The Kings Buccaneer is my favorite book written by Raymond E. Feist. You should definitely read it before the Serpent War Saga.

The story is of the third son of Arutha, Nicholas. Being the third son of royalty means you will never inherit anything of importance from your father. Like many people in life we too will never inherit anything from our parents and so instantly we already can relate to our protagonist. His means of coping with these trials is the matter of great interest. Nicholas has a birth defect that shrouds everything he does in feelings of self inadequacy. We all have felt at times that we were lacking. This novel is all about the "coming of age" story, how Nicholas grows from boy into man. The situations and stimuli for this change vary, some will please you, others are story book, but through it all not only does Nicholas grow, but so do you.

In addition to the rich character development of Nicholas (which sadly is almost entirely restricted to this novel as he only makes cameo's in other novels) you will also learn more about Nakor and Calis. Whats more is you are introduced to the continent of Novindus, a volatile and exotic landscape. So very different from the Kingdom of the Isles or Kesh that you find yourself rediscovering Feists ability to create a landscape so entirely believable and challenging that it fits right into Midkemia.

When people talk about Raymond Feist books it's usually the Riftwar Saga and the Serpentwar that they talk about, they tend to forget about The King's Buccaneer. Personally I think it is one of his finest pieces of work and along with Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon are among the ones I love the best. I have grown to enjoy later books, although I was getting fed up of Roo in Rise of a Merchant Prince but he redeemed himself in Rage of a Demon King. But I have to say I have had Talon of the Silver Hawk on the go for months now, and am only half way through it, even though I normally polish off books in days if they are by my favourite authors. I even ordered this from the USA because they had an earlier release date. Feist's last 4 books have not had me as keen as usual, which is a shame, as I love him as an author. It's a pity he moved on so quickly and killed off a lot of favourite characters. Buccaneer is a prelude to the Serpentwar saga it offers both old characters and new and still holds you with that early Feist feeling..........

Read and enjoy.