This is, in many ways, the last magnificent adventure for Nicholas, the last of his innocence, not that some of the people around him aren't mad at him for being underhanded and secretive and ruthless about his scheming, which of course, he is. To Africa, then, in morally questionable circumstances, unable to escape the tangled web of personal and family complications that cling to him like molluscs, to find riches, but also suffering, and perhaps even love and a glimmer of peace, all to be shattered by one of the cruelest endings of a book since... well since Checkmate by the same author. 

It is a big and epic and intricate book full of the bustle and buzz of traders embarking on a major expedition, brilliant with descriptions of people and places, the evocation of Timbuktu in particular an absolute masterpiece of historical gorgeousness, a beautiful, vulnerable city of trade and learning that captures the hearts of the characters and the readers.