107 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Back to What Works for Feist, April 21, 2009
The awkwardly-titled Rides a Dread Legion is a more promising beginning than Feist's last several series have started with. Although new characters, even a newly discovered people, play an important part in the story, old favorites Pug and Tomas again assume important roles in the story.
Most readers who have stuck with Feist since the 1980s have become accepting of his style, reminiscent of the space opera of Doc Smith, of following up a universe-saving battle in one book with a far more vital multi-universe struggle ten years later in the next series. That's been the Feist pattern so long that it can't be regarded as a bug, it's simply a feature.
We're back to the threat to Midkemia and other worlds coming from the various demon circles, and this book makes use of several new demon raising characters to more systematically explore what these beings are and what they want. There's a fair amount of conferencing between the various principals and experts, but action is not neglected either. The book does bog down in such scenes at times when Feist suddenly jumps to a fight between obscure characters or peoples who were only briefly introduced in prior series.
Really this book's strengths lie in the interplay between the various characters - especially Tomas, Pug and his family, and new additions Amirantha and Gulamendis, a being with a very different background than most of Midkemia's races, despite his people's connection to the world. Tomas again gets to flex his Valheru muscles on the side of good.
If you have no idea what that last sentence means, this would NOT be a good place to start reading Feist. He's written over 25 books set in or based on the Midkemia world, and although not all are vital to understanding this story, at the very least the first series, known as the Riftwar Saga, should be the starting point for anyone attempting Feist. It kicks off with Magician, which you may find split into two parts beginning with Magician: Apprentice. The Riftwar Saga, and the Empire Trilogy co-written with Janny Wurts, are classic fantasy series, even if not every Midkemia sequel has been up to those standards. But a new reader who does like Riftwar could do worse than to follow up by reading this book and its forthcoming continuation as well.
I might have given Dread Legion another star if it had more resolution. It's become (too) typical in fantasy for the individual books in multi-volume series to simply be long chapters, with the end of each book prior to the final one not particularly resolving anything. And because it's now the standard, if Feist were a 26 year-old newcomer I'd accept the 2009 style without comment. However, Feist is not that newcomer, and this what I consider lazy and sloppy new trend represents a backward step for writers of his generation. Magician had a point as a novel, despite being part of a series. So did Silverthorn, and Daughter of the Empire. I'm judging Feist by Feist standards rather than Brandon Sanderson standards, which I don't think is unfair. Feist is still published at all simply because he is grandfathered in as an established fantasy stalwart. If he had never been published and he walked into a publisher's office cold today with a Midkemia manuscript, he'd get it tossed back with a scornful comment about this not being 1983 and DelRey Books. Now I don't have a problem with my old favorite authors still writing sequels to those 1983 classics - obviously or I wouldn't still be reading them - but they can't have it both ways. If you're going to still live off 1983 fantasy, then give us self-contained 1983-style novels, not 2009 installments.
As is apparent, I regard 3 stars as an above-average rating. I have no quarrel with those who seldom give anything below a 4, but for my purposes I find it works best to save more room at the top while crowding all the average and poor stuff into the 1-2 range.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh so promising, and then ..., April 28, 2009
I have to start by saying that I am a long term fan and have read the entire series from that first book from the SciFi/Fantasy Book Club many years ago. I would have loved to give this book a 5, or even a 4, but I just couldn't do it.
First off, there just is not that much to the book. Ray (Hey, I've been a fan long enough to use a personal version of his name) must at this point believe that his fans know all about Midkemia and therefore does not need to waste much time with world building. Not that it was ever a strong feature of earlier works, but it was far better than represented here. Maybe that explains why the book is so short. In a time when I am reading contemporaries of R.F. (some newer to the scene) and finding massive stories loaded with rich characters and easily twice the length, I just have to ask, "What's up!"
I will, of course, continue to read the stories, just to know where Pug goes next. And I will admit that in the last few pages, he finally starts to realize that he has to not be just a player in the grand opera understanding only his part, but he needs to understand the opera itself. Launching himself towards godhood perhaps?
Anyway, read it, enjoy it, just don't get too disappointed when after a few hours of reading you turn the page and realize the book is done and you now have to wait for another year for the next, short installment.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Verrrry slow build up for a series, May 1, 2009
As soon as the "biggest threat ever" is vanquished, Feist's next series introduces a bigger threat. This is part of his formula, and his ultra-powerful protagonists struggle mightily before winning the day, while the world around them is slowly wrecked.
In this book, Feist takes a very long time to set up his pieces on the board and introduces the massive danger that is so bad it is destroying the newly introduced race of super-elves.
While the reading is good, it does take a long time to set up, without much of the action I've come to expect.
Which is why the ending seems so strong and shocking. There is a twist which I didn't see coming, and a reminder that the reader shouldn't rely on the preconceptions which might be brought from earlier Feist novels.
My review is 3.5 stars, boosted up by the better than expected close to the story. In fact, I think the ending is the only thing that salvaged a book which sort of dragged.
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