Customer Reviews

A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, Vol. 4)

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a wonderful conclusion to one of the best fantasy series of all time.

If you have not read the prior three books (Magician I & II and Silverthorn), you probably will not get much out of this, though. This book builds upon characters introduced earlier, so new readers will find themselves lost quickly.

However, as I said, this is a wonderful book -- my favorite out of all Feist novels.

The characters of Pug, Arutha, and Jimmy are fully explored, and more background is given on the mysterious and awesome Macros. The story is intelligent, and the manner in which Feist weaves several subplots and storylines together is truly magnificent.

Read this book, and read this series.

The riftwar saga has been a wonderfully entertaining series from Raymond E Feist and A Darkness At Sethanon lives up to its predecesors. The book is packed with excitment and intrigue as the tale builds to its climatic finish. Just like Magician and Silverthorn, Feist explores the greater celestial battle and explains further the fates of the Valheru and The Enemy. However while the excitment of the epic battle sequences dominates the novel the character development is alowed to become shalow. It's not quite as good as Magician and Silverthorn but is still a must read for lovers of the series.

Taken alone, this is a good book. But after Magician and Silverthorn it's perfect. Everything- every stray thought, every suposedly useless character, every unexplained event- in the previous books is explained and finds its meaning in these pages. One of the best parts is seeing both Pug and Tomas (especially Tomas!) finally come into the power promised them from the beginning. Since I had also read both Prince of the Blood and The King's Buccaneer before this one, it was nice to see how closely tied it was to these that followed as well.

A mind blowing conclusion to my favorite fantasy series. I must admit to an SF point of view, and that may color my evaluation of this book. Whatever the case, "A Darkness at Sethanon" satisfied me on a great many levels. I have just one problem with it: I want the entire series republished in a single hardcover volume, because my paperbacks are worn out from all the rereadings!

The three previous books only hinted at Raymond Feist's brilliance!
The Riftwar Saga is a perfect example of why I say it is impossible to rate/review a single book in a series. Magician, Silverthorn and A darkness at Sethanon are chapters in a single novel in my opinion. In most novels I've read there are basically three parts.
Starting the car: introduction of the characters, environment and plot.
Acceleration: the interaction of the characters within the environment furthering the plot.
A screeching fiery explosion OR a clanking noise followed by a slow halt: the amazing weaving of all aspects, large or small, into a stunning conclusion OR the confusion and letdown at the end of a poorly conceived ending.
Magician is Part 1 and 2, Silverthorn is also Part 2 and A Darkness at Sethanon is the SCREECHING FIERY EXPLOSION!
I picked up this series almost 15 years ago and it is still my favorite epic fantasy. I think that is really saying something because I have read hundreds of other fantasy novels (by Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Robert Jordan, R. A Salvatore, Terry Goodkind and many others).

P.S. I didn't write anything specific about the story because I didn't want to spoil it for you.

My two favorite fantasy series are Dragonlance and Riftwar. (I think Riftwar is better, but I read Dragonlance first, so that makes them tie in my mind.) Riftwar is so great because it accomplishes two things that I haven't encountered in other fantasy series (Xanth, Tolkien): 1. Its characters include all the major fantasy types (wizards, warriors, thieves, sages, clerics, etc.) without stripping them of their personality. Most D&D-derived books have trouble justifying characters of different "class" because classes make more sense from a game-designer's point of view than from an author's or reader's. Feist is able to fit his characters into the class framework without making them less as characters, and I have a feeling that's very difficult. 2. It's realistic, in that it's the best balance I've seen between outright heroic fantasy (Tolkien, Dragonlance) and the actual medieval European milieu. There have been some series devoted to depicting the latter, but they're more historical fiction than fantasy; Feist has been the only author I know of who has been able to integrate these two extremes.

Now that I've babbled about the series, where does Sethanon fit in? Out of the original four books of the series, it ties for first with "Magician: Master." (Magician: Apprentice is next and Silverthorn takes the rear.)

This is definitely the worst book in the riftwar saga. That doesn't mean the book is particularly bad, it just left me disappointed after how good the other books were (at least they get better after this!)... I hated the corridor in the stars, and the amount of power Pug had - truly terrible. I hated that some of the more "dodgy" characters in the previous books were turned into heroes. But!... the writing is fluid, and there are moments of true brilliance. If you've read the other books, you KNOW you have to read this one.

A Darkness at Sethanon is the conclusion of the Riftwar Saga and truly brings this saga to a magnificent close. Jimmy the Hand, Pug, Mystery Character ( dont' want to spoil ), and Tomas truly richen the experience as Feist's character building really grows.

In Silverthorn they found that a dark power was hidden behind the enemy forces they have been having problems with - and this dark power is a mystery that Pug decided he must go back through the Rift to deduce a plan of destroying the evil.

Pug has truly become strong in his powers and Tomas is finally understanding the depths of his powers as a 'reborn' dragonlord.

The battles are not comparable to the time spent with Pug and Tomas ( I truly enjoyed the chemistry that these characters have and thier desires for good to succeed. )

Jimmy the hand, the thief from the mockers steals the time that Feist keeps us away from Pug and Tomas and I cannot wait for them to get together on something ( maybe?? )

I say if you have read the beginning you have no choice but to pick this up, but if you have not started this series and feel a bit 'iffy' do yourself a favor and pick it up!

Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master were reasonably interesting. I found that they were your typical epic fantasy. If I had to compare them to the myriad of typical fantasy out there, I'd say this series is closer to the top of the list than the bottom.

The first two tell a story in themselves and it's not really necessary to continue to book 3. The first two talk a bit about what may occur in 3 & 4, but I would have been just as happy without ever finding out. I was almost sad I continued as I read Silverthorn (Book 3). I was fairly disappointed since nothing really seemed to move forward as far the ultimate storyline of the series.

The subplot dealing with the search for Silverthorn was fine but it didn't really move the whole story forward. The book seemed completely based around the subplot. Regardless, it wasn't a bad read.

Book 4 easily wins out in my opinion as the best of the series. Some have said it is predictable...they are correct. But it didn't stop me from enjoying it. The first 2/3 of it are somewhat interesting. When the action picks up in the last third, I didn't want to put the book down. That was the first time that happened through the whole series.

Feist doesn't leave any loose ends. Everything is tied up nicely in the end. You leave with a complete understanding of life and the world. If you enjoy fantasy, then I would recommend the series if you don't have anything on the immediate "to read" list. Don't expect the best books you've ever read and you'll enjoy them.

I loved the first 3 books in the series and was looking forward to see how it all ended. I was not too impressed. This book wasn't a bad book but it wasn't a great book either. Maybe I expected too much from it. The part that bothered me the most was the parts with Pug & Tomas in them. I usually loved reading about these two characters but in this book it seemed too forced. Any time anything serious happened either Pug or Tomas could just magically fix it. There was no explaining and not a lot of trying. It reminded me of listening to kids play and when one child made up something imaginary that the other child couldn't get out of all the sudden the other child had this special magical power that worked. Then the kids would go on to the next thing and that would be solved by special magical powers as well. Don't get me wrong... I love magic! In the first 3 books Feist made magic believable. In this book it just seemed like he used magic to get them out of situations because he couldn't think of anything else. It wasn't even really explained it just happened. That being said the book also didn't captivate me like the first three. It took me almost 2 months to read. That is a long time for me and a 430 page book. Still I would recommend it if you have read the first 3. Just don't expect it to be as great or better.