Rise of a Merchant Prince was one of the books I was most looking forward to rereading for my Midkemia Reread as I adore Roo. And while it was still an entertaining read, my enjoyment of the book was somewhat affected by changes in how I look at the world. Or rather, some of Roo's actions bothered me far more than they've ever done. Still, I really enjoyed the economic aspects of this novel and any scene Erik was in and, in the end, Rise of the Merchant Prince remains quite entertaining.If Shadow of a Dark Queen was Erik's story, Rise of a Merchant Prince is Roo's story. Roo is one of my favourite Feistian characters and he is a rogue of the type somewhat reminiscent of Eddings' Silk. He is the bad boy with the heart of gold, not dashingly handsome, but gifted with a silver tongue, a quick wit, and oodles of charm. I loved Roo's stint at Barrett's and his work with The Bitter Sea Trading Company. This was the book that showed me trading and economics could actually be interesting in a narrative. I also liked the early parts of his relationship with Karli, Helmut Grindle's daughter. There seemed to be a true connection forming between them, especially when Karli displayed her knowledge of the trade and her intelligence, but this is completely shut down once they marry and especially once Roo is seduced by Sylvia. And it drove me nuts. Not just that Roo would be that faithless and disrespectful of Karli, but that Karli acquiesces to this treatment like she does. Roo's treatment of his family on the whole made me feel a little less charitable towards him. I really disliked that his weak spot had to be women, that they were the only thing that could get him off his trading game.In addition to Karli, there are two more important female characters in this book. Miranda once again returns and joins Calis on the journey to Novindus. She's still played as the mysterious magical factor and worse, in this book the meat of her storyline seems to be the fact that she's in a love triangle with Pug and Calis. I mean why? Miranda is a powerful player in her own right. She's the one who knows the Hall of the Worlds well, she seems to have a good inkling to what needs to be done and in this book she's only along as the love interest and a convenient emergency exit for Calis. Then there is Sylvia and Sylvia just bothers me on many levels. She's a gorgeous woman, used as eye candy by her father, who also uses her womanly wiles (read sex) to further her father's business interests. In addition, she has a healthy libido and seems to enjoy bed sports with various partners. And it seems to me – though that might be a faulty interpretation on my side – that she's judged to be an immoral and bad woman over this not just by her father, but by herself as well. And of course if the rest of Krondorian society knew about this, she would be a social pariah. Something that strikes me as deeply tragic and unfair, since Sylvia seems to be very much a creature of her father's making. I hated that Roo let himself be led by his nether regions, instead of his brains and that he falls for the trap the Esterbrooks set for him. I very much didn't like Sylvia, yet it bothered me that much of what makes her unlikeable is tied into the fact that she isn't the virtuous merchant's daughter she's expected to be. Still I hope both she and, more importantly, her father get their comeuppance in the next book.While Rise of a Merchant Prince is largely Roo's story, there is a parallel arc in which Erik accompanies Calis and another hand-picked group of soldiers back down to Novindus on a mission to strike at the heart of the Panthatians' society. We only see glimpses of what happens – the most important moments – but the import and tension of this mission is tangible throughout the latter half of the book. It also made me realise that my opinion of Erik has significantly changed from where it was say a decade ago. I always thought Erik a bit too good to be true. He was not quite a 'Chosen One', but solid, dependable, Good and with 'a Future'; in other words, he was slightly vanilla. Now, however, I find myself drawn to Erik far more. He's still a bit too good to be true, but there is more to him than just vanilla and I'm wondering whether this development in my appreciation of Erik's character will continue in the next books or whether it might also be due to my slight disenchantment with Roo.Overall, even if Rise of a Merchant Prince wasn't visited by the Suck Fairy, it didn't quite live up to my memories of it. But even despite that it is a very entertaining novel and will remain one of my favourite Midkemia books. It also marks the one-third point of my Midkemia Reread, as this is the tenth of thirty titles set in Midkemia. And I'm starting to see some trends emerge. I don't know whether the books haven't stood the test of time well or whether it is that I have changed significantly since the last time I've read them through, but I'm finding far more problematical things this time around than ever before, even if the books are still very entertaining and compelling. Of course, Rise of a Merchant Prince was first published in 1995, so it'll be interesting to see whether this feeling will persist once we get closer to the last third of the series and his more recent books.***This review is part of my Midkemia Reread, in which I read all the books Raymond E. Feist wrote, set in the world of Midkemia. For more on the why and how of this series of reviews, check out Midkemia Reread: An Introduction.
I was tossing between 4 and 5 stars for this book, though eventually decided on 5 as the only reason I was going to give it 4 was because it was obviously a filler book in what would otherwise be a trilogy. Despite this I enjoyed it a lot, probably even more than Magician which has generally remained my favourite of Feist's books. It's not as beautifully and eloquently written as Magician was but there's something captivating about it nonetheless. Perhaps it's just my love of the medieval (esque) merchant class, or maybe the fact that nearly the entire book is character driven rather than plot driven (I generally prefer character driven stories), but I simply flew through this book.Following Roo's rise to wealth and his subsequent less-than-perfect family life was interesting of itself and Feist was able to craft what was otherwise mostly a side character into someone I both disliked but cared about and wanted to succeed despite his faults. The little bit of actual plot the book does have (besides how Roo rose to wealth) is mostly clustered in the last fifth or so of the book, to wind up for the following one I would imagine. It's intriguing but I generally found the plot interruptions a little annoying as it broke away from what Roo was doing. Strange for me to say that but that's how it felt.Finally, what annoyed me most about this book wasn't actually what was in the book at all. It was the fact that it was obviously a filler book. Based on what Feist has already written, normally what was written in this book would be summed up in a prologue not stretched out to an entire book. It made me want to read more filler books to fill in some of the huge gaps in the story of Midkemia instead of jumping 25 years every series. I want to see how Pug got used to his slavery and Tomas dealt with his unusual memories in Magician, I want to see how Kevin grew to know his son in the Empire series, I want to see Nicholas grow and become the King's Admiral after The King's Buccaneer. I REALLY want to see some of Callis's history and how he grew up among elvankind even though he's obviously so different from his peers. What annoyed me about this book was the fact that if Feist is willing to do filler books like this one, these stories don't exist.So what was wrong with this book wasn't actually wrong with it at all, what was wrong with it was that it was so good I wanted more and book hangover absolutely existed with this.
Do You like book Rise Of A Merchant Prince (1996)?
Well shucks, Mr. Feist, you've bamboozled me again. Yet again I found myself unable to put the book down and once again I was pretty disappointed when I did. Some small steps were taken to resolving the huge conflict previously mentioned, but even the huge triumphs were skipped over in a pretty unsatisfactory way. "Okay, we're about to do that super-mega-ultra-important life-threatening task...Okay, we did it. It was cool. Some people died. Now we're making some food." If that were the only shortcoming though I would have been pretty pleased with the progress made. The real disappointment was the fall of the hereto lovable character Roo from clever wily adventurer and the kind of character you can't help but enjoy to the vessel of Mr. Feist's unfulfilled sexual fantasies. If he had spent as much time with the oncoming holocaust as he did with Roo's extramarital exploits we wouldn't need two more books to finish the dang story. Disappointing.
—Michael
Rise of a Merchant Prince is a delight to read. You know how in stories the soldiers will be facing certain death and will have the "what could have been" conversation? "I would have gone home and married that pretty lass" or "Oh, if only I could return and fulfill my dream of becoming a famous bard" or whatever. And you feel sad for a future that will never come.Except, in Rise of a Merchant Prince, the "what could have been" actually gets played out! A character had goals, dreams, aspirations? Watch them live out their life! It's so refreshing. It's so real. It brings the characters to a different level of depth than their soldier martyr counterparts above. People live, people move on, and people keep striving towards their own happiness. I found the second novel in the Serpentwar Saga to be much more affecting and full of humanity than the first. While Shadow of a Dark Queen was more thrilling, with higher stakes, Rise of a Merchant Prince manages to be interesting in a down-to-earth way, while maintaining the same level of quality as the first.I highly recommend the series.
—Nikki
Maybe it comes from reading too many Raymond Feist novels in quick succession, but I found this instalment lacking. As advertised by the blurb this novel centres around Roo Avery, and his financial adventures are certainly the most interesting part of the book. Unfortunately the remaining bits about Erik, the Kingdom and the Pantathians only seem to serve as half-assed segues to link the general narrative of the Midkemia universe with this book. Apart from all this, I find more and more that Feist's depictions of women are incredibly shallow and single serving. He seems to think that saying a woman is intelligent and giving her minor plot roles, or describing her often enough as having some sort of wit or devious (see: sexual) charm is enough to paint her as a three dimensional character (If I say she is smart often enough, it must be true!). In fact the women are there mainly to offer a spicy sex paragraph apparently necessary to keep readers interested. Even when a female character is not being seduced by any variety of central or lesser characters, her role is then defined by her lack of sexual interaction.I sincerely hope that the remaining books are better, because I'm about six books in and I'll read the rest for the sake of closure if nothing else. I'd much prefer to enjoy the experience.
—Mariah Drakoulis
