Prince of the Blood by Raymond E. Feist

This is definitly Feist at his best. I think that this is so due to the complexity of his two heroes, Arutha's sons, Borric and Erland. They are great, but due to arutha's shortcomings as a father they are 'undisclipined' and 'trouble makers'. The book explores grief, hope, fear and intrigue and introduces a major fiest character, Nakor. This is a definate read, and contains a great story. However the negative is the way that everything just 'falls together' at the end of the story, with no actual act of heroism or intelligence also the death of a character (i'll not mention who) was a bit of a let down.

The Riftwar Saga had elves, dragons, dwarves, magical armour, links to other worlds, beautiful queens, mad kings, evil beasts, assassins, dark magicians, epic battles, adventure on the high seas, civil war, political intrigue, a colourful theology, and a Ben Hur-proportional cast of rogues, scoundrels, vigilantes, heroes, villains, priests, fair maidens, pirates, valiant princes, defiant princesses, and a pair of lads with delusions of granduer.

Aged 16 at the time, I had never anticipated the release of a book so much until Prince of the Blood. When I bought it, I did nothing but read for a night and a day, until finishing with the twin pangs of joy and sorrow. For the purist in me, this book left out all the stories I wanted to hear. For the fantasy-addict, it delivered a stunning reply to my questions as to how the author could match his first offering.

This book kept the flame burning and I have been lining up at Feist book launches ever since.