Customer Reviews

Rage of a Demon King (Serpentwar Saga)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

There is a difference in this saga than the former, and many have already mentioned that it seems to hurry along too much.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series, but thought the ending was a little "too easy" and just too expected. I was hoping for something more.

I disagree with others that say the characters were not interesting, i was happy to re-visit Pug, Calis and Tomas all over again.

Alot of people also gripe about the revelation of mysteries previously proposed in the previous series. Well, as a long-time reader of sagas that just never die (DragonLance), I was thoroughly happy to finally learn WHO Macros, understand Miranda's history and I love the "Simpkin-like" (Weis/Hickman reference) character in Nakor.

Everyone is a bit too critical, but i agree that it was sad to see Midkemia reduced to ruin. Parts of the story were EXTREMELY SAD, but then, all characters cannot live to be realistic.

I feel Raymond's goal in this series was to put to rest an excellent era of life on Midkemia. Some have mentioned the posibility of another book, I feel one could be written, but this ROADK really seemed like an end-all to everything.

Also, this has to be the most reviews I have ever seem on Amazon... wow!

This is the first Feist book that has let me down. I've loved everything he has written in the past and now the whole wonderful universe he created with his previous books has come crashing down with this one. I agree with the reviewer who said that Feist should close the book on Midkemia and move on.

Excellent battle scenes, very well described and played out. Unfortunately, the plot is full of enough holes to strain spagetti. And, it is becoming overused by Feist. Every new series seems to be simply about a new "God" that is stronger and more scary than the last. That, my friends, is called lack of imagination. On the other hand, Feist's work with characters is always intriguing. There are few sci-fi/fantasy writers who spend as much time as he in making his characters as real as possible.

First, let me say I am a huge fan of the Midkemia novels and have read them all. My favorites are Magician, Darkness at Sethanon, and especially Rise of a Merchant Prince, where Feist really widened his range and took the time to develop character's personalities. My problems with Rage of A Demon King are #1: He tarnishes everything from those classic original Riftwar books. He replaces a compeling, mysterious, powerful enemy: the Valheru... with these watered down Demonic wimps. #2: He completely abandons his character development. We get almost no insight into each character's real feeling or ambitions. #3 It's almost all action or revelations about the order of the Universe, which completely fall short of the original explanation in earlier books. Nalor, the Mad God is behind everything ... WHAT!!! Feist doesn't bother to give this Nalor any personality or history... he's an empty excuse to destroy everything we believed about the motives of the Valheru and Macross. It's almost if Feist felt the need to create some Ultimate mystery and then solve it... ignoring the need to pursue the plot of the battle as we already knew it. All in all, a most disappointing episode from perhaps my favorite writter of fantasy... I sure hope he can do a better job re-invigorating his world with Shards of a Broken Crown, or I won't be coming back.

The thing I liked most about this book was Fiest accomplished what he couldn't before and what most writers cannot and that is really making the reader feel a loss when a character dies.

Yes, its sad when you have a favorite character and they die, but I want to really feel heavyhearted as if someone really did die. I want the books realistic as possible. Isn't this why we read these books? We read to enjoy them, to laugh and yes to cry!

Unfortunately, when characters die in recent fantasy novels (which is rare), I feel nothing. Probably because the characters feel nothing. When Lockleare died in "Prince of the Blood" I wanted James to be really hurt by his best friend's death. There really wasn't much written of this. When Arutha died, again I wanted to feel James' hurt, but I didn't in the "Shadow of a Dark Queen". At least not until "Rage of the Demon King" that I finally got my true feelings from James. The loss of Arutha hit Ja! ! mes hard as he himself describes. The deaths of some other characters were written beautifully. I truly was saddened. This is what we should feel. Fantasy is fiction yes, but it reflects life in all aspects. "Rage of a Demon King" accomplishes this. All good guys do not always live forever and those that do happen to die are not immediately forgotten. If readers want to read a book and feel like what they are reading is actually happening, then PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!

Overall I enjoyed reading what I thought would be the final chapter of the Serpent War Saga, but it did have some big problems. The major storyline is, of course, the invasion of Midkemia by the Emerald Queen's forces. The story of the fall of Krondor, Roo and his family's flight from the city, and the detailed descriptions of Erik's battles with the enemy were excellent. Although I was sad to see some major characters die, I thought that they were well done and not rushed. I found myself wanting more of the book to focus on the struggle for survival and much less on the weakest part of the story: Pug and the magicians. Pug's storyline felt extremely rushed and tried to explain away a lot of plot threads. Unfortunately, it managed to rip apart a lot of the backgrounds established in previous books, and I think it revealed way too many things too fast. If this was to be the final book in the series that's OK, but there's still one book left. What will Mr. Feist put in it?!? Most disappointing was the whole deal with the demons. Feist built up the demons to be massively powerful beings that are nearly unstoppable, but I cam away from this book feeling like they were a bunch of wimps, especially the original demon king Maarg. Pug himself was really bizarre in this story. At first he seems invinsible, as he has been built up to be in the previous novels, but then gets caught by a cheap trick and nearly killed. If that kept him out of the story until the last book that would have been great, but he got better within three chapters, and in the big rematch the demon seemed depowered, like Feist just needed to get rid of him before the last book. Most disappointing was Tomas' return to the main plot. He really seemed no stronger than Eric von Darkmoor, and never got a chance to show his Valheru powers. Now that he is probably depowered as well, I suspect we'll be saying goodbye to him in the next novel. Overall, I think this book would have been a 9 or a 10 if Feist had cut back on most of the magical and historical revelations and kept Pug and friends on the sidelines. The non-magical combat and the plight of Roo could have easily made this the best of all the Midkemia novels. Unfortunately, too much was stuffed into one book to make it truly great. Nevertheless, I look forward to the conclusion of the Serpent War.

How can a book be thoroughly readable and yet disappointing? Well let me explain...

Feist has been writing Midkemia books for several years and has produced some fantastic characters that he has always allowed to develop, adding constant new threads and removing old weave. It has been the case that the characters are secondary to the theology and political structure of the world and the universe in general. For these reasons, the characters are more cherished, because they suffer the same frailties that we must also suffer. At any time they can be removed from the picture and we feel each loss as our own. This, in my opinion, was what made the Feist books great.
In Rage of a Demon King, I felt that the storyline was being forced. Like many authors, Feist seems to have fallen into the trap of involving ever more powerful foes to challenge his main characters in the magical realm. It is somewhat of a mystery as his non-magical main characters in the book, such as Roo, Eric, Kitty and Jimmy, have more than enough on their plate to keep them occupied. This makes it all the more disappointing when the magical characters, with their much vaunted powers, can be blasted around and still recover.
One particular scene that sticks in my mind is the way Pug is persuaded to face the Demon that has forced the invasion of the Kingdom in order to get to the Lifestone at Sethanon. He faces the demon and blasts it with a huge fireball, which is rebounded from the demon who strips Pug of his defenses and almost destroys him.....Why? Why would and archmage of Pugs skill use such a stupid attack form and be so easily caughyt out in a magical trap? It makes no sense, and frankly is insulting readers who have followed the character development through every Midkemia book written. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the book as a 'good read', the sense of disappointment caused by such scenes was awesome.
The bottom line is this:- If you have read mist of the earlier books you will find this disappointing, but if you are an occasional reader then you will find this an excellent piece of fantasy fiction, if a little open ended. I look forward to Shards of a Broken Crown, due out this year, and hope that Feist can get it together.

Feist captures your attention as he leads you through the epic story of Eric, Roo, and many other intreging characters. He knows his territory well, and uses great detail to express his point. The novel was excellent, and gives a good picture of the war as it happened. The only let down was that when you finish the book, you think "That's it? That war was solved so quickly!" Luckily, there are many, many other Fiest book with interesting and exotic wars for fantasy fans to read.

MIRANDA SLEEPS WITH PUG...THEN CALIS..THEN PUG...BUT ALL THAT TIME, PUG KNOWS SHE'S SLEEPING WITH CALIS AND ACCEPTS IT! WHO IS THE SORCERER I USED TO KNOW SO WELL....I GUESS FEIST KILLED HIM AND REPLACED WITH A GENUINE LOSER.

I am shocked by some of the negative reviews this book got by other people on this site. (Look around, most are positive!) Some of the things they hated are the best points of this book. The story has become ever broader and far reaching, with greater forces thrown into the battle. Yes, some characters we have grown to love die, but I think this is because Feist has realized that it is time for the series to move on. (Don't worry, there are plenty of old favorites who make it!) Another complaint I read was that too many mysteries were revealed. Again, this is one of the greatest points in this book. After learning, we realize how much we really didn't know about Midkemia and how much there is still to discover.

For those of you that have never read Feist ... DO! He is, in my opinion, the BEST fantasy author there is. (And that's the truth!) Start at the beginning of his great stories, though, with Magician: Apprentice (of the Riftwar Saga). This will help you to understand this detailed world and learn about many of the characters. That is the greatest thing about Feist's books, the characters. After reading his books, you feel for the characters and truely understand what they are experiencing, both their losses and joys.

I highly recommend this book!