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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
finally featuring Pug, Feist is moving back in the right direction, February 19, 2006
"Flight of the Nighthawks" is the first volume in Raymond Feist's new trilogy the "Darkwar Saga". Set two years after the conclusion of "Exile's Return", the story here takes what we knew of this new threat to Midkemia in the form of the Talnoy and a race called the Dasati and expands upon it. Where the "Conclave of Shadows" series turned out to be nothing more than a long three book prologue for this series and featured almost exclusively all new characters, "Flight of the Nighthawks" opens with the now famous first line to "Magician" "the storm had broken..." and features Pug dreaming of that very event.
Finally after many books and decades in the world of Midkemia, the magician Pug is a major focus of the book because now there is a threat vast enough to warrant Pug's direct intervention. The Talnoy are like overgrown suits of armor but are immensely powerful and extremely hard to kill and the Dasati (beings not only from another world, but another dimension) employ these killers in a blitzkrieg fashion and all who stand before the Talnoy will be crushed...and the fear is that Midkemia will fall prey to the Talnoy as there are already dormant Talnoy on the planet. How and why is a matter to be discovered.
The way the story is told here deals with Pug and the magicians of the Conclave trying to discover exactly how the Talnoy will be brought into play and what the deal is with these new rifts that are appearing on Midkemia and Kelewan and their apparent connection with the Talnoy. Also, we are introduced to Tad and Zane, two boys raised in Stardock village and soon to be adopted by Pug's son Caleb. These two boys will also have a role to play.
In all honesty, Raymond Feist is giving us a lot of tell with not much show here (and from what I remember it is supposed to be the other way around). Feist is telling us a lot of what is or may be going on, but we don't really see it happening. He really did hit the high water mark with Magician (as fond as I am about Darkness at Sethanon) and everything else is only trying to measure up. With that said, the fact that Feist is letting Pug and Nakor telling us these details is a treat. Pug has long been my favorite character of the series and I have missed Pug being a major character in the Riftwar novels. Nakor, when he first was introduced, is arguably the most entertaining character Feist has created and he is also far more than has been revealed. So, the prominence of these characters excuses many flaws that might otherwise be obvious.
I was disappointed by Feist's "Conclave of Shadows" trilogy, but I thoroughly enjoyed "Flight of the Nighthawks". It's not a perfect novel, but it is a lot of fun revisiting these characters and this world and see what else Feist can create and show me about Midkemia. When he is actually telling a grand story (such as with the Riftwar Trilogy and Serpentwar...and not the Krondor or Conclave books), Feist rips a good yarn.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An epic return, April 6, 2006
After bringing us the opening three novels concerning Tal Hawkins and Kaspar, Duke of Olasko, Feist opens his third great Midkemia series, The Darkwar Saga, by expanding on the discovery of the Dasati and their automaton army, the Talnoy. It is the greatest danger to face the conclave since Pug's involvement in the Serpent War and finds us delving into new dimensions for both Midkemia's and Kelewan's newest enemies, as Magnus discovers that the immobile Talnoy are acting as a beacon for the Dasati and rifts are beginning to form between the two worlds.
We commence in bucolic bliss as Caleb, the non-magical son of Miranda and Pug finds himself apprenticing the son and foster-son of Marie, Tad and Zane, two eager lads who have not much to do and an eye for trouble. After they save him from death at the hands of a bandit ambush, we then travel with them as they are turned from soft layabouts into hardened Conclave soldiers and we then learn of a series of murders of Truebloods in the Empire of the Great Kesh. The resulting concern finds Tal and Kaspar and Caleb entering Kesh at different social levels to track down the infamous lair of the Nighthawks, whom they believe responsible for the murders that seek to place Kesh in a state of civil war as the current Emperor nears the end of both his life and reign. In the meantime, Nakor has discovered greater powers are rumbling as he finds the tiniest spark of the Nameless One in the darkly Herculean Bek that promises that there could be a return for Ishar.
Political intrigue, sewer ambushes, tavern brawls and magical intervention that are all the hallmarks of a great Feist effort all follow as the Conclave discover that the inviolable magician, Leso Varen is behind the mayhem that seeks to disrupt Midkemia and move to deal with the threat.
Feist is one the finest fantasy authors produced in the late twentieth century and his works on the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan remain at the peak of the genre. Characterisation is well drawn, we have an excellent mix of old, familiar and lovable characters with new youthful, impetuous ones that engender empathy. Old traditions hover in the background where needed without overshadowing the new bloods making their literary mark. The plot is crisp, the dialogue exciting and the old thrill of looking forward to a new great Feist series rears it's head.
Roll on the second...
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Feist begins another exciting trilogy..., April 11, 2006
With Flight of the Nighthawks, Raymond E. Feist begins yet another series of books set in the Midkemia universe. Also yet again, he writes a fairly enjoyable tale with a lot of little problems that bring it down to just an enjoyable read instead of a standout. One of the problems is the same as it always is, and he has corrected most of the other ones, but this time, some sloppy writing kept throwing me out of the book that I happened to be enjoying at the time.
Flight of the Nighthawks is a continuation of Feist's "Conclave of Shadows" trilogy, but it has its own series name: The Darkwar Saga. I didn't understand this at the time I read Exile's Return, but now I do. Feist has changed the focus to make it much broader. The back cover copy emphasizes the two brothers, Zane and Tad, but it truly covers the entire Conclave. While I don't mind a limited viewpoint, as in the previous series, it was nice to get information from a bunch of sources this time around. We have not only the boys, but Caleb, Pug, Kaspar and Talwin Hawkins, all involved in the plan to bring down the Nighthawks. The variety of viewpoints gives the book more of an epic feel that I really enjoyed.
While once again Feist avoids any potential misogyny charges by not featuring any female characters, the men he does populate the story with are well-drawn and interesting. He gives us some of the boys' training, but doesn't concentrate on it as much as he did Tal's in the previous series, and he intersperses these chapters with events elsewhere in the world, so that the training sequences don't slow the story down. The wide number of characters also helps in the fact that the boys just weren't the interesting. They were the only shortfalls in the characterization, though, and they could get better once they are on their own a bit. In Flight of the Nighthawks, it seems that their main purpose is to get in the way and to rescue Caleb a time or two.
I also liked the tension that was in this book. Yes, we all know that the good guys are probably going to win (though maybe not right away, as this is book 1), but Feist gives us the action with the possibility that not everybody's going to come out alive. Our heroes aren't perfect, which is also unlike the Conclave books. Talwin is still the best there is in this book, but since he's not the only character, it's mitigated. The other characters do make mistakes, and it's nice to see.
Unfortunately, this brings me to the faults in the book. The writing is kind of simple, very suitable for a young age (though some of the subject matter might not be). This is not a problem. However, sloppiness is, and there is a bit too much of it. First, Pug and his wife Miranda are described twice within the span of ten pages, both their physical appearances and the nature of their relationship. Both times it's as if Feist was introducing them, not describing them as they currently are because there has been a change. That's not something I'm used to from Feist.
Secondly, Caleb and Marie have differing memories of how they got together for no particular story purpose (there is no memory manipulation or anything like that). By differing memories, I'm not talking a detail here or there. I'm talking about how they met, when they became lovers, whether Caleb knew of her husband before he died, major things like that. Both instances are when the character in question is musing about his/her situation, so it can't even be a lie told from one character to another.
Finally, there a bit of internal continuity that Feist gets wrong. At the end of one chapter, Caleb mentions how hard it will be to tell Marie that he'll be leaving with their two boys *without her* the next morning. Then, the next chapter that features them, he has taken her to the Sorcerer's Isle and gotten her settled, spending a few days there with her, and *then* he leaves with the two boys. These are all instances easily avoidable, and I'm surprised they're included here. I do have a review copy of the book, but I have checked it with a published edition and these errors are still there. All of them threw me out of the book when I noticed them, and it took some effort to get back into it.
Writing errors aside, however, Flight of the Nighthawks is a very good continuation of the Midkemia stories, Feist's bread and butter. It's exciting and it begs you not to put the book down, but to continue with one more chapter. Storywise, I think it's stronger than any of the Conclave books. It's too bad the writing issues make it harder to read. I'm holding out hope that the next book will continue with the strengths and leave the weaknesses behind.
David Roy
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