Sound of Thunder

'Only once in his life had Sean met a man whose stength matched his own - and now again they were pitted against each other. He drove the heel of his right hand up under Jan Paulus's chin, forcing his head back against the encircling left arm. It should have broken Jan Paulus's neck. Instead he locked his arms around Sean's chest below the level of his armpits - and squeezed. Within seconds Sean felt his face swelling and congesting with blood, his mouth opened and his tongue came out between his teeth.'

The Sound of Thunder by Wilbur Smith is a vibrant tale of war, and of love and hatred in many forms: between brothers, between friends, between father and son, and between man and woman. Striding through its pages is the commanding figure of Sean Courtney, as he develops from the headstrong adventurer of When the Lion Feeds into a seasoned soldier and leader of men. The second novel in The Courtneys sequence, The Sound of Thunder is a powerful story of family tragedy set against the backdrop of the ravages of the Second Boer War.