Author: Raymond E. Feist
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: 2009 (1983)
Pages: 681
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Birthday Gift
At Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician – and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever. Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm the land. Pug is swept up into the conflict but for him and his warrior friend, Tomas, an odyssey into the unknown has only just begun. Tomas will inherit a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization. Pug’s destiny is to lead him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to the mastery of the unimaginable powers of a strange new magic. (Goodreads Synopsis)
This is a tough review for me as there were parts of this book I really liked, but there were also parts that bored me. I actually don't read a lot of really epic fantasy - although, I do love Lord of the Rings - but this book is often spoken of, so I felt I should give it a go.
Initially the story and characters held my attention, but by the middle, I was starting to yawn a bit as new characters came in and those I had come to like were shoved into the background a little. Luckily the old favourites did return towards the end and loose ends were wrapped up - even if it did finish a bit abruptly for my liking.
On the whole, and despite some surprising POV jumps, this was a good book, but to me it always felt like a poor cousin to Tolkien's work. At nearly 700 pages, it is a fairly hefty tome, but to give Feist credit, his pacing never dragged and, apart from my wandering attention part way through, it didn't feel like a hard slog to read it.
I understand there are a couple more books in this saga and I may read them in the future, but I won't be rushing out to buy them straight away.
I have the series. This one was the hardest to get into and I agree there were some dull parts, but I found it laid out the foundation well for the later books. The next books in the series were a lot more interesting to me as the characters developed and the story had more action.
ReplyDeleteI was planning to re-read them soon, so I was glad to find your review and read your thoughts!
Christine