Raymond E. Feist: your opinion

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So what is your opinion of old Mr. Feist. I both really like him and absolutely hate him. I'm going to rant a bit here:

Now, the riftwar trilogy. Probably one of THE best trilogies ever written. The Magician <Speechless>. Then the 2 follow-ups, also excellent. Particularly the darkness at sethanon. I really liked the nighthawks. His writing had really impressed me.

The prince of blood and kings buccaneer were O.K but weren't anything great.

Now the serpent war saga. I could rant all year. It started off sooo well. The first 2 books were great. It built the tension, and really piqued your interest. The third book was also good, though not as good as the ones before. Now the finale...... WTF!!! Talk about an anti-climax. It was the biggest pile of poo this side of the planet poo! Does he even care about this saga anymore? The whole saga is a complete waste of time if you can't be arsed to write a decent ending! I felt so cheated.AAAAARGH!

O.K fast-forward to the riftwar legacy. Krondor: the betrayal. Probably Feists second finest work. It was excellent, good story, great tension, nice plots. I'm thinking this is great. Next the assassins. Also good. You gotta love nighthawks, and this book delivered more Feist goodness. But UH-OH, tear of the gods. Also still good, but I'm getting worried. The story is dragging on now and I'm getting bored. How many random evils are going to come along before we see the puppet master behind all this? Who is the crawler? Does Feist even care? I mean, He has 2 other books planned and the series is going nowhere. Now he is writing the legends of the riftwar as well. It's like he has gotten bored with this one and can't be bothered anymore. Maybe he will finish it, but you can bet your bottom dollar it's not going to be an exciting finish. It's going to be the serpent war over again.
O.K rant over.

Now, I haven't read the legends of the riftwar, yet. Is it worth my while?
Second can anyone recommend a trilogy thats as good as the riftwar trilogy. I also liked the Icewind dale trilogy, and other forgotten Realms works. I just want to read a series of books that aren't going to let me down at the end.

[ April 13, 2004, 14:20: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

I agree he started off great (actually I wasn't very keen on Magician but Silverthorn, and particularly A Darkness At Sethanon, were brilliant) but then he seemed to go really downhill towards the end of the Serpentwar Saga.

The first book - Shadow of a Dark Queen - was a masterpiece and almost on a par with A Song Of Ice And Fire, but the second - Rise of a Merchant Prince - was such a disappointment. The first book involves a journey to the far side of the world and a climactic battle against enemy forces; the second involves one character's attempts to become a successful merchant. You wonder just what the hell Feist thought he was doing when he wrote that. Boring just didn't describe it.

Things just went from bad to worse after that. Rage of a Demon King was so dire I actually skipped huge chunks of it because I couldn't bear to read them and I still haven't got around to reading Shards of a Broken Crown yet.

I haven't read the later books so far as I have such fond memories of how goof Feist was in his early years and I'm kind of reluctant to read his later works for fear of spoiling those memories.

 

I would totally recommend reading krondor: the betrayal. I can't tell you how the series will end, but that book is great. As for broken crown, don't bother. The end will tarnish any love you have for Feist's writing.

 

I have always enjoyed Feist's work. I just got notification that Barnes and Noble has shipped me his latest work.

 

all im going to say is that Feist's first works are absolutely brilliant!

 

The Song of Ice and Fire trilogy (soon to be a sixology) by George R. R. Martin.

Magician was voted one of the 100 Best Books of All Time in a recent BBC poll.

 

Thanks for the tip. Looks like I'm off down the library tomorrow.

 

Well, I haven't really liked any of the books of his that I've read. (Those being Honoured Enemy, Tear of the Gods, and Daughter of the Empire).

Honoured Enemy was boring, cliched, and extremely predictable. Tear of the Gods was also boring (boring anough that I can't remember a single other thing about it). The main character of Daughter of the Empire was much too über and shallow - didn't make a single mistake the entire book, always knew exactly what to do in every given situation (still, the world was mildly interesting).

 

The books you've read aren't among his best, Tear of the gods is going downhill, daughter of the empire is part of a series i haven't read but doesn't look to great. Try reading the magician. It might change your opinion.

 

Magician, Silverthorn and a Darkness at Sethanon are GREAT works.

After that, it goes from meh to where's the damned lighter fluid so I can burn this thing? VERY quickly. I'm reading through the riftwar series again, but I'm not sure if I'll continue after Sethanon. Maybe I'll go as far as Buccaneer, but that's certainly where I'll stop this time.

 

For me, "Magician" was the pinnacle of his works. After that it went downhill to the point that after "A Darkness at Sethanon" I didn't read any more of his work. In fact, I don't think that I even reread any of the three that I did read, and for me that's unusual.

 

The King's Buccaneer is worth reading as it comes from the period before Feist went to pot.

As with quite a few fantasy authors who write lots and lots of similar books in the same setting (Robert Jordan/Terry Brooks take a bow), Feist started out pretty good but then just seemed to lose his way. I haven't read any of his recent works and after the mess that was Rage Of A Demon King, I'm not minded to either.

 

I think all Feist's books are at least good. Some are better, some are worse but you can said that about every writer. I red all books that were published in Poland (translated into polish of course) and now I'm going to read them once again, but this time in English (if I could buy them somehere, I got only 'Magician' right now).

 

I agree with almost everyone here, the first books were great and after that it went downhill. I liked them enough to keep reading though and I even bought the two books from the new Conclave of Shadows series.
I'm just hoping he will reach his old level again, I'm really curious how he's going to end everything.

 

Serpentwar Saga started ok and just got more and more dire as it went. I am still to read the Shards of a Broken Crown but when I recover from my Feistitis I might read it and some others...

 

I actually find Feist's work quite boring. I've only read a couple of his books (and only managed to finish one), and I just found it to be a dull read.

 

I am probably the only one here that thinks that the Serpentwar Saga is great.

 

I have only read the Serpent War saga, and I agree that the fuirst 2 books were good, but the others... not that good.

And the so-called saviung of the world was a lot less interesting thatn Erik & co's latest shenigans...

I think the only reason why I bothered to finish the Shattered Crown was because of Jimmy and Dash.

*shakes head*

 

Hey Caleb, I'm with you. The Serpentwar saga was great, as was the Magician series. The DAughter of the Empire series was also pretty nice. Aside from those though, they have sorta gone downhill. Hopefully, considering the skill he's shown in the earlier books, he'll be able to get back to that level. After all, Jordan did.