16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
initially hard to get into, but Friedman does not disappoint., January 15, 2007
anyone who is a fan of Ms. Friedman knows she frequently deals with power and what happens to people who have it. This book gets further into the model she started with the Coldfire trilogy, delving into what people will do for power and how it changes them to make those decisions. Those of you who've read In Conquest Born will recognize a bit of Anzha lyu Mitethe in the main character of Kamala, but it isn't at all distracting. unlike Anzha, Kamala is not more powerful than the other Magisters, and her main strength is that people mostly assume she is not as powerful as she is. it's refreshing to see a character who starts off self-assured and arrogant learn more about her own limits, becoming more sympathetic as she goes along.
also, in contrast to her own drivers, the men to whom she gravitates emotionally are not power-hungry at all and would prefer not to live their lives as slaves to what power demands. contrasted against a world very medieval in its character, this morality play leads you along in shades of grey. unlike what another reviewer said, it is not Kamala's horrible past that enables her to succeed where other women have failed. it is an essential drive to survive no matter what, which is reinforced by her witnessing a witch's death at a young age.
this book is the first frame of what is to be a larger struggle, with many differing types of power wielded against a force that would reduce humanity to a dark age of barbarism. i'm excited for what the next two books will bring.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy it now - one of the best fantasy novels out there, January 10, 2007
Bottom line: It's an extremely good story that will keep you up late at night, turning pages into the wee hours of the morning. The book is intense, gripping, and you'll be sucked in from the beginning.
Other reasons I enjoyed it
1. It's not derivitive. Most of the stuff in the fantasy section isn't very creative - everyone's copying off of a previous hit trying to be the "next Harry Potter" or whatever. Feast of Souls is a novel in the true sense of the word and it's a pleasure to read something original.
2. It's up to C.S. Friedman's quality bar: no cookie cutter characters here. All her books are rich in new worlds and experiences. Like her previous series The Coldfire Trilogy, Feast of Souls has well developed characters that avoid the archetypes and one-dimensionality found in lesser works.
I have no idea where the other reviewer is coming from regarding gender roles and battle of the sexes comments being poorly handled. Looking back over 4000 years of literature, gender equality is an anomoly and even today in the US prostitution, child exploitation, human trafficing, etc. all exist, and worldwide are growing problems. If anything, I found her willingness to tackle these issues in a realistic (as opposed to rose colored glasses) manner refreshing.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good beginning to what should be another great series!, August 12, 2007
Inexplicably, this latest offering by acclaimed author C. S. Friedman has been flying under the radar since last January. And given its quality, this sad state of affairs continues to baffle me. Feast of Souls marks Friedman's return to the fantasy genre. That, in and of itself, should be reason enough to buy this book! Like many other readers, I have been waiting for this moment since Crown of Shadows was published.
And yet, having read both Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and Williams' Shadowplay earlier this year, I decided to wait a while before giving this one a chance. I try to balance everything by reading titles from various publishers -- an attempt to spread the joy, if you will. However, electing to wait before reading Feast of Souls proved to be a dumb move on my part, for the first volume of the Magister trilogy is without a doubt the very best of Daw Books' "big guns" of 2007.
More epic than dark fantasy this time around, Feast of Souls is a compelling opening chapter in a tale which appears vaster in scope than anything C. S. Friedman has written up until this point. Having said that, I feel that it's also the least self-contained novel the author has ever written. Whereas each volume of the Coldfire trilogy was more or less stand-alone -- even though part of an overall story arc -- Feast of Souls is definitely an introduction to a much more ambitious and complex fantasy epic.
Richly detailed worldbuilding intrigues the reader from the beginning. It's obvious that this book is meant to lay the groundwork for what will unfold in the upcoming sequels. As such, it makes for a slower pace for the better part of the first half of the novel. After that, the pace quickens and the storytelling makes it difficult to put this one down.
Characterization is a facet in which Friedman excels. It's a little harder to judge how memorable some of these characters will be, for Feast of Souls is comprised of multiple viewpoints. Hence, since the story reveals itself through the eyes of various POV characters, the narrative is not as powerful as that of the Coldfire trilogy. I'm not saying that the characterization leaves something to be desired, far from it. The author introduces us to an interesting and disparate cast of characters that give substance to this novel. The problem is that she leaves you wanting to learn more, again and again. This is especially true with Kamala, as well as the Magisters Colivar and Ramirus. More will be disclosed in the forthcoming volumes, of course. Sue me for wanting to know more right now!
One word of advice, though: C. S. Friedman now belongs to the school of thought which feels that having characters survive countless ordeals and star in multiple books/series is a somewhat obsolete concept. À la Martin, Lynch and Erikson, she has no qualms about getting rid of main characters when you least expect it. Consider yourself warned. . .;-)
The absence of a map did irk me to some extent. What can I say!?! Maybe I'm too "old school," but I'm one of those people who like to know where the action is taking place.
Imaginative and entertaining, with an ending that I never saw coming, Feast of Souls is probably the most underrated fantasy book of 2007. Give C. S. Friedman's latest a shot, lest it remains this year's best-kept secret!
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