Wilbur Smith

Author Information
Wilbur Smith's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    53 Books - 4 Series
  • First Book:
    January 1964
  • Latest Book:
    October 2023
  • Author Rating:
About the Author

Wilbur Addison Smith (88)
(9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Zambian-born South African novelist specialising in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families.

Full Series List in Order

Ancient Egypt

1 - River God (Mar-1994)
2 - Seventh Scroll (Apr-1995)
3 - Warlock (May-2001)
4 - The Quest (May-2007)
5 - Desert God (Oct-2014)
6 - Pharaoh (Oct-2016)
7 - New Kingdom (Sep-2021)
8 - Titans of War (Oct-2022)

The Ballantyne Novels

1 - Flight of the Falcon // A Falcon Flies (1980)
2 - Men of Men (1981)
3 - The Angels Weep (1982)
4 - The Leopard Hunts in Darkness (1984)

The Courtneys of Africa

1 - When the Lion Feeds (1964)
2 - The Sound of Thunder // The Roar of Thunder (1966)
3 - A Sparrow Falls (1977)
4 - The Burning Shore (1985)
5 - Power of the Sword (Sep-1986)
6 - Rage (Oct-1987)
7 - Time to Die (Mar-1990)
8 - Golden Fox (Mar-1991)
9 - Birds of Prey (Jul-1997)
10 - Monsoon (May-1999)
11 - The Blue Horizon (May-2003)
12 - The Triumph of the Sun (Apr-2005)
13 - Assegai (Apr-2009)
14 - War Cry (Apr-2017)
15 - The Tiger's Prey (Oct-2017)
16 - Courtney's War (Sep-2018)
17 - King of Kings (Apr-2019)
18 - Ghost Fire (Sep-2019)
19 - Legacy of War (Apr-2021)
20 - Storm Tide (Apr-2022)

Hector Cross

1 - Those in Peril (May-2011)
2 - Vicious Circle (Oct-2013)
3 - Predator (Mar-2016)

Book List in Order: 53 titles

  • When the Lion Feeds

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    Sean Courtney is as big and bold and dangerous as Africa itself. His farming days halted by the threat of Zulu spears, Sean flings himself wholeheartedly into a life crowded with passion and violence -- the massacre at Isandhlwana, the heroism of Ror...

  • The Train from Katanga // Dark of the Sun

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    A FORTUNE IN GEMS was up for grabs at Port Reprieve. For three months the town had been cut off from the rest of the world. All around them the tribes were burning and killing indiscriminately. It was only a matter of days before they unleashed a sc...

  • The Sound of Thunder // The Roar of Thunder

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    BLOOD BROTHERS The blood of the Courteney family turned to fire in the veins of twin brothers Sean and Garrick. It was only a matter of time before it exploded into a tempest of violence and death. After years in the jungle, Sean was ripped fro...

  • Shout at the Devil

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    IT'S AFRICA. IT'S 1914. IT'S FAST. IT'S BIG. PASSION, VIOLENCE AND VENGEANCE -- IN AN EPIC SAGA OF ADVENTURE IN THE DARK CONTINENT A renegade American adventurer ... a reckless British aristocrat ... the arrogant and beautiful woman they both l...

  • Gold Mine

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    LUST FOR GOLD GOLD -- it devoured them like a disease. No one was immune, from the miners who were trapped in the steaming underground caverns, to the syndicate kingpins who parlayed human disaster into stock market killings and absolute power. ...

  • The Diamond Hunters

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    Death Mine A diamond empire unites them. A struggle for power divides them. Johnny Lance and Benedict van der Byl, almost brothers, have come to the crossroads of their lifetime rivalry. Far beneath the African earth waits a fabulous cache of min...

  • Sunbird

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    A Journey of Wonder and Terror It all begins with a blurry, black-and-white aerial photograph. To the trained eyes of Dr. Benjamin Kazin, it is the archaeological discovery of a lifetime: evidence of an unknown ancient African civilization and the...

  • Eagle in the Sky

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    A Man who had everything. A Woman whom no one man could satisfy for long. A Love that gave them more than they had ever dreamed, if they dared pay the price. DAVID was an incredibly handsome playboy who used the most beautiful women and e...

  • The Eye of the Tiger

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    WHERE IS THE TIGER? Beneath the sea's glittering calm, where the marlin swam with the shark, fish were not the only game. Harry's boat was for hire, and they paid him well. He could slip through coral reefs and the law with the same ease. Bu...



  • Cry Wolf

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    A GAMBLE IN BLOOD Gareth Swales and Jake Barton--a dapper English rogue and a rugged Texas engineer-- down-on-their-luck mercenaries, ace hustlers; together they set out to deliver a cargo of ancient armored cars and guns--and a beautiful young co...

  • A Sparrow Falls

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    FROM THE BLOODY TRENCHES OF WORLD WAR I TO A WILDERNESS PARADISE, IT WAS MAN AGAINST MAN, HUSBAND AGAINST WIFE, FATHER AGAINST SON... Wealthy, powerful General Sean Courtney, war hero, veteran of the African goldfields, dedicated to preserving the...

  • Hungry As the Sea

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    A HERO, Nicholas Berg, fighting to regain his power as head of a seagoing empire and his honor as a man... A SHIP, Warlock the most modern ocean salvage vessel ever built to face the primal fury of nature at its peak... A WOMAN, Samantha Sil...

  • The Delta Decision // Wild Justice

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    International terrorism had ceased to be a series of random acts of violence. It had become a superbly organized, highly financed, and tremendously effective conspiracy to conquer the earth. At its head, planning its every monstrous move, defying...

  • Flight of the Falcon // A Falcon Flies

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    He is the rover, a lawless trader in human cargo who will possess any man--or woman--he chooses. She is the healer, plunged into the heart of a sprawling, untamed land, searching for a lost father, bringing God's word to exotic tribes. Robyn Ba...

  • Men of Men

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    When the stone falcons fly, then war will come. So ran the prophecy for a part of Africa glittering with the promise of diamonds and raging with the fever of human hearts. In this dangerous land where only the strongest and luckiest survive, a pow...

  • The Angels Weep

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    At the dawn of a new century, a bold adventurer and his proud missionary sister, establish a legacy that will dominate Rhodesia for centuries to come. But in the hills, the Matabele indunas are already preparing for the bloody rebellion which will sc...

  • The Leopard Hunts in Darkness

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    BLOOD LEGACY He is the son of Ballantynes, the powerful dynasty that had conquered a continent. Today, amid the violent conflicts of emerging Africa, Craig Mellow confronts a bloody colonial past... and a perilously uncertain future. New rul...

  • The Burning Shore

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy

    When British flying ace Michael Courtney bails out of his plane in the French countryside, beautiful young Centaine de Thiry nurses him back to health, falls in love with him, and is pregnant with his child when he tragically dies in battle. Centaine...

  • Power of the Sword

    THE TUMULTUOUS BIRTH OF A NATION. THE UNFORGETTABLE WAR WITHIN ONE FAMILY In the harsh and beautiful land of South Africa, races clash in an unequal struggle for justice. A nation takes its defiant place on the international stage from the ruins ...



  • Rage

    A World Aflame Never have the destinies of a nation and of a family been so dramatically entwined. In the decades after World War II, South Africa struggles against the tribal violence at its heart--between Englishman and Afrikaaner, white and bla...

  • Time to Die

    Land of Blood and Passion A new revolution is raging that will forever change the face of Africa. Caught between the politicians and the deep wilderness tribes, between the sudden crack of a rifle and the blood-lust roar of the wild, one man strug...

  • Golden Fox

    PACT WITH THE DEVIL The Courtney family blood has long run hot as hot as the passion and turmoil boiling in war-torn South Africa. When one of their own succumbs to the worst kind of evil, those ties are put to the ultimate test. Isabella Court...

  • Elephant Song

    WHITE GOLD Ivory. In Africa, it is the tragic and thrilling object of greed, corruption, and senseless death. In this dangerous world of poachers and blood money, one determined man and one dedicated woman risk their lives to stop the senseless sl...

  • River God

    Ancient Egypt, Land of the Pharaohs. A kingdom built on gold. A legend shattered by greed... Now the Valley of the Kings lies ravaged by civil war, drained of its lifeblood, as weak men inherit the cherished crown. For Tanus, the fair-haired yo...

  • Seventh Scroll

    For 4,000 years, the lavish crypt of the Pharaoh Mamose has never been found ... until the Seventh Scroll, a cryptic message written by the slave Taita, gives beautiful Egyptologist Royan Al Simma a tantalizing clue to its location. But this is a ...

  • Birds of Prey

    As the choppy sea lanes of the African coast are rife with bloody battles over trade booty, Sir Francis Courteney and his 17-year-old son Hal embark on a seafaring quest for the treasure-laden galleons of the Dutch East India Company. But soon the ho...

  • Monsoon

    ONE MAN. THREE SONS. A POWERFUL DESTINY WAITING TO UNFOLD. Once a voracious adventurer, it has been many years since Hal Courtney has dared the high seas. Now he must return with three of his sons--Tom, Dorian, and Guy--to protect the East India T...

  • Warlock

    A PHARAOH'S VISION OF A BRILLIANT NEW EMPIRE The mission of Prince Nefer, rightful heir to the throne, is to rebuild a magnificent kingdom in the stark and tumbled ruins of the embattled city of Gallala. The desire of Lord Naja is to destroy his riv...

  • The Blue Horizon

    With adventure in their blood, Jim and Mansur Courtney seek to carve out a life for themselves and their families in the unexplored splendor of Africa. But laying claim to a land devastated by war yields unexpected risks. No sooner does their journey...



  • The Triumph of the Sun

    In his New York Times bestselling novels Wilbur Smith has captured the drama of a vast continent. Now, in his most magnificent tale yet, he takes us back to 1884 and into the # dusty city of Khartoum, where an English family and besieged populace wai...

  • The Quest

    A CIVILIZATION AT THE BRINK OF RUIN Egypt has been struck by a series of terrible plagues, killing its crops and crippling its people. Then the ultimate disaster befalls the kingdom: the Nile fails. The waters that nourish and sustain the land dry ...

  • Assegai

    It is 1913 and ex-soldier turned professional big-game hunter Leon Courtney is in British East Africa, guiding rich and powerful men from America and Europe on safaris in the Masai tribal territories. One of his clients is German industrialist Count ...

  • Those in Peril

    Hazel Bannock is heir to the Bannock Oil Corporation, one of the major global oil producers. While cruising the Indian Ocean, her yacht is hijacked by Somalian pirates and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Cayla, kidnapped. The pirates demand a crippli...

  • Vicious Circle

    Internationally bestselling author Wilbur Smith returns with Vicious Circle--a heart-racing story of family secrets, greed, and revenge. Hector Cross left behind a career of high risks and warfare when he married his beloved Hazel Bannock. But aft...

  • Desert God

    Game of Thrones meets Ancient Egypt in this magnificent epic from one of the world's biggest-selling authors. Conjuring the magic, mystery, and bloody intrigue of a fascinating lost world, Desert God presents Wilbur Smith at the helm of one of the gr...

  • Golden Lion

    For readers of Game of Thrones, Ken Follett, and Clive Cussler: an epic adventure spanning land and sea ... time and distance ... courage, revenge, and everything in between. He saw his father executed in battle. He spent his youth avenging that d...

  • Predator

    Former operative Major Hector Cross must face off against a pair of lethal enemies and prevent an international catastrophe in this gripping contemporary adventure-thriller One of the most formidable fighters in the world, ex-SAS warrior and forme...

  • Pharaoh

    EGYPT IS UNDER ATTACK. Pharaoh Tamose lies mortally wounded. The ancient city of Luxor is surrounded, All seems lost. Taita, advisor to the Pharaoh, prepares for the enemy’s final, fatal push. The ex-slave, now general of Tamose’s armies, is ...

  • War Cry

    The saga of the legendary Courtney family continues in this fourteenth installment in Wilbur Smith’s bestselling series -- the sequel to 2009’s Assegai -- a thrilling tale of espionage, adventure, and danger, set in Africa and spanning from the G...



  • The Tiger's Prey

    The New York Times bestselling author of Desert God and Pharaoh adds another chapter to his popular historical saga featuring the seafaring Tom Courtney, the hero of Monsoon and Blue Horizon, with this magnificent swashbuckling saga set in the eighte...

  • The Last Shepherd

    The Last Shepherd tells how at the beginning of the Common Era, Palestine was in chaos socially, politically, and spiritually. Political turmoil during the life of Jesus affected his ministry and caused him deep concern that he was not reaching th...

  • Courtney's War

    The brand new Courtney Series novel, and the much-anticipated sequel to the global bestseller WAR CRY Paris, 1939 -Torn apart by war, Saffron Courtney and Gerhard von Meerbach are thousands of miles apart, both struggling for their lives.  Ge...

  • King of Kings

    The long-awaited sequel to Wilbur Smith's worldwide bestseller, The Triumph of the Sun.An epic story of love, betrayal, courage and war that brings together two of Wilbur Smith's greatest families in this long-awaited sequel to his worldwide bes...

  • Ghost Fire

      The brand new Courtney Series novel.A brand new Courtney Series novel by bestselling author, Wilbur Smith.  1754. Inseparable since birth and growing up in India, Theo and Connie Courtney are torn apart by the tragic death of their parents....

  • Call of the Raven

    The new novel by Wilbur Smith and the prequel to A Falcon Flies.  'The right of the cat over the mouse, of the strong over the weak. The natural law of existence.' Augustus Mungo St John, A Falcon Flies The son of a wealthy plantation owner ...

  • Legacy of War

    A brand-new Courtney Series adventure.The action-packed new book in the Courtney Series and the sequel to Courtney's War. Just because the war is over and Hitler dead, doesn't mean the politics he stood for have died too. Saffron Courtney and he...

  • New Kingdom

    An Egyptian novel from the master of adventure fiction, Wilbur SmithAn Ancient Egyptian novel from the master of adventure fiction and global number 1 bestselling author, Wilbur Smith. In the heart of Egypt Under the watchful eye of the gods A n...

  • Storm Tide

    Multimillion copy bestselling author Wilbur Smith returns with a brand-new historical epic, set against the backdrop of the American revolution. The Courtney family is torn apart as three generations fight on opposing sides of a terrible war that ...

  • Shockwave

    Third high-octane installment in the bestselling author's compelling Jack Courtney Adventures for readers 9-12, following CLOUDBURST and THUNDERBOLT. On the pretext of making a film for his mother's environmental protection work, Jack wangles...



  • Prey Zone

  • Titans of War

    Global bestselling author of River God and The New Kingdom, Wilbur Smith, returns with the next epic book in his brand-new Ancient Egyptian series.AN UNSTOPPABLE ENEMY. A CIVILIZATION IN RUINS. A QUEST FOR SALVATION. For over fifty yea...

  • Nemesis

    A brand-new historical epic from the Master of Adventure, in which three strands of the Courtney family converge in a bloodthirsty bid for revenge.Paris, 1794. Revolutionary fervour has erupted into the Reign of Terror. A young man, Paul Co...

  • Testament

    A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader....

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Wilbur Smith has published 53 books.

The next book by Wilbur Smith, Testament, will be published in October 2023.

The first book by Wilbur Smith, When the Lion Feeds, was published in January 1964.

Yes. Wilbur Smith has 4 series.
Pseudonyms / Co-Author
Author Series
Top Authors in Terrorists
No ads, please
$20 / year
Premium
  • Go ad-free with a FictionDB premium membership.