Wilbur Smith · 1981 · overland

Wilbur Smith's 1981 Ballantyne saga. In the 1870s, Zouga Ballantyne toils in the diamond pits of Kimberley, gambling everything on a dream of the fertile lands to the north. When fortune turns, he leads his sons up the long road into Matabeleland, kingdom of Lobengula and his warrior impis - a push north that will build an empire and doom a proud nation to war.

1. 1
   Kimberley

   In the vast open diamond pit called the Devil's Own, Zouga Ballantyne labors and gambles among the diggers of Kimberley, chasing the milky stones that might one day buy his way back to the rich lands he covets in the north.

2. 2
   The road north

   His fortunes made and broken, Zouga leads his sons Ralph and Jordan up the long pioneer road out of the diamond fields, trekking by wagon across the thirstlands toward the unclaimed country beyond the Limpopo.

3. 3
   GuBulawayo

   At GuBulawayo, kraal of King Lobengula, the Ballantynes reach the heart of Matabeleland - a proud warrior nation whose impis and grasslands the coming of the white men will consume, in a reckoning that ends in war.