I have one major gripe against this book: it is labeled as fantasy and I feel like it really wasn't. Magic is spoken of several times and used very occasionally, but it is not described in any great detail and there weren't really any fantastical creatures running around. So I was expecting something fantastical and received very little. Also, it's in the science fiction section at the bookstore and I don't really think it fits into that category, either. My other issues are as follows:I didn't like the way the main character, Talon, was treated by his rescuers. Talon grew up in a small tribe and so his life experience was relatively simple and his future pretty predictable. But his tribe is completely slaughtered (for reasons unknown until more than halfway through the book) and Talon manages to survive thanks to a few men who were able to save him. He regains consciousness in a stable, but no one is in any hurry to answer his questions. In fact, I don't think he gets a straight answer at all in the book. All he receives are answers like, "You'll be told when you're ready to know" or "I don't think you're ready to hear this" or "so and so will answer that at the appropriate time". It was very frustrating because I feel like the whole back and forth of question asking and answering was a bit like what I go through with my toddler, "Mommy, why..." "Well, because..." "But...Mommy, why?" Because Talon owes his main rescuer, Robert, a life debt for having saved his life, Talon just meekly goes along with everything he is asked to do. He does all kinds of things, learns all kinds of things, without ever knowing what purpose it will serve. And his lessons are gone over in great, unsatisfying detail. If this were a movie, all of the things he learned would have been accomplished in a pleasing five minute montage with appropriate soundtrack. And really, that is all that is necessary. Instead, his "training" just goes on and on and on. And since he grew up in a small tribe, he was pretty much treated as an ignorant savage through the first two thirds of the book. It was frustrating to see intellectual growth, but not much character growth. And it was frustrating as the reader for Talon's questions about his purpose to go unanswered because the reader ends up not knowing, either.Also, at the beginning of each chapter: Talon sat. Talon pondered. Talon stretched. Talon yawned. Talon scratched his bum (okay, so the last one wasn't real, but I'm surprised that it isn't.) Sometimes this would even occur in the middle of chapters.The book picks up in part two where Talon is finally able to make his own decisions and actually live life. He enters this really cool sword fighting contest. He meets interesting people and the plot gets to advance. I'm hoping the second book is more like the last third of this one because the first two thirds was really slow going for me. I just couldn't like Talon that much until he started showing a spark of independence.
Yep, Feist is starting to get back to what he does best with Talon. A writer who struggled to produce quality work since King's Buccaneer seems to have taken a step back and reevaluated what his strengths are and has delivered a quality read. His focus and development of a single character is one of Feist's strengths, and Talon is a quality character. Those who help him develop, like Caleb and Magnus are good too. You get the impression that bigger games are afoot in the world and often the likes of Pug are referred to as being off doing something important, and this is good too. Really helps seat Talon at a certain level; that being a very low level.A criticism of the book is that, if anything, he spends too many pages on Talon's early life. The growth is good to read but does become laboured sometimes. There are large passages that are generally irrelevant, so far as I can see. I get that Talon is learning about a new society, but goodness me, I don't need to read about how he's learning about sugar! Urgh! Add to this the fact that the end of the book and the dramatic conclusion that the reader is given isn't even anything to do with the tournament that Talon enters! He wins that, becomes super awesome, but fails to slay Quentin Havrevravlevrevypevytevylemeenium (seriously, it's one of the longest, daftest names)! Instead ALMOST killing him is enough to get him a job in The End of Level Baddy's service - and therefore a chance to kill him. In another book. Not this book. Another one. Later on. Not now. Yeah. I know.Instead the conclusion is actually some random fight up in the hills to save a sister clan village from extermination. Apparently we are to believe Talon's single action was enough to stave off the entire extermination of the Orodon species. One fight. Yeah.Look, if I was a cynic - which I most certainly am - then I would suggest that Talon of the Silver Hawk is better described as the first half of a great book. I would even go as far as to suggest that Feist might have written it that way, with the true conclusion to Talon's tale appearing in King of Foxes. And then perhaps the publisher convinced him to split it in to two and have Exile's Return (which has largely nothing to do with the other two books directly enough to justify it being in a trilogy) as the third in a trilogy. What it means is Talon huffs and puffs, but just doesn't deliver a good enough conclusion. It kind of fizzles, and the ending feels contrived as a big conclusion. Oddly, the village scene would have felt perfectly well position in the middle of a book. Perhaps where Feist always intended? Who knows.But these criticisms aside, I like this book and the series it starts. I'm just glad I have King of Foxes to hand instead of having to wait six months for its release - because then the weak ending of Talon would have really boiled my piss.
Do You like book Talon Of The Silver Hawk (2004)?
I found this enjoyable enough I could see looking up the two other books in this trilogy, although I'm not moved to rush to the bookstore to pick them up, and in that my reaction is reminiscent to the other Feist book I've read, Magician: Apprentice also set in this universe. I believe that other book was among the first Feist ever wrote, and I do find Talon a better, smoother read than I remember that book being. The setting is fairly routine in fantasy--reminiscent of medieval/renaissance Europe, although there are hints of a science-fiction gloss and even mentions of other worlds and alien beings. This particular book is built around the classic revenge plot--the book opens as Talon's people are destroyed--for which he vows revenge. I felt too much of Part One: Orphan was set-up about Talon's training to become a spy. Part Two: Mercenary was more involving to me as Talon finally was put into play as an agent. I did like Talon. Nevertheless, I was left feeling distanced from him. Maybe it's a girl thing. Women are pretty much only bed-warmers in this novel. Even in terms of just friendship, with Talon's family all gone from the beginning, he never really relates to anyone with deep emotion. Pretty much everyone around him, even the "good guys" (as they keep insisting they are) just uses Talon, ruthlessly honing him into a weapon. So there's no leavening romance or friendship or comradeship here--not really. I think that's why I'm in no hurry to pick up the next book even though this tale was a pleasant ride.
—Lisa (Harmonybites)
I do not like this book. It is terrible. I got it for a $1.00 at DI and I feel like that might have been too much. The characters are totally cliche and flat, the story line is slow, boring, and predictable, and the writing is young adult, but with adult morals. Usually I'm pretty forgiving in my reviews, but I have yet to find something to redeem this book. I feel like I have already read this book many times, but the other times I read it it was good. Like when I read it and it was called Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Eye of the World, or any other fantasy/ sci fi book. Sad. We'll see if the remaining 200 pages hold something better. Well, just to update I have to stand by my previous review that this is a terrible book. I would not recommend reading it unless you are looking to read something boring. Usually I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to entertainment. But honestly, why do all the characters talk like they are the same person? Even though one of them has grown up in the mountains and been completing isolated from the rest of the world for 15 years. Well, anyway. I could go on, but I have already given enough of my life to this novel.
—Marci Christensen
I hedged between 3-4 stars for this book and it could easily been a 4. First, I typically like stories, like here, where you have a youngling driven to accomplish some great deed whether driven by revenge, noble ideals, pursuit of power, etc. Here we deal with revenge on a grand scale (main character Talon's family and country are murdered). I like watching the development of the character as the mature both in age and abilities. Talon is adopted by members of the powerful Conclave of Shadows and taught swordplay, reading/writing, introduced to the life of nobility, politics, etc. The abandoned orphan turned into a deadly tool.Why 3 stars and why not 5 stars if I had rated it 4 stars? As much as I appreciated watching Talon tempered into a dangerous weapon, I never really felt that I got to learn much about Talon so as to like him all that much. There was a lack of personal interaction between Talon and others. Members of the Conclave would pop-in and out of his life, teach him various skills and provide him with fake personas, but there was only superficial interaction between the characters. I don't mind tagging along on a solo mission, but if I am, I want to know and like the person a little bit.In a book like The Lies of Lock Lamora, similar in the sense you have younglings taught and developed into more than they were, you had characters that were funny, clever, likeable/not likeable and really got to know them as they undertook their training to accomplish some great deed/mission. The conversations and interactions with themselves and others really developed the characters. Here, the character Talon, other than a plan and desire for revenge, doesn't offer much as a character (nor do the other characters in the Conclave of Shadows) for me to really root for or against him.I liked the book (reading the second book to close out the storyline), but would have liked to have learned more about Talon and the others along the way. I would characterize it as a very good story/with good world building populated by average characters.
—BookBandit
