Customer Reviews

Feast of Souls

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

An good fantasy read!

As with most fantasy novels there is a liberal dose of magic, intrigue, betrayals, unexpected friendship, conflicts and romance. The story has a good pace with lots of twists and turns; I thought the characters were well thought out, each with their own unique traits. Overall, the book was generally well written, easy to read and had plot that had the ability to keep you reading on well into the night...just "one more page...one more chapter"

Negatives; (a few minor concerns)

1.)There were some areas of the book were certain words, phrases or thoughts were repeated fairly often within a short period of time; this was noticeable (to me), but not serious enough that it took away from the overall enjoyment of the telling of this tale.

2.)Near the end of chapter 36 an event took place, that to me, just seemed impossible to occur, given the situation and the context of events that had just occurred immediately prior.

3.)There is no map; a map would have been so helpful to allow the reader to follow the story over the seemingly large geographic areas that were covered.

Conclusion:

Despite my "minor" concerns, this was an interesting fantasy story with a superlative ending that has me eagerly awaiting the second book in this series. 4-4 1/2 Stars

There are a couple of things I really loved about this book. First is the fact that Friedman never withholds information about her world just for the sake of creating suspense or avoiding exposition or whatever other excuse too many fantasy writers use to keep their readers in a state of complete befuddlement. Friedman tells us right off the bat that Magister power is derived by draining the lifeforce from other human beings. Any other author would have dragged that out for chapters and chapters, dropping tantalizing hints and ominous foreshadowing. But Friedman is more interested in examining the way that the source of their power affects Magisters, and how they differ from witches, who must drain their own life force to use magic. It's a fascinating system, and one that sets up complex moral and ethical issues, which are explored sympathetically and in depth. (And let's also give props for Friedman actually justifying why a female Magister is, in her world, unusual. None of this Robert Newcomb women-are-eeeevil-and-too-incredibly-stupid-to-use-magic crap. Kemala is the first of her kind, but once you see what their power does to the other Magisters, you understand why.)

The second thing I loved is that there is no "hero" in this story. No starry-eyed youth coming of age; no hard-bitten veteran called back to fight a final battle; no hidden prince discovering his destiny. There is a protagonist, sure. There are victims and opportunists, bad people who do good things and good people who do bad things. Perhaps unfortunately, there is an easily identifiable bad guy, complete with a requisite army of minions set to Take Over the World. But who will stand against him, who will sit this one out, and who will throw their hat into the ring of eeeevil? For that matter, given that a fairly important character dies in this book, who will still be left to even fight the final battle? I don't know, and I love it.

Plotwise, "Feast of Souls" gives us two major events: Kemala becomes the first-ever female Magister in history; and the Souleaters, a long-vanquished race of demons, reappears. The first part of the book is a little confusing, since Friedman mixes in a lot of flashbacks, to the point where I wasn't quite sure who and when and what was going on. Once it settles into a fairly linear pattern, however, things really get rolling. Andovan, Kemala's "consort" (the person she is sucking dry to feed her own magic) grimly sets out to find his murderer. Meanwhile, his father the king falls in league with the aforementioned bad guy, a sorcerer who becomes his lead advisor, to the horror of Queen Gwynofar, whose family has long been charged with guarding the world against the return of the Souleaters. There are a host of secondary characters, who as I said all have conflicting loyalties and motives and ethical quandaries.

This is fantasy at its best. Friedman asks you to think, to withhold judgment, to put yourself in her characters' shoes and ask yourself honestly what you would do. There's a point to be made here, and she does it elegantly, subtly, and with a razor-sharp edge. I can't wait for the rest of this series.

After reading several reviews and the book itself I think I've come to look at Kamala differently. I don't see her as someone set to save the world through kindness and comfort and a gentle womanly touch. She's not a hero. She's an anti-hero. She's just as corrupt and vicious as the other Magisters. And it's WONDERFUL.

I'm so pleased to see an author show that women protagonists can be just as awful as the men. That heroes are circumstantial. And that the deisre, the drive to live often supersedes kindness and caring. It made this magical world and the people in it very realistic.

C.S. Friedman has a way of getting under the reader's skin, specializing in the relationship between the causes and the resultan effects of the interaction between people while masterfully developing a story, layer by layer, until the usually startling conclusion is revealed.

Ms. Friedman has had both relative as well as major success in delivering the goods with prior efforts, and this first installment is quite promising, although it does have some familiar territory, and is somewhat similar in premise to "The Cold Fire" trilogy.

Still, it took me only three days to finish the book, which my busy schedule means that I put off doing some other things in order to finish it, which is a significant development, since I rarely have the time to get involved with books in this fashion.

Overall, it was very satisfying read that sets up the next installment quite well.

Highly recommended, despite all the grumblings from other reviewers.

I read the book through in two sittings and I just loved it.

I read an average of two or three books per week, and have been so disappointed in some of my favorite authors over the past several years because they seem to be writing the same story over and over.

This is a new story that I will read again and am happy to have in my collection.

Ms. Friedman's talent for illustrating the darker side of human emotion and the extent to which we will go for power is only a small part of this complex story and I look forward to reading the continuation of the series.

Personally, I cheered at Kamala's victory over the brutes when she returned to her home town. I was angry at the first magister she met after she left her teacher and glad to see his fall. I was surprised at the way the actual meeting between Andovan and Kamala played out.... I had thought it would be different somehow. It came out better than I had imagined it in the pages leading up to it.

I can hardly wait for the next book in the series. I have loaned my copy to my daughter (she's read it more than once already!) and I will buy a copy for my mom. I enjoyed reading this book better than any I've read for some time.

This book caught me in a way so very few do. This is the kind of story that keeps you dreaming long after you've reached the end of the first book, and waiting none too patiently for the next one to come along. Friedman's world is complex, and her characters are true to form--they are not all good, or all bad but a varying composition of the two.

While the reader is swept into this world, one view point to the next, a great darkness is stirring, and it is this element that drives much of the plot. We, as readers, become attached to the characters so much so that the continual change of view is not unsettling, but welcomed and entertaining.

There is love enough to satisfy those who are romantic at heart. There is bitter irony of circumstance enough for those who want to feel the realism in any world be it real or fictional. Action builds slowly, and fills in the voids where most authors muddle through with tawdry background information.

Details are revealed in a woven fashion, not jarringly or without purpose.

I won't ruin it for you, but there is a scene in particular that caught my attention, and it is the first real evidence of the soul-eaters. A beautifully terrifying chapter--you'll know what I mean when you read it.

I really loved this book, and the next one cannot hit the shelves soon enough, in my opinion.

You will not be able to put this book down! Feast of Souls is C.S. Friedman at her best. The characters are complex. The settings are so descriptive they jump off the page. And of course there are many plot twists and turns which keep you guessing as to where the story will end up.

Although set in a pseudo-medieval world this is not your average fantasy novel. The "magic" isn't all it seems. The line between good and evil is blurred (like so many of her books) in a wonderful way that has you reading faster and faster. And the world she creates is so complex you know there are hundreds of other stories waiting to be told.

Don't wait for the paperback. This is worth the hard back price.