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370:'Assegai' continues the Courtney series but still includes Penrod Ballantyne as a crucial character, not just to the plot but also to the main character - Leon Courtney. Though Penrod's role is not very large, his character has developed since the previous novel. In 'The Triumph of the Sun' he was a womanising but competent military officer and spy, in 'Assegai' he is a portly general in the king's army in British East Africa and a manipulative spymaster who exercises control over his agent. .
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patents for his engine designs, driving him to poverty and suicide, after which Eva was recruited as a spy by the
British government and sent to gather information from Otto by becoming his mistress. Leon and Eva briefly live together in Lusima's village, but Penrod discovers them and forces Eva to return to Otto, who has survived the lion's attack but lost his left forearm.
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German princess, and a crooked and cowardly
English lord, who later gets Percy killed while fleeing from a charging buffalo. With Percy's death, Leon - whom Percy had come to see as a son - inherits his safari company and all of his assets. Penrod then uses his influence to arrange for Graf Otto von
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Graf Otto von
Meerbach - the villain, is also similar to Osman Atalan - Penrod Ballantyne's nemesis from 'The Triumph of the Sun'. Both antagonists are larger-than-life characters, even stronger alpha-males than the protagonists seem to be. They are war-mongerers but subjects of the greater evil
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and shield - but he is mauled by a second lion during the hunt. Leon and Eva - who reciprocates Leon's feelings - flee to Lusima's village in the mountains, where they consummate their love for one another. Eva reveals that she is actually
English, and that Otto had cheated her father out of the
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ambush, for which he is adopted as a son by
Manyoro's mother Lusima, a shaman among the Maasai with powers of divination. After recovering from the battle at Manyoro and Lusima's village and returning to his base, Leon narrowly avoids being court-martialled by a vindictive superior officer, who
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Percy
Phillips in order to allow Leon to spy on movements of man and machine in German East Africa, as he suspects the Kaiser of preparing for war. Leon uses his contacts among the Maasai - gained from saving Manyoro's life - to establish a secret information and communications network between
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The setting for 'Assegai' is similar to 'A Time To Die' by the same author. Both protagonists are sons of a wealthy businessmen, and now professional hunters / military officers whose missions are complicated by their love interests, whom they met through a client.
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Meerbach, a wealthy industrialist connected to the German war effort, to hire Leon's services. Leon learns how to fly an aeroplane from Otto, and falls in love with Eva von
Wellberg, Otto's mistress. Eva and Otto later use the safari to meet with
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Despite his acquittal Leon's duties do nothing to improve his falling morale and he considers quitting the army to take up elephant hunting, based on a prediction made by Lusima. Penrod arranges for him to be placed as apprentice to
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leaves home after a fallout with his father, and joins the army with help from his uncle Penrod
Ballantyne. Leon rises to become a second lieutenant in the King's African Rifles regiment based in
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and jam its engines with fishing nets, forcing it to crash. Otto and Eva both manage to bail out, and Eva attempts to kill Otto and avenge her father, only to be stopped by the crew of the
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Nairobi and German East Africa, while
Manyoro and Loikot, a young Maasai who had assisted Leon during his recovery, serve as his trackers.
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breaks out, Eva discovers that Otto plans to supply de la Rey with money and weapons transported via a large
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in the mountains. After the war, Leon and Eva, now married, return and reclaim the hidden money.
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accuses him of deserting his unit during the ambush, but he is cleared by
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tells the story of Leon Courtney (son the Ryder Courtney) and is set in 1906 in
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Otto later attempts to hunt a lion in the traditional Maasai way - with an
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in which the author brought the Courtney and Ballantyne series together.
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Similarities with other Wilbur Smith characters and novels
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which is being dealt with by the British army in Africa.
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111:Learn how and when to remove this message
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47:Please improve this article by adding
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314:Among Leon and Percy's clients are
249:'s thirty-second novel, it follows
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289:. During the period of the
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251:The Triumph of the Sun
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167:The Ballantyne Novels
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477:The Sound of Thunder
60:"Assegai" novel
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992:Novels set in Kenya
987:2009 British novels
964:The Diamond Hunters
501:The Diamond Hunters
469:The Dark of the Sun
461:When the Lion Feeds
308:professional hunter
163:The Courtney Novels
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485:Shout at the Devil
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145:Wilbur Smith
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892:Adaptations
846:Thunderbolt
779:Golden Lion
509:The Sunbird
340:World War I
981:Categories
870:Storm Tide
834:Cloudburst
827:Ghost Fire
733:Desert God
629:Golden Fox
573:Men of Men
348:Die Hummel
346:named the
320:dominatrix
101:April 2009
71:newspapers
38:references
882:Prey Zone
864:Shockwave
701:The Quest
645:River God
493:Gold Mine
444:Works by
181:Publisher
135:Softcover
787:Predator
533:Cry Wolf
344:zeppelin
151:Language
124:Assegai
803:War Cry
741:Pharaoh
709:Assegai
677:Warlock
669:Monsoon
407:Assegai
399:Assegai
360:Assegai
356:Assegai
352:Assegai
332:assegai
287:Nairobi
275:Assegai
255:Assegai
242:Assegai
222:480 pp.
176:Fiction
154:English
85:scholar
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