Great book with an interesting take on a dark time in American history. Very unpredictable and I found my self really enjoying the way the author wrote it!

This is an interesting take on history and slavery in America. The main character is not your transitional character he is neither good nor evil but somewhere in the middle. Mungo St. John returns home to find a neighbor has murdered his father and taken everything from him, including the slave girl, Camille, he loved. Mungo has to try to rebuild in order to have revenge. The story was slow to build up but riveting in the end. All of the characters made the reader think and Mungo in particular was a host of contradictions. Just when you wrote him off as the bad guy he’d show his process and choose morally. All together id recommend this book for sure, the writing was excellent and the story was well done.
This is an interesting take on history and slavery in America. The main character is not your transitional character he is neither good nor evil but somewhere in the middle. Mungo St. John returns home to find a neighbor has murdered his father and taken everything from him, including the slave girl, Camille, he loved. Mungo has to try to rebuild in order to have revenge. The story was slow to build up but riveting in the end. All of the characters made the reader think and Mungo in particular was a host of contradictions. Just when you wrote him off as the bad guy he’d show his process and choose morally. All together I'd recommend this book for sure, the writing was excellent and the story was well done.

I found myself enjoying "Call of the Raven" far more than I expected to. It's a well done read with some interesting characters. It wasn't all too predictable so it kept me interested in finding out what would happen next. I'd definitely recommend this book.

Welcome back,. Wilbur! This feels like the old you. Good writing, a great story.

To the readers: this is a prequel to Smith's Ballantyne series, and in this book he introduces Mungo St. John. I valued the historic detail, and I applaud the author for tackling the painful topic of slavery.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Wilbur Smith, Corban Addison, and Bonnier Zaffre USA for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Taking the daring task of setting the scene with a prequel to one of his most popular series, Wilbur Smith collaborates with Corban Addison to create a stirring tale set in the 1840s. Before the Ballantyne family rose to notoriety, Mungo St. John was a young man with ambition and intelligence, studying in England. There, his family’s slave ownership soured many young men and Mungo finds himself trying to defend the possession of others. When he returned to America, Mungo discovers that slave owning is the least of his problems, when his family’s land is foreclosed upon and everything seized by a greedy man who all but killed the elder Mr. St. John. Included in the seizure is a young slave woman, named Camilla, someone Mungo holds in very high regard. As Mungo seeks to regain his family name and rush away from some of the trouble he has caused, he lies and changes his name to earn a spot on a ship sailing for Europe. Little does Mungo know the true purpose of the ship, or the horrors that await when he arrives on the other side of the Atlantic. Back in Louisiana, Camilla and many of the other slaves are moved to a cotton plantation, where they work to the bone by a ruthless slave owner, one who enjoys exerting much of his power over the women. He fancies Camilla and takes her as his own, only to leave her feeling used and abused, before she discovers that she is with child. Trying to use the pregnancy to keep herself alive, Camilla finds that she can do much more, given the opportunity and sly skills that she has acquired. When Mungo discovers that he is in the middle of a slave trading ship, he tries to hold his own, only to find himself in the middle of a rebellion on the trip back to America. Not wanting anything to do with the captain and crew who have employed him, Mungo does little to help them and saves his own life, but just. He vows that he will one day bring honour back to the St. John name and find Camilla, if only to see if they still have a chance to be happy. One more trip, under his own captaincy, to Africa sees Mungo St. John attempt a new life as a trader, this time of goods. Mungo does all he can to stay focussed, but he cannot shake that he must find and free Camilla, once and for all. The clash will be great and the risks high, but Mungo St. John is a man of his word and one who will die to ensure honour is kept. An interesting story that held my attention more than many of the other flashback tales in this series. Smith’s work continues to impress and I am glad to have taken the time to read this piece. Recommended for those who enjoy the Ballantyne series, as well as the reader whose interest in pre-Civil War America and nautical tales is high.

I fell under the spell of Wilbur Smith a number of years ago, particularly when I discovered his two series set in somewhat modern Africa. The stories were so full of adventure and discovery that I could not put them down. While he continues to build upon them, his extending the family tree sometimes went a little too far back for my liking. Smith discusses wanting to lay some groundwork for one of his minor characters in the Ballantyne series, Mungo St. John, in response to the request of many readers. Mungo was a highly controversial man who has a soft side, should one be able to find it buried under a lot of the other layers. He is an interesting man with much to prove and a great deal of passion. This emerges throughout the piece, as he is put into many situations he may not always enjoy. That being said, the reader can learn much about him in this piece, from his gritty determination through to his desire to make all things right. He may harbour a violent side, but he is also highly protective, which comes in handy on occasion as well. Others who find themselves complementing Mungo do well throughout this piece, as Smith and Addison add depth to the story with their supporting characters. Giving the reader some context about the time, these characters paint wonderful stories (though not always positive ones) about the time when slavery was waning in Europe but still going strong in America. The story itself was well paced and developed effectively for the time period. It held my attention for the most part, though did not offer up too many new nuggets of information about which I was not somewhat aware. Smith’s intention to lay some of the needed backstory and groundwork is done with ease and anyone entering this series will have many of the needed tools to find themselves fully ensconced before long. I look forward to more from Smith and his various collaborators when the chance arises.

Kudos, Messrs. Smith and Addison, for this wonderful piece of writing. I can only hope the Ballantynes continue to develop for as long as there are ideas to put to paper.

It's a long time since last i read a Wilbur Smith book but I can say he never fails to deliver and write a story that will keeps on the edge till the end.
A master storyteller that wrote a gripping and entertaining story with a cast of interesting characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The author is a very well established South African born writer of tales of high adventure featuring leading protagonists of mighty heroes and dastardly villains. Each of these are portrayed as larger than life, in love with gorgeous women. The heroes usually get the girl and the villains their just desserts and we see great deeds done in righting all wrongs. The current book utilizes a different slant on things. Mungo St. John is the son of wealthy plantation owners in the American south of the 1840's. Slavery has been used as sources of cheap labor since time immemorial and Mungo reaps the rewards of cheap labor when he goes off to attend university in England.
Called back from his studies he returns home and finds that his parents have been killed and their plantation seized by the very evil Chester Marion. And to put a capstone on the evil done him his childhood and adult love Camilla, who was actually a slave, has been taken by the brute. Mungo declares that he will find a way to destroy Chester Marion, take back what is his and kill the brute that has wronged him. He gets work on a ship that is involved in the transport of slaves from Africa to Havana where they will be sent to buyers in the U.S. In most of Smith's books Mungo would not get involved with the hideous crime of buying and selling human beings but in this novel he does in order to make the money needed to destroy Chester Martin.
In my opinion Smith's use of flawed characters makes "Call of the Raven" stand out as one his top novels, and that is among the many excellent works that he has already had published. An excellent and exciting read and obviously one that will cause Wilbur Smith's fan club to continue to grow.

Augustus Mungo St. John is a child of privilege. The son of a wealthy plantation owner, he has known a life of wealth and luxury that his father's slaves do not. But while away in England at university, he receives a letter that his father has died. Upon returning home, he finds his family name in ruins, his inheritance taken and his childhood sweetheart, Camilla (a slave) taken by Chester Marion. Mungo swears revenge against Marion and vows to save Camilla.

Call of the Raven is a prequel to Smith's Ballantyne series, but as I'm not familiar with these books, I appreciated that I didn't need to read them to understand what was going on here. However, I'm sure readers of Smith's previous books would find the continuation of Mungo's story interesting.

I enjoyed this book to a point--I thought the writing was excellent and I appreciated the historical setting and details. And while I have no reference point as to who the main characters are in his other books, using a slave owner as the protagonist here is interesting (and a bit awkward). Mungo is drawn as a devil's advocate of sorts. In the debate scene across the pond, he is quick to point out the capitalist system keeps "free" mill workers in a situation far worse than that in which his father's slaves live (while conveniently leaving out other horrors of that institution).

I did find it hard to read the parts detailing Camilla's treatment. Being an historian, I'm well aware of the particular brutalities women faced as slaves, but here it felt a bit gratuitous. Whether or not that was to highlight that Mungo's rosy view of the institution was not entirely accurate, I don't know, but I still had a level of discomfort with it.

I think established fans of Smith will find this a fine addition to his lineup, but I don't think I would read others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre USA for providing me with this review copy.

"There is only one law on this earth - the law that gives the strong and wealthy power over the weak and poor."

Mungo St John, son of a Virginian plantation owner is studying in Cambridge when he receives a letter from his slave-sweetheart, Camilla. His father has died and the plantation is bankrupt. On his return, he finds out that his fathers attorney has played dirty and is now the new owner of the plantation. Chester even admits to him that he killed his father himself. All the slaves have been sold instead of being free as the father ordained in his will. A will that was in the hands of his attorney of course and now is destroyed. When Chester tries to kill Mungo, he manages to run away and meets up with the runaways Camilla and her grandfather. Chester murders the grandfather and makes out to kill Camilla as well, Mungo is locked up in jail for slave-stealing by the militia that turned up just in time to stop Chester from shooting him as well. His maternal grandfather Rutherford bails him out and orders him to go aboard of a ship sailing for Africa and make his own fortune. With Camilla dead, he sees no other manner in which he'll ever be able to challenge Chester. The voyage turns out to be disastrous. He soon finds out that they're a slaver ship, even though it is illegal. That makes it even more profitable. On the way back they get into a fight with an English warship and barely escape after killing its captain and the officers that boarded. Later on, the slaves manage to escape due to stupidity of Mungo and they kill the whole crew. Miraculously Mungo and former slave Tippoo escape on a lifeboat
Meanwhile, Chester sells Windemere plantation to a consortium, that includes neighbour Cartwright, the leader of the militia. Apparently the plan was already made before St John's death. Camilla, he takes with him to farm cotton in Louisiana (to remind himself of an old enemy, he says). She is put to work on the fields during day-time and at night in his bed. She discovers to be pregnant from him. A son is born and named Isaac, Chester plans on raising him as if he is a son, even though legally he's still a slave.

Mungo St John is an ambiguous character. He's good-natured and morally knows that slavery is not ethical, but he's also a product of his time and pragmatic enough to understand that the economy of the American south depends on slavery. He's brought up on a plantation and been a slave owner from birth. So although he advocates slavery in a debate in Cambridge, he states that the slaves owned by his father have a fairly good life that's not all that different from the masses of poor labourers that work in the English factories in sometimes worse conditions (so he claims). It must be said that he and his father were atypical slave owners and seen as liberals that put wrong ideas in black heads by their neighbours. Also, not being a hypocrite he convinces himself that if you own slaves, you must also be able to go and get them yourself from Africa, even if that's illegal. And it doesn't take him very long to convince himself that if you own them, you must be able to bring them from Africa and even to capture them yourself.
On the other hand, he frees Tippoo as soon as he can and even before he treated him as an equal, black and a slave or not. He's also in love with Camilla with whom he grew up and contemplated bringing her to England in order to marry her, as it would not be possible in America.

Camilla is born as a slave and had a fairly easy life under St Johns. She's a survivor and once in the claws of Chester, she manages several times to change her bad luck and misery into an opportunity. She's a lot smarter than everybody (Chester included) thinks.

Chester who's the villain of the book is also a product of his time and his evilness in bringing Mungo's father to ruin is (apart from the murder) exactly what our contemporary multinational CEO's do nowadays. Only when you look at things up close and personal can you see the moral devaluation and hypocrisy. He doesn't hate slaves, he's just convinced that they are less than human. How horrible his behaviour toward his slaves looks, it's no different from what the majority did as the norm.

Edwin Fairchild is the 'good' character in this story as he's an advocate for abolitionism and a relentless slavers chaser but even he is a product of the time and can't understand how the blacks that carry the weapons in the attack on his own ship aren't the slaves that he's set out to protect and liberate, but the very men that capture the slaves to sell them to the whites.

As always, Wilbur Smith shows his deep love for Africa, its inhabitants and its nature in the minute and detailed descriptions of the jungles, the marshes, the villages. Apart from the smell, you can close your eyes and imagine that you're there. His eye for details doesn't stop in Africa, as the passages about the oceans, reefs, ships and life at sea, in general, are just as accurate. Life on the plantations and in New Orleans are also painted in, what I believe to be authentic, vivid colours.
This book sketches a very accurate picture of some of the sentiments and moral dilemma's of that period when abolitionists started to rear their heads. They had won a victory several years earlier when the African slave trade was outlawed. But they couldn't foresee that a business of locally bred slaves would create a new market and that the prices of slaves would be higher than ever. On top of that did the American navy do next to nothing to enforce this law. The English navy, on the other hand, did actively persecute the slavers, but despite being able to board American ships, they didn't have the authority to search them even though the stench of the human cargo would be tell-tale.
Another evil of the time was the intensive hunt for ivory, a practice that without a doubt helped to dwindle the number of wild elephants and other species to the state of being endangered or even completely extinct as certain rhinos became last year. But when cruelty to other humans was normal and even institutionalised and animal protection was limited to exhibiting wild animals in too small cages in zoo's, who would lose sleep over animals?
I received a free ARC of this book through Netgalley and this is my honest, unbiased review.

"Who does Mungo turn to?

"Call of the Raven" is the prequel to "A Falcon Flies." This is the first book I've read by Wilber Smith, and I will be getting the first one. This book was wonderful.
Greed, revenge and sometimes the people you put your trust in and thought you knew so well, are the ones that do the most damage to your life.
Augustus (Mungo) St. John is the son of a wealthy plantation owner. Mungo returns to Virginia to find his father dead and everyone gone. Camilla, who is a slave and his childhood sweetheart.
Everything taken from him that he loves.

Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

Call of the Raven is the early days story of Mungo St. John, who most of us met in A Falcon Flies. In Call of the Raven we learn what made him who he was later in life. It was wonderful to revisit this strong character. Mungo is the son of a plantation owner. He returns to Virginia to find that he is bankrupt in the wake of his father's death. The plantation, his slave girl lover Camilla, and everything has been taken from him. He vows to take revenge on the man that has ruined him, but to do that he needs money. What will Mungo do for money and for revenge, and will it all turn out in his favor in the end?

I am biased as I have loved Wilbur Smith books for decades, especially the Ballantyne and Courtney books. In the last few years Mr. Smith has needed help from ghost writers and there were a couple of those that faltered but he has been on stride with the last several publications. Thank you #NetGalley for allowing me to give an honest review of #CalloftheRaven.

Revenge never pays

This book was exciting and interesting. Written at the peak of the slave trading, it captured the ugliness of that trade. The money was good the prices paid in lives was high.

This was a time where tensions among those for slavery and those against ran hot. A plantation owner was ruined and murdered for his beliefs in slaves as human beings. His son returned from school to nothing. Everything had been taken from him.

This started the revenge boiling in the blood of the young man. He would stop at nothing to get revenge, even if it meant being a slave trader to do so.

His love for a young slave girl drove him on as the man who took everything from him now possessed the girl he loved. Revenge is evil and drags one to dark places.

This book will take you from Virginia to the darkest of Africa and the bustling city of New Orleans to the Plantations of Louisiana. Dangerous and exciting battles at sea to moats with alligators.

His story plays out in these Pages, but it does not end as he thought.

If you want a book filled with adventure, history, romance and page turning excitement this is the book for you. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Wilbur Smith, Bonnier Jaffre U.S.A., and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of the book.