Customer Reviews

At the Gates of Darkness: Book Two of the Demonwar Saga

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

For a long time, I bought Feist's books in hardback, because I expected to re-read them. Yet except for the first several, I didn't want to revisit them.

In the middle of this book, I realized why I read Feist despite declining creativity and an increasing reliance on revisionist writing and a need to deliver to readers an escalating danger.

I read Midkemia books to check in on what Pug is up to, along with some supporting characters. Understandably, with time, my other favorite Midkemians have dropped out of the storyline due to age, and new descendants have tried (never entirely successfully) to replace them. This doesn't mean I don't like Jim Dasher, but he'll never replace Jimmy the Hand.

If you want new ideas and fresh concepts, just move on from Raymond Feist.

If you enjoy a good storyteller telling you stories you kinda remember from somewhere, but with characters you like, keep going.

After 20-something books, Feist doesn't deliver freshness. But he can give you a warm, happy, satisfying feeling, without ever reaching the delightful heights he once did.

I've read all of Raymen E. Feists' books and up to a certain point enjoyed them immensely.
However, somewhere around Talon of the Silver Hawk his writing started to lose interest, the same concepts were brought in over and over, and the one ever present character in all books, Pug the magician, had reached a stage in which he had been made so powerful by the author that Rayomind just couldn't come up with decent challenges and storylines anymore.

This book is more of the same, repetetive situations and ideas, the author squirming and trying to alter and abandon previously introduced truths and premises just so the new book might somehow end in a climax. A hopeless endeavour as the story is bland, lacks any form of character development, tries to confuse, obfuscate and then reveal a new set of premises in an utter let down ending.
It's devoid of any interesting, exciting chapters to such an extent that it feels like one long conversation between a few main characters.

It's a shame seeing a series you've been following avidly go downhill rapidly, and I will always love the early work Raymond did, but I cannot in good faith recommend this to anyone.
To be honest I can hardly believe Raymond wrote this, so far is it from the wonderfully engaging work he used to come up with.

This is not Feist's best work. As previous reviews have pointed out, Feist is running out of fresh material for Midkemia. He needs to take a break and look elsewhere, or at least move away from Pug as the main character.

That having been said, I deducted an additional star for making this a trilogy instead of a single book. This has been done by a method that has become increasingly common, and increasingly tiresome - Page Inflation. Let's compare this book to another contemporary book from the same genre: Jim Butcher's "First Lord's Fury".

At first glance, Butcher's book only appears to be about half again as long as this book (480 pages vs. 320). But closer examination of those pages shows that this book's page count has been inflated by using large print and extra blank space on the page. When you start looking at word count, this book is only about half the size of Butcher's book - yet has a suggested retail price of $2.00 more. Frankly I'm getting tired of being ripped off this way.

As a fan of hard scifi, I have generally read very few fantasy books over the years. Raymond Feist is one of the few fantasy authors that I have followed. His original "Magician" book, and the resulting "Riftwar Saga" was generally excellent. In general I have loved just about everything Feist has put together in the Midkemia series; until now.

It is clear that the Demonwar Saga is little more than Feist marking time, and frankly given the results, he needn't have bothered. The first book in the series, Rides a Dread Legion, was bad enough, but I think I rationalized it as an attempt to set the stage and introduce important elements and characters for the rest of the series.

I especially found Miranda's death at the end of Rides A Dread Legion to be about as stupid and contrived as could be. Feist might as well have simply had her have an aneurism and said, "and then Miranda died." I know that these people have to die to satisfy the prediction of Lims Kragma, but really, can you do it with a bit more imagination?

But with the second book, it gets worse, not better. Now that we have the second and final book in the series it is plain that either Feist has just lost enthusiasm for the world he created, or that he has lost his touch.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about At The Gates Of Darkness is the title. Once you get beyond that, the story continues in the same boring and unimaginative vein as the first. The characters we were introduced to in the first book don't really grow or evolve.

The Star Elves are only talked about and we never actually visit them in their new enclave. The twin Taredhel brothers spend most of their time bumbling about on other worlds trying to get Home, and the Knight-Adamant Sandreena (sp?) is the improbable centepiece of most of the Midkemia action. I say improbable because she seems to be absurdly competent, almost a superwoman, yet we see none of her developement and the pallid backstory given along the way doesn't really explain how she got the way she is. As for the dialog, it is as boring and silly as the plot. As for the dialong, the banter back and forth between the elven twins is so grating that I wanted to skip ahead on several occasions and the dialog between the rest of the characters is almost as bad.

Unlike in previous novels where we got to see the main characters develop and get a feel for their personalities, their faults and strengths, in the Demonwar saga, the characters are so one dimensional that it's like it was written by a child.

The plot is mostly a plodding straight line with little of the the side and parallel plots we are used to from Feist. The story starts a few years after the first book in the series began (as best as I can tell) and then proceeds along the same track as before.

Demons are attempting to invade Midkemia and and the Good Guys are trying to find out where and stop them.

Actually, the sentence I just wrote is about as interesting and comprehensive as the book itself.

I hate to be this negative about a Raymond Feist book, but I think he has done a lot of damage with this series.

His previous works weren't perfect, but they were entertaining at least. While I think the Serpent War saga was probably his best work, the Conclave Of Shadows was fine, if not quite as good. This last series, and especially the latest book however, are just awful and not worthy of the writer that has put out those other fine stories.

Ken Steen
kenstech.com *AT* gmail.com

Initially, know that I LOVE[D] Feist. I've been reading him for about 25 years now, and have pretty much read everything he's ever written. I think I got into the fantasy genre due in no small part to his Magician series. These past few series, however, they've been disappointing. And these last two books of the "Demonwar Saga," they've just been terrible. I've been contemplating giving up on this author for a while now, but I think this does it. Feist now just writes just enough to keep the pages turning, but really says nothing. Maybe that's still an art form, but I think I'll be spending my time and money looking for more worthy writers to follow from now on....

I also have read all of Raymond Feist's books, and have really loved most of them.

That said, this is the worst book he has written. In the past, he has had really interesting characters, in particular Nakor, Arutha, Kulgan, Jimmy the Hand, Gamina, William, Nicolas, Eric von Darkmoor, Hocopeppa..........and, I could go on and on. And, he has killed all of them off, and has not replaced them with anyone that comes close to being interesting. The book now revolves around Pug, with only one or two characters to support him in the book. And, the characters he does have are not very likable, and are not very developed in the book. Pug also is very one dimensional. He just seems to lead his characters from one scene to the next, without any character deveopement to go along with it.

We don't know what is happening in Rillanon or Krondor, or any of the cities. What is happening to the Tzurani and their new homeworld? Whats happening in Kesh? I want to know more about Jimmy the Hands grandchildren and great grandchildren. What is happening to Pug's adopted grandchildren?

His past books have brought Midkemia alive with his characters, all the different people learning to live together on the same planet, and his world has been developed with bright and colorful descriptions. All of that is gone in this book and the one before. He seems obsessed with Demons, and frankly I am really tired of them.

There seems to be so much more he can still do with Midkemia- maybe he should read some of his past books to remember his beautiful world and see it in a new light. I really hope he can rediscover Midkemia and bring it back to life, because I have, and continue to, love his previous books (most of them).

I agree with the others. I loved Feist's books, probably up to the Serpentwar series. These last two books have almost been unreadable. His main problems are that 1) Pug and Tomas are too powerful and 2) he ran out of enemies about two series ago. He keeps having to make up more and more powerful enemies, and it's just getting out of hand. Each enemy is made up to be the Most Powerful Ever, from the Tsurani, to the Enemy, to the Sauur, the Dasati, and so on and so on and so on. It's become terribly formulaic and after so many books, there's not really much more he can do to flesh out the main characters.

This book was completely lacking in substance and if you read it you'll frankly be feeling like you've read it before somewhere in the series. If you must read it, wait for the paperback or read it in the bookstore/library.

I agree. Time for a new world and new series.

Here's how to get a reader's attention at the beginning of your latest novel: put in a scene in which devotees of a demon lord willingly sacrifice their lives by hanging themselves and getting thrown into a fire. That sure worked to get me sucked into this book, and it was somewhat of a letdown when I found out that the book's biggest punch appeared on page two. At The Gates Of Darkness is book two of the Demonwar Saga, and thankfully it's readable as a standalone story, even though it never really adds up to as much excitement as the first scene might make the reader come to expect.

In typical fantasy novel fashion, there is a group of disparate adventurers on a mission to stop the Big Bad Evil. Evil in this book takes the names of Belasco and Dahun, and there can be no doubt that these threats mean awful things for everyone else if their plans for infiltrating the world with demons go through. The previously mentioned adventurers include the usual assortment of rogues, wizards, knights, and elves and came across as a little flat personality-wise. Probably some familiarity with Feist's previous novels would have come in handy here, so if you haven't read anything else by him, this might not be the easiest way to get into the characters of Pug, Amirantha, Gulamendis and company.

It's exciting how the heroes don't really know a whole lot about their enemy and try to piece things together as they get closer to the confrontation near the novel's end. An ancient tome of demonic knowledge is eagerly sought, but it can only help the adventurers so much. Belasco and Dahun prove to be an unexpected kind of danger that nearly costs everyone their lives. Overall, At The Gates Of Darkness is a commendable example of what might be expected from a fantasy release, but someone who is looking for a little more is likely to leave disappointed.

Reviewed by Shroud's Christopher Larochelle

Thirty-odd years ago Feist wrote a book called Magician, about the rise to power of a pair of young boys, Pug and Tomas. There was then a few more volumes to create an excellent trilogy, and then a whole lot more storytelling. Perhaps part of the problem Feist created for himself is that at the end of that trilogy both Pug and Tomas are powerful, well-nigh unbeatable heroes. How do you maintain the challenge across another 25 novels?

Sometimes its easy to lose track of the scope of what Feist has written here: he has covered 100+ years, multiple generations, various physical locales, and yet still keeps going, at least for another few novels yet. What he has done is in one sense unparalled.

At the Gates of Darkness is best viewed as part of a greater whole. Yes, you can argue that Feist has one trick for a villlain, and that is reveal that they are a puppet for something even bigger and darker, but on the other hand he is pretty brutal with his characters too, not afraid to kill them off, either in battle or of old age, so for all that there is a view Feist writes "soft" stories, I have to disagree. With all that given though, this entry in the saga is somewhere between pedestrian and segway: it's a light read, able to be knocked over in a few hours, and enjoyable enough, but not earthshattering, for all its teases us with a new view of demons.

The star elf brothers Gulamendis and Loramendis get a lot of screen time, as does Amirantha and warrior-priest Sabreena. All characters have interesting quirks, but are not quite as fully rounded as (say) Arutha, Jimmy the Hand, or even Erik von Darkmoor. Still there is enough here to keep you reading. In a few years time perhaps this book will seem better with some necessary set up for later volumes, or perhaps it will be revealed as a pointless digression from the main plot. If you've read Feist before, get this: its not Feist's best work, but its still OK. If you haven't read Feist, don't start here: go get Magician, read that, and keep going from there as it pleases you.

I have read every Feist book published. I would say I love probably the first 15. The last couple of series have been a bit of a decline. I don't think his writing is bad, I enjoy his style still. I also enjoy visiting characters that I have been reading about for 20 years. The problem with the last few series is that he is covering the same theme over and over. First you had the Tsurani invasion, then the Dark Elves, then the Emerald Queens army, then the Dasati, and this book about demons invading. All the books then have Pug leading the way to stop the invasions. I really felt like Rides a Dread Legion and this one could have been combined into one book. I also thought the last series could have been shaved to two. Feist is wrapping up his Rift stories with the final trilogy The Chaoswar. I am sure it will involve another invasion...maybe more with the demons, or the Star Elves or both. Either way it will wrap up the whole thing and for that I will be glad he will end it on his own terms and not continue to write declining stories in a universe I love. This isn't a bad novel, it is just very familiar ground.