Riftwar/Feist novels

[Wolf72]

Seems I may be in the minority here, but I liked the Serpent War Saga...up until the very end. The way he ended it was much to Deus Ex Machina for me. I would've been happy for another book to finish it up.

Pug: I can't beat him

Pug: let me try, again ... ouch

Others: ooh ahh, ooh la la ...

Pug: aha, I win.

I loved the series up until that last magical battle ... it blew chunks, hard.

 

[jasamcarl]

Pug: I can't beat him

Pug: let me try, again ... ouch

Others: ooh ahh, ooh la la ...

Pug: aha, I win.

I loved the series up until that last magical battle ... it blew chunks, hard.

Though you just reminded me of that horrible battle with the demon lord, I'd have to say that one scene was simply symbolic of what was wrong with the Serpant War books. Feist either was way too much in love with his characters, or was simply condescendingly throwing red meat to his fans by making his classic characters unbelievably competent. Not one scene featuring Pug and his magical cohorts contained an iota of dramatic tension simply becuase i never got the sense that they could be truly threatened. Unfortunatly, the new characters weren't much better, reaching a level of macho heroism in one book where it took several for the stars of the Riftwar books to perform such deeds.

And the larger conflics were so...impersonal. Serpentmen? A continent full of generic tough-guy mercenaries? The enemies in Riftwar were at once both more mysterious AND more detailed. That and the ways scenes transitioned (atleast in Magician) gave the earlier series a sort of nervy pulp tension which Serpentwar completly lacked.

P.S. After all these years, and I still remember enough to criticize.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I loved the first trilogy but the rest since then have been what I call popcorn reading. Don't go in expecting too much and you should be okay. I'm getting ready to read the new books, just got them from the sci-fi book club along with the three books in the Tawny Man series by Robin Hobb (which I thought were great!)

 

[Krieg]

I loved the first trilogy but the rest since then have been what I call popcorn reading.

Daughter, Mistress & Servant of the Empire were excellent books...although I think Janny Wurts gets most of the credit for that.

 

[kingpaul]

Daughter, Mistress & Servant of the Empire were excellent books...although I think Janny Wurts gets most of the credit for that.

That trilogy is awesome! Out of all the books by Feist, I re-read that set the most.

Do re-read the Riftwar books, but not as much as the above set.

I liked King's Buccaneer because, to me, it was a coming-of-age book for the younger kids

Prince of the Blood - eh. Not read it that often.

Serpent War - I'll read the 1st 3 books every now and then, but the end of the 4th book soured me.

 

[jasamcarl]

Actually, I just ordered Book 1 of the Farseer trilogy from amazon. I've heard good things.

 

[SableWyvern]

Daughter, Mistress & Servant of the Empire were excellent books...although I think Janny Wurts gets most of the credit for that.

AFAIK, she gets all the credit. By my understanding, Feist's name is only there because it's his world. Although I could be wrong.

Oh, and IMO, the credit is for rather poor books far too heavy on the moralising. Dr Quinn does Fantasy.

 

[Gomez]

I haven't heard much about this but isn't Midkemia a almost direct copy of the world of Professor M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel?