Customer Reviews

Mistress of the Empire

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book brings to an end the saga of Mara of the Acoma, and her political rise through the Empire of Tsuranuanni. It begins with a tragedy that leads a grief-stricken Mara to realise that she has a new enemy, the awesomely powerful Assembly of Magicians. The story follows Mara through a new series of plots, near-death encounters, revelations, and personal struggles as she once more fights to protect her loved ones and family honour.
Mistress of the Empire is as well-written as its two prequels, and as the tension mounted towards the end, I couldn't put it down. Yet the book did leave a sour taste in the mouth, and that is because Mara ends up with everything. Yes, we know she's lost many people she loved. Yes, we know she's suffered greatly. But at the end of the book she has more power and wealth than ever, the literal protection of the gods, and the love of her life returned. Some balance on this score would have been preferable. In contrast to the other books, it didn't seem to me that Mara really learnt anything in this book, either - it's hard to believe that she's acting for anyone other than herself, no matter how moving her struggles can be. Her supposed concern for the underprivileged just doesn't seem to shine through in this book.
The Assembly of Magicians was an unsatisfactory enemy; its portrayal in other books seemed at variance with its portrayal here, and I did wonder how well the concept had been thought out. And it certainly gave up far too easily in the end. The priests, too, were problematic. They never seemed to care about the cruelty in the empire before, so why start now? There was too much plot contrivance of this sort, and it did undermine Mistress of the Empire. Other annoying contrivances that furthered specific plot ends were the poisoning, the divorce of Hokanu, and the death of Ayaki.
The book was also let down by its ending. The showdown before the emperor's throne was silly, with all its stops and starts, the constant raising of the stakes, and its contrived resolution. And as for the epilogue, that read like wish fulfilment on the part of the authors, rather than being consistent with what had gone before - sorry, I just don't believe that social change would have come that fast. Feist and Wurts have perhaps caught a disease that is unfortunately becoming more common amongst fantasy authors: total control of their imaginary world from creation to destruction, with nothing left unresolved and nothing left for anyone else to play with, even readers.
Yet it was nice to see in this book how much came about through the actions of characters other than Mara, particularly Arakasi and Lujan. The change in Arakasi (always my favourite character) was especially welcome and well done.
If you liked Daughter of the Empire and Servant of the Empire, you'll no doubt enjoy this, too. It's not as good as Servant of the Empire, but it's still a fun read. You might find it best not to think on it too deeply, though.

I first read this when it was published and I still come back to it every year or two, because the story of Mara's struggle for survival never gets old. She's truly a woman in a man's world, reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth, albeit in a culture whose inspiration is obviously from the Orient. And yet, as other readers have mentioned, Mara doesn't take on mannish traits to win, she's always purely female. And she uses that, at times, ruthlessly.

The culture in which she exists is so stagnate, so utterly drowning in pointless tradition that seeing Mara figure out ways to both work with it and around it in order to *change* her people's entire way of life never ceases to be a joy. She proves herself to be a tactical genius and yet she still makes mistakes, she has prejudices to overcome, ways of thinking that she has to force herself to change, she's still so very human and you can identify with her. Her sorrows, regrets, fears, they're all very real and you can't help but feel for her, worry that maybe this one time she and her House won't survive.

Such wonderfully well-developed characters, even the minor ones, beautifully described culture and Machiavellian politics. The entire trilogy is a feast for someone looking for books heavy on the plot while still being character driven. When you've turned the last page, read the last sentence, you'll find yourself wishing that there were books more to devour, because you won't want to let go of Mara or her world.

Mistress of the Empire is the exciting conclusion to an amazing trilogy (Daughter of the Empire and Servant of the Empire are the 1st two books).
Once again Mara must fight to save her family, the Acoma, from obliteration by enemies. She must use all of her resources to the fullest and learn to think outside of the traditional Tsuranni ways of thinking in order to survive, and for the good of the stagnant Empire.
While some parts of this book DO seem to drag somewhat, the end result is more than worth it. The book starts with a bang, and has some very moving/touching twists at the end.
Feist & Wurtz have outdone themselves with this trilogy, creating characters that you come to love. You fear for their lives when they are in peril, and cry and laugh along with them.
I finished re-reading this book yesterday, and I still feel the emotional impact of it, and I'm sad that the book doesn't continue on.
If you liked Raymond Feist's Riftwar saga, definitely give this series a try. This trilogy contains 3 of my top 10 favorite books of all time.

"Mistress of the Empire" probably would have been a blast if it would have come as a stand-alone fantasy novel. But as the final book of a great trilogy it has to be compared with the preceding books, which were absolutely outstanding, and here "Mistress" simply performs badly. Of course, Janny Wurts' writing is still excellent. Of course the plot is still quite intruiging and Lady Mara's uncanny knack to turn the tides to her favor at the very last moment meets all requirements for suspense. And of course the main characters are convincing both in background and motivation, but... havent we seen all that before in "Daughter/Servant of the Empire"?

To be honest, over the course of "Mistress" I simply grew bored of how events developped because they always appear to follow one and the same scheme: One urgency follows the other, Mara gets pushed to 'dare the unprecedented', desaster threatens and yet in the end Mara gets everything she aimed for (due to her 'innovative' actions and the usual heroics of her following) plus some unexpected but welcomed boons less a good scale of sacrificial deaths by people close to her household and heart. Good grief, gimme a break - dreaming must be allowed because after all this is fantasy literature, but did Mara really need to end up seeing her legacy on the emperor's throne, to win the favor of the most powerful mage of both Kelewon and Midkemia (though I feel that co-author Feist simply couldnt resist to give his favorite protagonist Pug a weightier appearance), to gain the protection of the Gods rendering herself virtually invincible and to regain her lost love Kevin due to the cheapest case of deus-et-machina-like intervention by the author?

I really think 'No', because "Mistress" still holds enough depth to make it a really good fantasy novel. Arakasi's incursion into the assassin fortress is gripping as anything and his ensuing affair with a beautiful slave girl is heart-breaking. The world of the alien Cho-ja, Lord Jiro's and his spymaster's plotting, and the revelation of the real purposes of the machinations of the magicians' assembly and everything that results from that are pretty good stories and settings within themselves. But alas Janny Wurts overshadows everything with Mara's greatness (even though Wurts tries to justify all of Mara's actions by purely being motivated out of necessity, survival and her concern for the well-being of the empire, but, sorry, I just dont buy that any longer) and therefore the whole story simply looses much of the usual credibility that marked "Daughter" and "Servant". A little bit less Mara would have maybe been better for the conclusion of this else spectacular fantasy trilogy.

Lady Mara faces her greatest challenge in this final book of the epic Empire Trilogy. Now the most powerful female in the Empire, Mara must come to terms with her very public life and face the inevitable results of her past triumphs.

You also get a better understanding into previously mentioned factors in the first two books (Daughter of the Empire & Servant of the Empire) and Riftwar. You get a deeper look into the religions of the Tsurani and their roles in the framework of the Empire. In addition, the Assembly is also greatly involved, though perhaps not so much as "Magician" (by Raymond E. Feist), it certainly plays greater roles in the shaping of this novel. Mara also travels to distant lands, answering questions that are left unanswered in the Riftwar Saga and the first two Empire books.

What I most admired in this particular book was the overcoming of grave difficulties in the face of constant danger. Cunningly written and detailed, Feist weaves his cleverly written plotlines into the stunning fabric of Wurts. You feel as if you are a part of the book and really know the characters.

And though many writers make their main characters seem virtually invulnerable, you really see the human side of each main character (good and bad) and come to value the emerging flaws and weaknesses. As a result, you get a three-dimensional view of all main characters which helps to sum up and close the series.

Twists inside twists is the best way to describe the plot in this one. Not that it will shock you so much as that the action never seems to falter or fall short. There was only one point where I thought there was a plot malfunction, where the story seems to be heading somewhere, then goes somewhere completely different. But if you don't notice it, I'm not going to tell you where it is. Because the rest of the book is so good, I'm still giving it five stars. The final book of the series, Mistress gives us the ends we've all known that Mara and her associates deserved despite their sometimes ruthless means. In this episode, Mara travels far afield to a land she barely knew existed; Arakasi, Acoma Spymaster, takes on an entire fortress of trained assassins, and falls in love with a beautiful, but jaded girl; we see the fruits of Mara's constant labor to unite the Empire and protect the future of her family name. And if that isn't enough, maybe you just don't like fantasy.

This is a fantastic conclusion to the thrilling series on the other side of the Riftwar! Although the companion series (Riftwar Saga) should be read first, I accidentally started by reading this book, and it was fantastic! It can be read as a stand-alone novel, but the experience is so much richer when the novels are read in order. I've read the whole series about six times!

The authors have created an incredible world full of intrigue and suspense which will keep you turning those pages. Anthropologically speaking, the parallels which Wurts and Feist have drawn between the different "families" on Kelewan and the different cultures in our world are fascinating! There are many similarities between ancient Japanese cultures and the worlds of Kelewan (the concepts of honor and ritual suicide being the strongest), but there also appears the odd parallel to ancient Mayan and Incan society, and the peoples outside the Empire remind strongly of Russian, Viking and Bedouin cultures. When the "barbarians" from Midkemia are brought over, there is a clash between their culture and that of the Tsuranni which is extremely redolent of east vs. west (the Midkemians ride horses, they have metal, their concept of honor is vastly different, etc.)

I would strongly recommend this series, even if you're not a big fan of fantasy. The character sketches alone are worth it! This will always remain one of my favorites, and I plan on reading it again just as soon as I've replaced my tattered copy.

This book is the third and final installment following the trials and tribulations of Mara, Ruling Lady of House Acoma of the Empire of Tsuranuanni.

Again, Feist and Wurts work well together. Feist brings strong character development and intense battle scenes, while Wurts leads the reader through dizzying layers of intrigue.

Of the three books, this is my favourite. We see Arakasi, Mara's Spy Master come to the fore, employing his skills and spy network against such worthy foes as the lethal Hamoi Tong group of assassins, we learn much more of the mysterious cho-ja insectoids, and we see Mara and her allies try to avoid destruction while tiptoeing around orders given by the powerful magicians of the Assembly, known as Great Ones.

My sole disappointment is that the trilogy is over and no other books were written about this alien world and culture.

I highly recommend this book, but suggest reading the first two (Daughter Of The Empire and Servant Of The Empire).

Well, I tend to be a little picky and choosy when getting new books to read. I had quicky devoured anything that had to do with Midkema, buying books one after another, and then I ran out of books. So I started looking around and noticed this series. I was a little dubious at first, I didn't think it was 1. possibly to create a story that combined all of the already know facts or 2. Create an entertaining story out of the seemingly flat and blase Tsurnani People. I mean in reality how much honor and code can you listen to before it getting really really old and 3. I was never a big fan of combining writers, thinking that Feist's style would be impaired by collaborating with someone else. I was wrong on all three counts.

This three book series is by far one of the most entertaining things I've read. I find it very refreshing to have a female heroine in a fantasy story. Not to mention the general lack of magic. Huge battles are not won by some spectacular magic display. They are won by incredible intelect and talent. The manuevering in this book is amazing, and all the twists and turns are fantastic. I never know what to expect next. You "know" the characters will prevail somehow, but I didn't find it to be the same predictable stuff you've read in a thousand other fantasy series. It is so far removed and the code of honor is so abstract that it is hard to predict anything that happens. These people aren't like you or I, they are completely unique and alien and it adds a new element to the story.

So yes, I was a bit reluctant to move over to the Tsurnani side of the story, but I am more than happy I did and I suggest you do to. If you do decide to read this series, you should probably read them after the riftwar books, but before the prince of blood and the serpantine war books. It will make the most sense then however you might feel a bit of a break hoping between worlds. They aren't integral to the midkema story so you can completely skip over them, but that is more or less where they are placed in the timeline.

Wow! This book is a great finale to what has been a wonderful series (see my reviews for the previous two installments.)

One would have thought that upon being named Servant of the Empire and having defeated House Minwanabi once and for all, Mara and her family would once and for all be able to enjoy peace. However, right from the beginning of this third installment, Mara meets very personal tragedy.

House Anasati leads a powerful coalition of traditionalists who oppose the elimination of the Council and the office of Warlord. However, Mara discovers an even more powerful force against change, a force that has kept the Empire in stagnation for thousands of years.

To defeat that power, Mara will once again have to leave the boundaries of the Empire and seek help from a very unlikely source. Very difficult decisions are made right until the very end, and Mara will sacrifice much for the good of the Empire.

I have to admit that I like the way the cho-ja are portrayed in this novel and I am pleased that their history was developed to some extent in this final installment. The story as a whole is riveting, making the book hard to put down. One surprise after another keeps the reader engaged, tied together by the splended quality of the writing. This entire series has been a delight to read, and unlike some series that end on a lull, this one keeps you on the edge of your proverbial seat right until the final chapter.