly recommend this book as it is easily one of my favorite books.
May 20, 2013
I was surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did considering that I have no interest in shipping salvage operations! It was well written, although the plot was a little predictable.
May 5, 2014
The first book of Smith's I ever read. I loved it so much, I am slowly working thru his whole collection!
March 23, 2018
This is one of the most captivating adventure stories I’ve read probably in years. The author’s writing style is so vivid that I found myself exclaiming out loud in numerous spots; I could feel the frozen cold of a merciless ocean, and because of the stark memorability of the descriptions, I learned more about the high-stakes world of salvaging than I ever thought anyone could teach me.
Nicholas Berg is at a crisis point as this book begins. His marriage has brutally ended, and the Midas touch that had seemed to be part of the warp and woof of his life is gone. But he is a man through whom flows copious amounts of testosterone and whatever else makes someone take unusually high risks and gamble is very life and its fortune one last time.
He has started a salvage company. Prior to doing so, he had been at the top of his game as head of Christie Marine, a company and fortune that had actually belonged to his wife, who walked out on him prior to the scenes described in the book. She took her fortune and their son, and Berg was left internally broken and nearly penniless. He invested all of what little had had left in his new salvage company.
On his first day as the commander of his ship, a radio call announces the distress and disabling condition of an ocean liner whose complement of passengers included largely elderly people looking to get close to nature in Antarctica.
Berg has a decision to make: He can either carry out his original mission—a sure thing that will make a modest amount of money—or he can race to be the first salvage ship to rescue the broken liner. He knows that winning that race will mean millions, and what spices the challenge even more is the fact that the liner is affiliate with his ex-wife and her new sleazebag husband. Ensuring that his crew doesn’t see his internal brokenness, Berg orders his salvagers to do everything possible to arrive at the disabled ship first, despite frozen seas and constant battles with merciless nature.
Samantha Silver is a marine biologist who has gone to work for the passenger liner as a lecturer and primarily to befriend the passengers and help them draw closer to the nature scenes they crave. She is vividly brilliantly written here such that you will be taken by her immediately regardless of your gender or attraction. Smith brings her to life in remarkable ways here. She is among those on that stranded liner.
If Berg gets to it first, he claims the millions and wrests the money from his archrival. If he fails, his modest nest egg is gone and with it all hope of any real success.
This is an adventure that pits man against nature and man against man in clashing grinding ways. You see, Christie Marine’s new owner took a massive tanker Berg had designed and altered that design significantly so as to save millions of dollars on its production. Christie Marine would then move millions of gallons of highly toxic crude oil from the Middle East to the United States. But Berg’s action with regard to the disabled passenger liner leaves Christie Marine sapped for cash, making the tanker’s journey that much more highly fraught with danger.
This would have been a five-star book for me if the environmental preachiness hadn’t become so shrill and incessant. Smith would have had a far more powerful book had he simply made his point effectively and allowed his readers to draw out the full conclusions.
There’s some predictability here, too. The minute Smith begins describing the vibrant Samantha Silver, you know she and Nicholas Berg will hook up in every sense of the word. There are long, (and I do mean long) passages here that describe their seaside frolics, and while some of that stuff needed to be there, I’m not sure it all did.
Still, the memorability quotient for this book is way high, and it’s likely something I won’t rapidly forget.
Nicholas Berg is at a crisis point as this book begins. His marriage has brutally ended, and the Midas touch that had seemed to be part of the warp and woof of his life is gone. But he is a man through whom flows copious amounts of testosterone and whatever else makes someone take unusually high risks and gamble is very life and its fortune one last time.
He has started a salvage company. Prior to doing so, he had been at the top of his game as head of Christie Marine, a company and fortune that had actually belonged to his wife, who walked out on him prior to the scenes described in the book. She took her fortune and their son, and Berg was left internally broken and nearly penniless. He invested all of what little had had left in his new salvage company.
On his first day as the commander of his ship, a radio call announces the distress and disabling condition of an ocean liner whose complement of passengers included largely elderly people looking to get close to nature in Antarctica.
Berg has a decision to make: He can either carry out his original mission—a sure thing that will make a modest amount of money—or he can race to be the first salvage ship to rescue the broken liner. He knows that winning that race will mean millions, and what spices the challenge even more is the fact that the liner is affiliate with his ex-wife and her new sleazebag husband. Ensuring that his crew doesn’t see his internal brokenness, Berg orders his salvagers to do everything possible to arrive at the disabled ship first, despite frozen seas and constant battles with merciless nature.
Samantha Silver is a marine biologist who has gone to work for the passenger liner as a lecturer and primarily to befriend the passengers and help them draw closer to the nature scenes they crave. She is vividly brilliantly written here such that you will be taken by her immediately regardless of your gender or attraction. Smith brings her to life in remarkable ways here. She is among those on that stranded liner.
If Berg gets to it first, he claims the millions and wrests the money from his archrival. If he fails, his modest nest egg is gone and with it all hope of any real success.
This is an adventure that pits man against nature and man against man in clashing grinding ways. You see, Christie Marine’s new owner took a massive tanker Berg had designed and altered that design significantly so as to save millions of dollars on its production. Christie Marine would then move millions of gallons of highly toxic crude oil from the Middle East to the United States. But Berg’s action with regard to the disabled passenger liner leaves Christie Marine sapped for cash, making the tanker’s journey that much more highly fraught with danger.
This would have been a five-star book for me if the environmental preachiness hadn’t become so shrill and incessant. Smith would have had a far more powerful book had he simply made his point effectively and allowed his readers to draw out the full conclusions.
There’s some predictability here, too. The minute Smith begins describing the vibrant Samantha Silver, you know she and Nicholas Berg will hook up in every sense of the word. There are long, (and I do mean long) passages here that describe their seaside frolics, and while some of that stuff needed to be there, I’m not sure it all did.
Still, the memorability quotient for this book is way high, and it’s likely something I won’t rapidly forget.
July 30, 2023
"Come il mare" di Wilbur Smith è un romanzo che cattura l'essenza selvaggia dell'Africa e dell'oceano. In questa travolgente saga familiare, l'autore ci trasporta in un'epica avventura, intrecciando passioni, intrighi e segreti in un quadro storico mozzafiato.
Le descrizioni dettagliate di Smith ci immergono nelle bellezze e nei pericoli della natura africana, mentre i personaggi complessi ci tengono incollati alle pagine. La storia del protagonista, legata indissolubilmente al mare, diventa metafora di libertà e di scoperta di sé.
Con uno stile coinvolgente, l'autore riesce a tenere alta la tensione, mescolando momenti romantici con scene d'azione mozzafiato. La sua padronanza nel descrivere i conflitti interiori dei personaggi aggiunge un ulteriore livello di profondità al romanzo.
"Come il mare" è un viaggio emozionante attraverso il tempo e lo spazio, un'odissea epica che ci fa sognare e riflettere. Wilbur Smith ci regala un'esperienza letteraria indimenticabile, immergendoci nelle sfumature dell'amore, dell'avventura e del coraggio. Se ami le storie coinvolgenti e la forza dell'ambientazione, questo libro è sicuramente il tuo prossimo viaggio letterario.
Le descrizioni dettagliate di Smith ci immergono nelle bellezze e nei pericoli della natura africana, mentre i personaggi complessi ci tengono incollati alle pagine. La storia del protagonista, legata indissolubilmente al mare, diventa metafora di libertà e di scoperta di sé.
Con uno stile coinvolgente, l'autore riesce a tenere alta la tensione, mescolando momenti romantici con scene d'azione mozzafiato. La sua padronanza nel descrivere i conflitti interiori dei personaggi aggiunge un ulteriore livello di profondità al romanzo.
"Come il mare" è un viaggio emozionante attraverso il tempo e lo spazio, un'odissea epica che ci fa sognare e riflettere. Wilbur Smith ci regala un'esperienza letteraria indimenticabile, immergendoci nelle sfumature dell'amore, dell'avventura e del coraggio. Se ami le storie coinvolgenti e la forza dell'ambientazione, questo libro è sicuramente il tuo prossimo viaggio letterario.
November 19, 2023
4.5 Stars
Wilbur Smith books were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up. As I grew older and went looking for more ‘interesting’ things to read, Mr. Smith was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I gravitated to. I read everything he had written up to that point, and then through the years I kept up with each new release. It had been many years since I last read one of his books, but in the past few months have found myself exploring them once more.
Here, Mr. Smith gives us a front row seat to a stranded cruise ship with hundreds of passengers who are stuck in Antarctic ice. Add in a tense and dangerous rescue, adventure, drama, a hurricane, a salvage tug, a down-on-his luck captain, character dynamics, and the power of the sea- and we have a great recipe for an engrossing story.
Mr. Smith has a great knack for writing a great suspenseful and exciting read, and even though my tastes have evolved as I have gotten older, I still really enjoyed revisiting his books/series.
So, if you are an action/adventure buff and want a book that will hold your interest and that you can immerse yourself into- then this may be the book for you!
Wilbur Smith books were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up. As I grew older and went looking for more ‘interesting’ things to read, Mr. Smith was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I gravitated to. I read everything he had written up to that point, and then through the years I kept up with each new release. It had been many years since I last read one of his books, but in the past few months have found myself exploring them once more.
Here, Mr. Smith gives us a front row seat to a stranded cruise ship with hundreds of passengers who are stuck in Antarctic ice. Add in a tense and dangerous rescue, adventure, drama, a hurricane, a salvage tug, a down-on-his luck captain, character dynamics, and the power of the sea- and we have a great recipe for an engrossing story.
Mr. Smith has a great knack for writing a great suspenseful and exciting read, and even though my tastes have evolved as I have gotten older, I still really enjoyed revisiting his books/series.
So, if you are an action/adventure buff and want a book that will hold your interest and that you can immerse yourself into- then this may be the book for you!
February 3, 2020
Where to begin... this book is bad on every level. The hero who is superman and always saves the day even though he makes stupid decision after stupid decision. The endless grandiose descriptions. The shallow, one-dimensional characters. The implausible cliff-hangers. Oh and don’t get me started on “the girl”. Female characters are not the patriarcal and misogynistic author’s strong suit. Neither is romance. This book feels like it’s been written by a ghostwriter to fulfill a contract, throwing in all the cliche elements of the genre. The only reason I can think of why it had so much success is because it was written in 1978, the “adventure-thriller” genre was just beginning so people had nothing to compare it to. What is rather funny is that Clive Cussler wrote something similar and a little better in 1996 (Shock Wave), in which he actually borrowed scenes from this book almost verbatim, and this time, the reviews shot him down with the same arguments I had for Hungry as the Sea. The audience had matured. Do yourself a favor and read something else.
September 29, 2022
The action scenes were complicated. I found the level of detail so intense, I could barely comprehend what was going on.
Thankfully, that was only the beginning and end of this book. If you want grand adventure at sea, know that the vast majority of this book is corporate corruption tied up intimately with soap opera family and romantic drama. This bit of it was great. Thus most of it went down like hot chocolate. Contract and insurance details were a treat.
There is almost an environmental lesson here. Giving up to the inevitability of increasingly super destructive and damaging ways of extracting liquid gold even when you know that it is super destructive is a bit depressing.
The visual symbolism of the enormity of human greed in the finale is powerful (even if the details of it get...[cough] washed away.
Female characters come off pretty well (even if one of them is...well, that would spoil it).
Thankfully, that was only the beginning and end of this book. If you want grand adventure at sea, know that the vast majority of this book is corporate corruption tied up intimately with soap opera family and romantic drama. This bit of it was great. Thus most of it went down like hot chocolate. Contract and insurance details were a treat.
There is almost an environmental lesson here. Giving up to the inevitability of increasingly super destructive and damaging ways of extracting liquid gold even when you know that it is super destructive is a bit depressing.
The visual symbolism of the enormity of human greed in the finale is powerful (even if the details of it get...[cough] washed away.
Female characters come off pretty well (even if one of them is...well, that would spoil it).
March 6, 2022
This is a book first published in 1978. Only one thing dated it--the way the protagonist thought of and treated women. That wolf-after-a-meal attitude just doesn't fly in today's world.
The story was huge and fascinating. A salvage tug master taking on impossible odds: freezing Antarctica, and an unsafe ship with a poisonous cargo in a hurricane. The only thing that marred this story was the characters. There was a lot of selfishness, lots of unforgivable greed, and some downright stupidity among bright people. Worst was the infidelity, which of course was forgiven.
It wrapped up rather too quickly, finishing the action/suspense story nicely, but not really settling up with the characters' outcomes. Overall the story itself carried more weight than the bits I disapproved of.
The story was huge and fascinating. A salvage tug master taking on impossible odds: freezing Antarctica, and an unsafe ship with a poisonous cargo in a hurricane. The only thing that marred this story was the characters. There was a lot of selfishness, lots of unforgivable greed, and some downright stupidity among bright people. Worst was the infidelity, which of course was forgiven.
It wrapped up rather too quickly, finishing the action/suspense story nicely, but not really settling up with the characters' outcomes. Overall the story itself carried more weight than the bits I disapproved of.
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