Reading Feist was a bit of a disappointment..

[Pug of Crydee17]

magze read it in 3 hours? is she talking mince or by perchance is she an android, programmed for the sole purpose of reading? if it costs to much on hardback wait for paper back. I dont know about you but the hardback wasnt forced into my hand by a gun toting book sales person.

 

[U-Borat]

u really have to get over magician and feist in general... it is not high-class fantasy, only above average. and the very latest books are just crap. yes, they can be read in a couple of hours, and no, no1 sane feels the need to reread them due to their simplistic language and retarded plot structure... hence, complete waste of money.

 

[Pug of Crydee17]

If your going to criticise feist, then go and do it with all your other smart ass "we read cool books!" friends. There is no place for you here. go away. you sadden me.

 

[Janos]

Man, I havent read Feist in years!

I do recall being majorly disappointed at the end of the quadrilogy.... Can't remember if it was Shards of a Broken Crown or Rage of a Demon King...... But I remember vividly that it felt like such a cop out. I remember telling someone that it seemed like he was writing it and just decided to stop writing and said to himself "Ok, now I need an ending". And I remember it seemed that every other chance he got, he constantly referred to Betrayal at Krondor - the one based on the video game. It was like he just wrote that last book as an advertisment for Betrayal at Krondor, which was just coming out. And then every single review I read or heard from friends was that that book was just terrible. So, I actually haven't read anything of his since right before he wrote Betrayal. I heard later that he started writing better after that but I still haven't felt the gumption to pick up Betrayal at Krondor.

Man, I've been thinking about rereading some Feist lately, and now that I'm talking about it, I'm really thinking about it more. I loved everything up until that last book, so, there's a good what.... 9-10 books to read, plus the Empire saga? That'll give me a good stack to add to my "to read" pile!

 

[Bond]

Man, I havent read Feist in years!

I do recall being majorly disappointed at the end of the quadrilogy.... Can't remember if it was Shards of a Broken Crown or Rage of a Demon King...... But I remember vividly that it felt like such a cop out. I remember telling someone that it seemed like he was writing it and just decided to stop writing and said to himself "Ok, now I need an ending". And I remember it seemed that every other chance he got, he constantly referred to Betrayal at Krondor - the one based on the video game. It was like he just wrote that last book as an advertisment for Betrayal at Krondor, which was just coming out. And then every single review I read or heard from friends was that that book was just terrible. So, I actually haven't read anything of his since right before he wrote Betrayal. I heard later that he started writing better after that but I still haven't felt the gumption to pick up Betrayal at Krondor.

Man, I've been thinking about rereading some Feist lately, and now that I'm talking about it, I'm really thinking about it more. I loved everything up until that last book, so, there's a good what.... 9-10 books to read, plus the Empire saga? That'll give me a good stack to add to my "to read" pile!

I'm not sure why Shards of a Broken Crown gets such a bad rap. I thought it was okay. I read Feist wrote it as the ending book because at the end of Rage of a Demon King (BIG disappointment) there were so many loose threads left hanging in Midkemia that he felt anotehr book was necessary to tie things up.

Betrayal at Krondor the book is awful. You might be better off downloading the video game which has been rereleased as freeware. Dated certainly but it was probably the best PC RPG for its time.

Definitely read the Empire books for Feist in good form. I haven't read any of his more recent books because the continuous decline in quality from his earlier ones has been pretty stark.

 

[Janos]

I'm not sure why Shards of a Broken Crown gets such a bad rap. I thought it was okay. I read Feist wrote it as the ending book because at the end of Rage of a Demon King (BIG disappointment) there were so many loose threads left hanging in Midkemia that he felt anotehr book was necessary to tie things up.

Well, I haven't read anything of Feist's since before Betrayal was published, that was in '98 so I'm dredging up nearly a decade's worth of memories here - I'm not sure what actually happened in Shards and what I'm making up in my head, but here goes:

Spoiler

At the end of the book, there was this big buildup to a huge war. The big nations of Midkemia were gearing up for war, tensions were high. It was getting exciting, and then Pug came along and told everyone to not fight and never cross the borders. And then everything was just over.

And it all just felt very contrived and unbelievable.

Betrayal at Krondor the book is awful. You might be better off downloading the video game which has been rereleased as freeware. Dated certainly but it was probably the best PC RPG for its time.

Yeah, I heard the plot of the book was basically the plot of the video game written down.

Definitely read the Empire books for Feist in good form. I haven't read any of his more recent books because the continuous decline in quality from his earlier ones has been pretty stark.

Yeah, I loved the Magician series, but man, I thought the Empire trilogy was even better!
Unfortunately, I recently moved, and all of my books are in boxes in storage, so it's going to be a little while before I'll be able to get to them. I guess that'll make it that much sweeter when I finally have a chance to read them!

 

[U-Borat]

u really need to broaden your reading experience... PugofCrydee.....Magician is Feist's best book by far, yet even that is far from being a great book. if you havent realized that Feist's writing is decreasing in quality in the latest books.... u have problems.

 

[Hobbit]

....and this is where I pop in to remind members that the discussion here is Feist's writing, not each other's personal problems or reading tastes.....

So: Pug, Nightsorrow - please take it outside and deal with it, as personal comments of the nature you both have written are not what we like at sffworld.

Hobbit

 

[JamesL]

Magician is still one of the best epic fantasies out there. I mean - it recently came in the top 100 books of all time in a research project conducted in the UK - so that says something. I must re-read it sometime, as it is a great book.

As for his others...Magician aside, I find Feist a bit hit-and-miss. Silverthorn was alright (a bit of a letdown after Magician) but A Darkness at Sethanon was better (if I remember correctly).

The Serpent War Saga started well, but for me became entangled in confusing and increasingly dubious plotlines which ruined the story a bit. Still a decent read though.

His individual novels are pretty decent - Princes of the Blood is good, The King's Buccanneer is good.

But as other people have suggested, avoid the Krondor series - it is dreadful. Boring plotlines, boring characters, a total lack of enthusiasm or interest from Feist. Tear of the Gods is not so bad though.

As for the newer series, I don't know. I read Talon of the Silver Hawk, which was much better than his recent efforts, but I never got round to reading the next one in the series.

 

[Brys]

I'm not sure why Shards of a Broken Crown gets such a bad rap. I thought it was okay. I read Feist wrote it as the ending book because at the end of Rage of a Demon King (BIG disappointment) there were so many loose threads left hanging in Midkemia that he felt anotehr book was necessary to tie things up.

Betrayal at Krondor the book is awful. You might be better off downloading the video game which has been rereleased as freeware. Dated certainly but it was probably the best PC RPG for its time.

Definitely read the Empire books for Feist in good form. I haven't read any of his more recent books because the continuous decline in quality from his earlier ones has been pretty stark.

Wow - I agree with Bond on something! The whole Krondor series of books was pretty awful, though I heard the games were pretty good (the problem has been trying to get Betrayal at Krondor to work on a modern PC)

it recently came in the top 100 books of all time in a research project conducted in the UK - so that says something

I don't think that really says anything - there were some truly awful books in there, and very few excellent books in it. I agree Magician was pretty good, but I wouldn't rank it as top-tier epic fantasy, just above average.

 

[Pug of Crydee17]

u really need to broaden your reading experience... PugofCrydee.....Magician is Feist's best book by far, yet even that is far from being a great book. if you havent realized that Feist's writing is decreasing in quality in the latest books.... u have problems.

Hm.... ive read all of martins works... ive read all but the latest of jordans works... ive read the first chronicles of thomas covenant and im currently reading stupid white men by mike moore. Dont tell me to broaden my reading selection. Im here because feist is hands down my favourite author and I think thats as good excuse as any. Narrow mindedness is quite rife nowadays. You just added yourself to my narrow minded people list.

and ive got problems. IVE GOT PROBLEMS!? this coming from someone who tells people they should read what THEY read? go back to your cupboard.

 

[Muess]

....and this is where I pop in to remind members that the discussion here is Feist's writing, not each other's personal problems or reading tastes.....

So: Pug, Nightsorrow - please take it outside and deal with it, as personal comments of the nature you both have written are not what we like at sffworld.

Hobbit

Umm...

 

[Brys]

Hm.... ive read all of martins works... ive read all but the latest of jordans works... ive read the first chronicles of thomas covenant and im currently reading stupid white men by mike moore. Dont tell me to broaden my reading selection. Im here because feist is hands down my favourite author and I think thats as good excuse as any. Narrow mindedness is quite rife nowadays. You just added yourself to my narrow minded people list.

and ive got problems. IVE GOT PROBLEMS!? this coming from someone who tells people they should read what THEY read? go back to your cupboard.

Come on, can't we get back on topic?

....and this is where I pop in to remind members that the discussion here is Feist's writing, not each other's personal problems or reading tastes.....

Anyway - has anyone read the Darkwar series (what's published so far) here? Is it just more of the same (as in similar in quality to the Conclave series) or is there a dramatic improvement, or decline, in quality? Feist was one of my favourite authors and I read nearly everything by him, but recently I've become more disillusioned with him as an author as he can't compare to some of my current favourites. I reckon I'd have been pretty disappointed if I first read him now, after reading Martin, Erikson, Bakker etc in epic fantasy.

 

[Hobbit]

Thank you, guys, for being self-regulating. I have discussed this through PM with Pug.

Back to the topic please. The general impression is that some of Feist's later / more recent books have not developed in style nor content, and rather treaded water. Some have felt that the Talon series is a little more of a return to form, though still not as good as say Magician.

Would that be a fair assessment?

Hobbit

 

[Mellie]

Some have felt that the Talon series is a little more of a return to form, though still not as good as say Magician.

Would that be a fair assessment?

Hobbit

I don't think so at all Hobbit. I barely made it through the first Talon book. To this day I can still hear "I will be a Talon for my people" in my head. Oi. What a goofy line!! (Perhaps it was because I just couldn't care about the character?) It was such a disappointment after Riftwar, Serpentwar & the Empire trilogy. (Loved reading from the opposite perspective!) The Talon series just fell flat for me. I was so utterly disappointed.

Thanks to another post I discovered the impending release of book one of the Darkwar series (April) and will naturally give it another shot, even though I gave up on Talon after the first book. It's Feist, after all.
Well, here's hoping anyway.

 

[Pug of Crydee17]

Havent you guys got darkwar 1 yet?

 

[Mellie]

Amazon shows a release date for Flight of the Nighthawks as April 1.
Did it publish in the UK first?

 

[Pug of Crydee17]

Yep. I read it ages ago (and loved it).

 

[Jack]

Reading through this thread has made me want to pick up some Feist. I read Magician through Darkness ages ago, and it looks like the next step would be the Serpentwar Books. According to one amazon.com reviewer, Prince of Blood acts as a prelude to Serpentwar. Should I read it first?

This is all because I need to read something lighter, I've been considering Salvatore's Drizzt books and now maybe Feist. Moorcock, Crowley, Constantine, and now m. john... they've all made me want to go on a quest, get the magic sword and kill the dragon and fall in love with the beautiful "princess-in-disguise", damn it!

 

[Pug of Crydee17]

Prince of the blood isnt essential but it is infact a prelude to the serpentwar saga. But whatever you do, give Serpentwar a go, they are superb.