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Title: Talon of the Silver Hawk (Conclave of Shadows, Book 1) by Raymond E. Feist ISBN: 0-380-97708-7 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (44 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Bond, Talon Bond
Comment: Much like the Serpentwar series started out as a fantasy retelling of "The Dirty Dozen" (a bunch of death-row convicts are covertly recruited for a dangerous mission behind enemy lines), book 1 of the Conclave of Shadows starts the new series out by detailing the creation of the world's greatest gentleman spy. Follow Talon as he masters every linguistic, martial, cullinary, scholarly, and seductive craft with an effortless ease in but a few relatively short years.
That's not to say its an entirely bad book...Just very derivative and, at this point, small. The characters frequently talk about the tremendous consequences of what they are about to embark upon, but you never really get the sense that it is as epic as The Riftwar or Serpentwar sagas (Like many others who have posted reviews here, I will not officialy count the Krondor books in the Midkemia pantheon).
Feist is a very good storyteller, and the world he has realized has room for many, many incredible tales. Perhaps this new series will grow into something more fantastic in future volumes. But at the moment, it doesnt feel that way.
Rating: 4
Summary: a new Midkemia novel
Comment: Book 1 of the Conclave of Shadows
Raymond Feist returns to Midkemia, the world of his bestselling Riftwar and Serpentwar sagas. With each novel, Feist has broadened his world and shown more and more of the lands that make up Midkemia. This novel begins in the Eastern Kingdoms, to the far east (and somewhat to the north) of the Kingdom of the Isles. We also see the Kingdom of Roldem and get to revisit the Sorcerer's Isle.
Kieli is a boy about to become a man on Midsummer's Day. His people, the Orosini, get their adult names by going on a vision quest high up a mountain. Just as Kieli gets his adult name, Talon of the Silver Hawk, he sees smoke coming from his village. Hurrying home, he finds his village in flames and most of his people slaughtered. He tries to fight, but is severely wounded and left for dead. He is found and rescued by Robert de Lysis and a couple of other men. Talon awakes at Kendrick's, a tavern/small fortress. Because Robert saved his life, Talon owes him a life-debt and begins to serve under Robert. Robert, Caleb (a hunter), and Magnus (a sorcerer) train Talon but do not yet tell him to what end. Talon thinks only of revenge on the men who slaughtered his people. Talon is now the last of the Orosini.
For most of the first part of the book, Talon's benefactors remain a mystery. Who are these men? Who do they work for? We get hints of Magnus's and Caleb's parentage. The book does not directly tell when the novel is taking place, but we get hints from some things. Rupert Avery had commissioned a book before he died. Grandsons of Duke James are mentioned. We do get to revisit some of the characters with abnormally long lifespans (Nakor, Pug, Miranda).
The second half of the book takes place in Roldem, a kingdom mentioned several times throughout the Riftwar novels. Talon is in a tournament to become to the world's greatest swordsman.
I enjoyed this book, and Midkemia is one of my favorite fantasy worlds, but Feist didn't really build the locations very well in this novel. Kendrick's was well done, but the rest of it (Sorcerer's Isle, Roldem) were merely place names instead of actual locations that I could picture. Also, despite the horrible things that had happened to Talon, I never really grew to care for him as I did for Pug, Tomas, Arutha, and Jimmy. I am curious to see how Talon grows into his new role with the mysterious group, The Conclave of Shadows, but I haven't grown as attached to Talon as I did with other characters. With that said, this is a very good offering from Raymond Feist.
Rating: 4
Summary: The more things change....
Comment: I have read pretty much read most of Feist's books and after the end of the "Krondor" series I had had enough of Midkemia and decided to explore elsewhere, fantasy and other fiction mostly. I returned to Feist with this book, although I had no idea what to expect. There has been quite a change in the cover styles of Feist's books in this new series, in Australia at least, and I initially assumed that Feist had departed from Midkemia and taken up residence in a new world - and one could hardly blame him, with the lacklustre nature of the "Krondor" series which appear to have been inspired by the computer games (Betrayal at Krondor and Return to Krondor), rather than the usual vice versa; great plots for computer games but not so good for a novel.
But in reality, returning to Feist's Midkemia is like returning home. Feist gets a bit of flak for his cliched plots and borderline cliched "nations", based on historical peoples from our well-known earth (I picked the Orosini culture as a simple splice of Native American and Highland Scottish societies). But in the end, this is is why I read Feist and can become immersed in the stories and the action - my brain is not too taxed in imagining the cultures or the appearances of the people, which are quite convoluted in other authors' Fantasy worlds, and I can concentrate on the story and enjoy the ride. It is good, well written escapism, and a fantastic ride indeed. And we can mourn the death or passing of certain characters (I am curious to know what happened to Erik, Calis, Roo etc) but did we really need book 5 of Serpentwar? Book 4 was pushing it if you ask me...
Anyway, I was delighted to discover that Feist was still writing about Midkemia but had taken a whole fresh, new approach, starting the story way over the other side of the continent, east of Rillanon and Roldem - a part of this world we have not really discovered much of previously. In fact I was a tad disappointed at the appearance of Pug, Miranda (never get sick of Nakor though) etc because I was quite hoping for a complete departure from that old scene, and to play out an entire plotline in a different part of the world.
Anyway, enough of the gripes. IMO this is one of Feist's best books, and it is interesting that all of the "first" books in each series seeem to be the strongest. As an entertaining, exciting, action-packed, fast paced novel, this is really great reading, and has me absolutely "spewing" that the next book "King of Foxes" is being flogged here in Australia for up to $45 when I am eager to get on with the next part of the story...
If you are a Feist fan who has become a tad bored or disillusion with the whole scene, then buy this book and soak it in, because this is a whole fresh new direction for Feist's Midkemia books, without anything really having changed; and that's what I really enjoyed about it.
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Title: Naked Empire (Sword of Truth, Book 8) by Terry Goodkind ISBN: 0765305224 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 21 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Jarka Ruus (High Druid of Shannara, Book 1) by Terry Brooks ISBN: 0345435737 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Elder Gods (The Dreamers, Book 1) by David & Leigh Eddings ISBN: 0446532215 Publisher: Aspect Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: King of Foxes : Conclave of Shadows: Book Two by Raymond E. Feist ISBN: 0380977095 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Lair of Bones (Runelords, Book 4) by David Farland ISBN: 0765301768 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 08 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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