Customer Reviews

Into A Dark Realm (Darkwar)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was a huge fan of Feist for a long time, and the riftwar saga has long been among my favorite series. Fairly formulaic, and nothing incredibly deep, but very entertaining and with good pacing that keeps the pages turning.

I have been disappointed with Feist's recent work, but having been led on by his early works, I keep reading the latest to learn more of Midkemia, and hope to capture some of the magic from the original series. Unfortunately, Into a Dark Realm does not, in my opinion, capture any of that magic.

Feist clearly has good imagination, so I don't know why every series degenerates to the same thing. Group of young boys comes of age and plays large role in major conflict with impact on titanic struggle between forces of good and evil capable of destroying everything. Meanwhile, magicians of incredible power basically are in the dark and can't do too much against opponents who also happen to be incredibly powerful, if a bit insane. All characters are constantly on the verge of titanic danger, but somehow there is never any real tragedy.

This book didn't really change any of that. In fact, I think it was even worse because the plot never really goes anywhere. Some may argue that it is just building for the next book in the series, but this book is so short, it could probably have been combined with the final book to present one decent novel. It wouldn't be hard to call this book being released 'milking' the series, as it doesn't really stand up on its own as a good story.

The book reads well. Feist is good with dialogue, description, and tone, and his style is as good as ever. But for any real meat, this book fails to deliver.

If you are a Midkemia fan who can't get enough, you might want to check this out once the final book is released. A couple stars here, a couple for that one, and together you might get one whole book worth reading. If you are a reader new to Feist, then I urge you to read he earlier work (riftwar saga) instead, and only then consider this book, with the above in mind.

Okay, okay ... let me explain the title of this review, as well as the 5 stars. I've been a fan of Raymond Feist's work since the day I first picked up Magician years back. I very much enjoy the simple, yet entertaining, dialogue in his books, as well as his ability to generate a lot of mileage out of relatively limited archetypes (like 'the impish wizard', 'the benevolent superhero', etc). I even applaud him for being the first to make a quality translation of his fantasy world to computer game form, with the terrific Betrayal at Krondor. But despite my admiration for him, from time to time his books have a kind of "rushed" feel to them, as if he was just getting a book out the door, rather than telling a story.

I had little hope for this most recent series, as I found the Talon of Silverhawk series a little below average. But I must say, from the time he first introduced the concept of the Dasati, I was intrigued ... and this book really does an excellent job of introducing a completely original "threat to all civilization" in the form of the Dasati - something I didn't think was possible in modern fantasy. His chapters on the Dasati lordlings, and his sections comparing his training to the "training" of Jommy, Zane and Tad are very interesting, and I expect a big payoff in the next book.

All in all, this is a very fast paced, and very interesting, second book. By immersing the reader in the alien culture, and providing an understanding of why the Dasati are so unrelentingly evil, it provides an excellent break from his usual nameless, faceless hordes of evil. All in all, I much prefer Feist's stories when he invests energy and backstory into his antagonists (like Kelewan and the Dasati), as opposed to the faceless / unreasoning hordes of the Sauur or the Demon realm.

Overall, if you've enjoyed Feist's work in the past, this is a worthy - even very worthy - purchase. I can't wait for the conclusion.

Into a Dark Realm (2007) is the second fantasy novel in the Darkwar Saga series, following Flight of the Nighthawks. In the previous volume, Magnus finds a jar containing the soul of Leso Varen in a Keshian sewer and Pug breaks it before the body possessed by the evil sorcerer. Then Ralan Bek kills the possessed body and Varen's soul flees through a hidden rift into Kelewan, where he possesses another body.

In this novel, Jommy Killaroo, Zane conDoin and his foster brother Tad run down Aziz Suri -- a close contact of the Nighthawks -- in the streets of Durbin. When he falls off a pier, the boys threatened to cut the line holding him from a dangerous fall. Faced with broken bones or drowning, the man tells them where to find Jomo Ketlami.

Conclave troops capture Ketlami and take him back to a warehouse. There they torture him until a mind reader can seize the location of his superior. Then they put Ketlami out of his misery.

Eric von Darkmoor -- Duke of Krondar -- leads the assault on the back entrance to Cavell Keep. Magnus leads the frontal assault on the old fort. Yet Ralan Bek enters the keep alone through the back way to take out the Blackhawk defenders.

In this story, Pug receives a message from his future self that leads him to the Dasati plane. He takes Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek with him. First they go to Delacordia to find a guide to the Dasati worlds.

Jommy, Zane and Tad are enrolled into the Royal University of Roldem. Their first encounter at the school is with three students who try to harass them. Jommy punches out Servan -- the leader -- and then the youngest student -- Grandy -- volunteers to take them to Brother Kynan, the school Reeve.

Miranda monitors the progress of the Kelewan magicians studying the Talnoy. They are trying various wards on the Talnoy and suddenly the thing stops responding. Miranda magically searches the thing and finds no signs of life.

This story also relates the experiences of Valko, a Dasati warrior. Valko announces himself as the son of Aruke and is tested in a battle to the death against another young warrior. When Valko wins, he is accepted as the heir of Aruke and sent off to learn more about ruling.

Pug is afraid of an invasion by millions of Dasati warriors and Deathpriests into the higher plane of Kelewan and Midkemia. Kaspar has been warned of this invasion in a vision from the god Ban-ath and has passed the warning on to Pug. Mow the Oracle of Aal tells Pug that he has been worrying about the wrong God of Evil.

His Darkness is the only official god of the Dasati. Yet this Dark God has not always been the one and only divinity among the Dasati. Pug and others in this tale learn more about the White, both an underground conspiracy and a God of Light.

Recommended for Feist fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of adventure among the planes, exotic magic, and strange relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

In this sequel to Flight of the Nighthawks, author Raymond Feist takes us back to his magical world of Midkemia. The Conclave of Shadows is completing the destruction of the Nighthawks, but it soon becomes apparent that their roots reach much, much further than first thought! And so, Pug, Nakor, Magnus and the mysterious Ralan Bek must journey to the dark and dangerous home world of the evil Dasati. But, what happened to the escaped necromancer, Leso Varan? What is he up to?

I must admit that I have been a fan of Raymond Feist for many years now, and I looked forward to this book's release with bated breath. In many ways, this book is like most middle books of a trilogy - it creates a group of situations and mysteries that you need to wait for the next book to see what happens. Still, I found it to be an interesting book, and I absolutely loved the short return to the Hall of Worlds. (I do wish that Mr. Feist will someday write a book that is set within the Hall!)

Overall, I thought that this was a very good book, with grand scheme, great magic, gripping dangers and even more dangers! This is another great Raymond Feist book, one that I highly recommend.

The book was alright, it wasn't great, it wasn't good just alright. The book doesn't seem to be written by the same author that wrote Magician Apprentice/Master (in fact it doesn't seem to be written by the same author that wrote any of the previous books). I felt this was made to be like a cheesy movie (How one character point of view would transition into another with them repeating the same sentence). No character development, no excitement, no climax, and the most important no characters I actually like. I believe Pug should NOT be a main character anymore, his time is over. I would like Feist to focus more on his sons or another character that doesn't seem to be all powerful, they should have some flaws that can be seen. I believe Feist read books that have multiple characters and wanted to duplicate this, he failed. Focus on a group of characters instead of bouncing around without any sense of time.

With Into a Dark Realm Raymond Feist brings his readers the newest novel in his Riftwar series. Into a Dark Realm is the second entry in the Darkwar trilogy and follows on the heels of 2006's Flight of the Nighthawks.

Having stopped the evil magician Leso Vasen and the Nighthawks from inciting a civil was in The Empire of Great Kesh, Pug and his Conclave of Shadows have tracked Vasen to the world of Kelewan and the Assembly of Magicians. While Vasen is a grave threat to the safety of all living creatures on Midkemia there is an even greater threat which must be stopped: The Dasati and the Talnoy.

Pug believes the Dasati, a great warrior race from another realm of existence (not simply another world), are seeking to invade the world of Midkemia. Suffice it to say that this would be disastrous beyond all understanding.

There are several storylines running through Into a Dark Realm: Pug taking a strong cadre to the Dasati homeworld, Pug's grandsons have enrolled in the University of Roldem in order to give them the education they will need when war comes to Midkemia, and Pug's wife Miranda is searching for Vasen on Kelewan, and finally that of a Dasati youth (which means something far different with the Dasati as it would with humans) coming of age. Combined, this is Into a Dark Realm.

While Flight of the Nighthawks was something of a refreshing novel from Raymond Feist as it demonstrated Feist returning to form, Into a Dark Realm was another step backwards. Raymond Feist spends far less time developing characters and developing the story naturally as an extension of situations the characters find themselves in and unfortunately far more time explaining the characters to the reader and explaining what is going on. It is as if Raymond Feist forgot the essential lesson of storytelling which is: show, do not tell. Feist is telling and because of this Into a Dark Realm feels clunky from the start.

There is much to enjoy here for long time fans of Raymond Feist and the Riftwar as Feist explores a new world, briefly revisits Kelewan, brings back the Hall of Worlds and Honest John's, and Pug once again takes center stage. There is a brief sense of adventure as the reader gets to imagine what will happen next. This is only a brief sense, however. The largest issue, besides the storytelling flaw of telling rather than showing, is that somewhere down the road, sometime after Serpentwar, the sense of wonder which was so exuberant in the early Riftwar novels has been completely lost. There is no wonder here. No joy. Just flat storytelling with just enough to keep the most devoted reader looking for the next book but nothing to hook the new reader.

-Joe Sherry

I'll admit - I'm a longtime Feist fan (as is probably evident by my reviews of his books on this site), and have been anxiously awaiting this second installment of the Darkwar Saga to come out on paperback.

Feist has written virtually all of his books in small groups - the Riftwar Saga, the Serpentwar Saga, etc. Yet his brilliance lies in tying threads connecting these sometimes seemingly disparate sections into one larger tapestry, and this book truly brings his genius to the fore.

We found in prior books (Exile's Return, the last of the Conclave Of Shadows trilogy, and Flight of the Nighthawks, the first of the Darkwar Saga) the main characters discovering some mysterious armored creatures hidden in a cave on the island of Novindus. The creatures are known as Talnoy - ruthless killing machines controlled by an alien race known as Dasati, and powered by captured souls - in essence, necromancy. There are thousands of Talnoy secreted in this cave, and the big mystery is how they got there, although the common consensus is they were put there by Macros the Black, a now deceased mage once considered the most powerful user of magic in the Kingdom of the Isles (in the planet of Midkemia).

It turns out the Dasati are a ruthless race of warriors, who see compassion as weakness. If they encounter it in someone, they kill them. In many respects, they are animalistic, responding to violence, anger and lust, and trained right from birth in this cruel mindset and having a honed survival instinct ingrained in them. However, they reside on another plane of existence (remember the saying "Seven Hells"? Well, think of each plane of existence below ours being a lower level of hell).

What alarms Pug, Nakor, Magnus, and the other members of the Conclave, is it seems the Dasati plan on invading Midkemia - and the effect of such an invasion by billions of Dasati would be the utter destruction of everything they hold dear, and the anihilation of life as they know it. In order to gain more knowledge, the three of them, together with the mysterious Ralen Bek, travel to the second realm, in the hope of finding answers, and possibly of averting this disastrous invasion.

In some of his earlier books, Feist had a tendency of switching characters each chapter (which in me had the effect of wanting to skip chapters so I could see what happens next!). In this novel, he has upped the ante, so to speak, and sometimes switches between characters (or groups of characters) several times within each chapter. The next result is that he has ratcheted up the suspense and made it virtually impossible to put the book down. His skill at explaining the workings of magic and exploring the nature of deities is second to none. Combine that with someone who brings characters to life and who weaves brilliant tales together, not to mention delving into a whole new race and plane of existance, and you have a brilliant book.

I highly recommend this book, and cannot wait for the next installment "Wrath Of A Mad God"!

I feel a little bit like Jake Gyllenhal's character in 'Brokeback Mountain.' I've been reading novels of Midkemia for so long (my first grown-up chapter books in elementary school)that I just can't quit you, Raymond Feist, no matter how bad a writer you have become!

I went back to Feist's original Riftwar books to see if he was always such a bad writer. Nope. I re-read a few chapters of 'Magician,' and that book has tolerable prose, and the dialogue doesn't make me wince. Could it be that Feist didn't write the more recent novels of Midkemia? Could it be that he just jots down story ideas and hands them over to a high school Sophomore for fleshing out? The cheap, easy sentiment (Pug's son marrying an admirable young widow and adopting her impoverished-yet-cheerful sons into a life of privilege and opportunity) and teen-movie cliches (said sons going to boarding school, beating up the school bully, then becoming friends with the bully and the hero-worshipping nerd who ends up being the King's son) just ruin what could have been the best Feist book in years.

About a third of the novel is from the Dasati point of view.
When Feist first introduced the Dasati, it seemed a lame attempt to create new villains worse than the last villains the Midkemians overcame. But in this story, Feist takes us into the lives of the Dasati, and it is more engaging and unique than anything Feist has ever written. The author has really put some thought into what a culture of Evil would be and how such a culture in fact cannot really exist.

I was very happily surprised at the complexity of Feist's Dasati narrative, but it is not enough to save the book from the awful prose and paper-thin characters.

Let me start off by saying I have abeen a very big fan of Feist for many years. I must, however, say that this is probably the worst book he has written yet. Admittedly, most middle books in a series tend to leave you hanging and feeling somewhat disappointed, but this book was truly disappointing. First of all, the book tops out at 300 pages, of rather large print, making it a rather short book. The plot hardly advances at all, and much of the book is based around the 3 boys Tad, Zane, and Jommy, who do pretty much nothing productive, and aren't particularly interesting characters to start out with. Aside from a few interesting twists (and some annoying twists that make you wonder how insanely powerful and intelligent beings can be so friggin dumb), the book gives a definite sense that Feist got lazy on this one. I would suggest that people wait for the paperback to save some money, as you will probably feel cheated if you don't. Hopefully this is just a fluke, and the next installment in the series will be awesome, because otherwise Feist will have many angry fans on his hands.

Into a Dark Realm is certainly not one of Feist's best books (and I've read them all, some more than once). Understandably, there is a lot of backstory that is laying the foundations for later books, but I can see why a lot of new readers might be turned off. As some other reviewers have stated, there is a lot of telling and not as much showing.

It's relatively easy for a dedicated Feist fan to make it through the book: the pacing is superb, the characters we know and love are at the forefront (except for Tomas; where is Tomas?), and the plot is intricate and easy to follow.

**Warning: Potential Spoiler Below**
However, there are some issues as well. Am I the only one who was rolling my eyes and laughing out loud at the scene with Miranda and her Dasati "kidnappers"? References to the long-necked, gray-skinned beings probing her with instruments and studying her as she lay immobilized sounded like a bad Sci-Fi channel documentary on alien abductions. Raymond! What's going on here man!? You are so much better than this.

Irregardless, I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Even at his worst, Feist is still entertaining and a whopping good read. For readers new to this series, read Flight of the Nighthawks first (Darkwar Saga book 1). It's not necessary to understand the story, but it will make some of Feist's mistakes more forgivable.