(This is a review of the whole series. No spoilers other than what can be inferred from the existence of four books and their titles.)The Serpentwar Saga is a series of four books set in Feist's Riftwar Universe. I warn you now: if you haven't read The Riftwar Saga, then I strongly suggest that you go read that before you even consider this series (a lesson I learned the hard way). That said, The Serpentwar Saga is a complete epic in its own right. It tells the story of the Kingdom and its war with an invading army led by the serpent-like Pantathians. None of the books really work as standalones, so once you start you're in for a four-book commitment, which is pretty much how I got sucked into reading all four books.The series begins with Shadow of a Dark Queen. This is the tale of Erik and Roo, two boyhood friends who flee their village after committing a crime and end up becoming part of a band of “desperate men”. Good-hearted, hard-working Erik is a likeable protagonist, with his sneaky friend Roo providing a nice foil. If you read this book simply as Erik's story, then you'll be in for a tale of action and adventure. However, if you're reading it for the epic war story, then you're in for a slow start. It takes a long while before we get to the bit about the titular Queen and her army and when you do get there, you know it's only the beginning. Shockingly, there are non-white human characters in this medieval European fantasy, and despite the fact they’re minor characters and despite the fact they’re somewhat stereotyped (positively at least, I guess), I was pleasantly surprised they existed at all. Thankfully, there is no cliffhanger at the end of the book. If anything, Shadow of a Dark Queen is a prologue or Volume I of a greater work, and should be read as such (if only for your own sake).Next comes Rise of a Merchant Prince and it's exactly what it says on the tin. For that reason, Book #2 is the most boring of the lot as you know exactly how it ends before you even begin. It's Roo's rag-to-riches story and the blurb makes it sound more exciting than it is (the bit about the seductress ruining his world doesn't even happen and Roo’s character doesn’t really change). One thing I will say is that the book’s subject matter is original. It’s a rare fantasy novel that focuses on commerce, and I enjoyed reading about everyday life in the city of Krondor. The book is entertaining on a scene-by-scene level, if not on an overall-plot level. If you're hoping to use this as inspiration for your own rags-to-riches journey, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Roo benefits largely from his opportunism, connections, luck, fighting ability and being the smartest guy around in his particular set of circumstances. The commerce jargon, strangely, is only sometimes explained. The Serpentwar plot is reduced to almost nothing, which is unfortunate as it was the most interesting part of the book. The book can be summed up in one sentence, half of which you know already (ie. “Roo gets rich and [Serpentwar plot]”). It also introduces a bunch of new characters who become important in later books.Things come to a head in the third book, Rage of a Demon King. The Queen's armies reach the Kingdom and all hell breaks loose. There are two main plot lines: the first is about the actual invasion and the military tactics employed by each side; the second deals with the nature of the Queen herself and concerns magic and the fate of the universe (of course). In the case of the latter, there's a lot of discussion on the mythos and metaphysics of the Riftwar Universe, which while interesting, can also be a little confusing. Given the different story lines, the point of view shifts quite often, from Erik to Roo to the magicians Pug and Miranda and various others. That said, this was the best book by far. It was an exciting, gripping read with a satisfying conclusion.The last book is Shards of a Broken Crown, which essentially deals with the aftermath of the Serpentwar – namely, how the Kingdom must handle remaining enemies and how it must rebuild. The focus shifts to Dash and Jimmy, grandsons of the Duke of Krondor, though of course the magicians also play a large part. After the high of Book #3, the series now feels a bit fatigued. While it has its moments, Book #4 is less polished than the others. The scenes in this book are noticeably shorter than in previous books and they feel choppy and abrupt. You can almost see the scaffolding of the plot poking through the scenes and the book itself seems to draw out the series unnecessarily. While the major plotlines are resolved, Book #4 still ends with sequel bait. Sequel bait! At the end of four five hundred page books! Also, I'm not sure if it was just the edition I read, but I found a lot of errors in Shards - “insure” used instead of “ensure”, over-frequent and possibly inappropriate use of the word “ironic”, character names being swapped or misspelled and various typos. Normally I wouldn't mention this sort of thing, but in this case the sheer number of errors proved distracting. Tut, tut, Shards copy editor and/or proofreader!Overall, The Serpentwar Saga is a fun read, but I did have a number of problems with it, first and foremost being the fact that much of the world was already established in previous series. Had the world been explored further in this series, it would have been fine. Some places are explored thoroughly, and I suspect this is because they are “new”. Otherwise, we get a lot of name-dropping of places and events, and only sometimes with a perfunctory description for context. This was particularly irritating given the fact that other things were repeated again and again, things like how Calis is a half-elf and how Miranda says things drily. There are also so many levelled-up badasses in this world – literal living legends – that even without knowing about Feist's body of work you just know that there were books about these people before this series. As a newcomer to the Riftwar Cycle, it felt as if I had come late to some party where everyone had already made friends and developed their own in-jokes. As such, I didn't find their company nearly as riveting as they did and I found my eyes glazing over in some parts of the book. To his credit, Feist always manages to slip in a quick bit of summary or context at the start of each book (in case you'd forgotten things between books) or before some extended discussion of a past event. This allows new readers to follow what's happening, even if you're not having as much fun as everyone else is. To take the party latecomer analogy further, it's like you're at a party where among the guests is a kind soul who tries to include you by explaining all the jokes. So yeah. Thanks.I gather that each series in the Riftwar Cycle deals with successive generations of characters. For those who have read about Pug, Tomas, Jimmy the Hand and so on, their presence in this series may well be delightful. However, the events of The Serpentwar Saga spell the end of some of them, making you wonder whether the characters introduced in this series will meet their end in another (I'm guessing yes). The fact that a character's life is told through different series annoys me as a reader, since I don't fancy having to read through all of Feist's works to get my closure. I'm sure this is a personal preference thing though, since others may think this fact is awesome.You can totally tell that The Serpentwar Saga is written by a dude. The vast majority of characters are men and the books are big on fighting and killing and military strategy. The way the characters are all powered up in different classes (like magician, thief, soldier, etc) also reads like a roster of teenage male fantasies (not that there's anything wrong with that). When female characters are described, there's usually some mention of their level of attractiveness. When someone “admires” something in a woman, that's usually a euphemism for “ogle”. Though I guess it's appropriate for the setting, visiting prostitutes is also seen as an ordinary pastime for unmarried men. Also, two of the female characters experience rape, though the incidents are not described in detail and the effect on the victims seems to be glossed over. While this is a minor part of the books, I thought it worth a mention as I know that some of you would rather not encounter such material at all.The writing is far from beautiful; it just serves the plot, nothing more, nothing less. That’s beside the point though; you basically read this for the plot and setting. Feist does this very well. He evokes environments well and his world feels lived-in and thought out. Things somehow always manage to get worse for our heroes and the Saga is an exciting read. It was also interesting to see how different characters worked with or against each other. It's not so much personality that distinguishes the characters, but position (being rich, being poor, being a Prince, being a soldier). Most of the characters fall into some sort of cliché, but there are a few bright sparks here and there (such as Nakor) to keep things interesting.There are quite a number of plot holes and character inconsistencies in this series and these may irritate the discerning reader. For me, the worst ones are first: how there’s always some justification as to why the legendary heroes aren’t doing more than they can; and second: Prince Patrick's transformation from “blank slate” in Books #1-#3 to “angry idiot man-child” in Book #4. Rather than hating Patrick for it, I became annoyed at the author for treating the character so unfairly. Otherwise, I found the other “mistakes” to be forgivable.I know I've complained a lot in this review, but I did enjoy the series. While newcomers to Feist's work will be able to follow the plot, the amount of back-referencing is frustrating, and I really wish I'd read The Riftwar Saga instead. Sure there are flaws in The Serpentwar Saga, but the plot is really riveting and you always want to know what happens next. It’s a bit clichéd, but still fun. Feist is good at maintaining a high level of tension and the world of Midkemia feels very rich and well-developed. But yes, if you're interested at all, start with Magician.
The book is okay, but not incredibly amazing. The writing was alright (I actually found quite a few errors that baffled me because isn't this supposed to be on some bestseller lists or something? Breath instead of breathe, carnage instead of carriage, etc.) I liked the characters quite a bit, but the way in which the author wrote the story was confusing. It wasn't one or two characters that had the limelight. We jumped around a lot, from a woman sorcerer on a quest, to their captain, to a captain of a squadron, then back to Eric and Roo. I kind of wish we stayed with only Eric and Roo. I haven't read any previous works by this author so I was confused in several of these head-hopping parts and found it hard to keep track of all this story-switching. If we stayed with Erik and Roo for most of the journey I probably would have liked it more. The parts about the other characters didn't add much to the overall plot, although maybe I'm missing something because I haven't read previous works.Don't take the book too seriously and you'll get though it just fine. It's a typical fantasy journey with your usual bad guys and unlikely heroes. I love fantasy stories like that so I read it as if it were a light read despite the page count. Read it as a casual read and you'll get though it alright.The thing that bugged me more than anything was that nearly every woman in the story was raped, a hooker, or the evil queen. There's one female magic user, Miranda, but she didn't really do anything super-amazaballz-awesome. She was just kinda there. Every other girl was subject to horrible crimes or brutally murdered or something. I just wish there were more strong women in this book. It could've added a lot. Anyways, I won't go out of my way to get the sequels but if they turn up in a used bookstore I might bring them home. Not a waste of time, but not an incredible read either. It's very middle of the road.
Do You like book Shadow Of A Dark Queen (1995)?
Set across the sea from the Kingdom, this book gives a feel of ever widening the world of Midkemia. Drawing from characters from the previous books in the Riftwar Saga, there are some wonderful appearance of much loved characters that create continuity. I love reading books where at the moment you start wondering what has happened to a set of characters or what they are doing, they make an appearance and change events unfolding around them. Feist is a master of this. With Pug the Magician acting almost as a background character to the events that follow Eric Von Darkmoor and Calis son of Tomas. Most of the battle and action of the novel takes place around and away from the characters giving a sense of the war raging around them but not alienating the reader. This allows for character development and relationships to grow through the adversity that they face and the pain of death to be shown. Feist isn't afraid to kill off characters either, which always leaves me with knots in my stomach as to who will survive encounters with the enemy and who won't. Superbly crafted, it had me cheering and worrying right alongside the characters and mourning the deaths of some along the way.
—C.S. Woolley
Shadow of a Dark Queen, like a good many other books, doesn't need my praise or approval to speak for it. My words are grains of sand against the vastness of Raymond E. Feist's career and body of work, so I care not to elaborate in a review. It's all been said: great characters, hugely satisfying character growth, intriguing world building, high writing quality, varied settings, and much more.This is a very good read. It's my first Feist novel, though I've heard so much about his books. I loved the cliffhanger intensity that just keeps you turning pages, like that (view spoiler)[ fake-out drop from the gallows! Holy crap, that had me going for sure. (hide spoiler)]
—Nikki
I'm currently re-reading all of the Feist books and so far, it's awesome! I didn't remember much from this book (I only read it once ten years ago) so everything was like I read it for the first time. Maybe it's a bit controversial, but I'm starting to prefer Feist over GRRM. Feist didn't make the mistake of trying to describe everything in one generation. You get the feeling that every book is just a small glimpse in a world in which a lot of going on, and every book offers a fresh perspective. On the other hand, Pug's sudden appearances at the end of every book do have a bit of a 'deus ex machina' quality, and I'm still not really fond of the entire religion bashing thing. However, I used to think that Feist's books were a bit shallow or superficial and now I don't know anymore why I held that opinion. Each new character / book explores another part of the human condition and he gets quite introspective at times. On to the next book!
—Ekmef
