Customer Reviews

Shards of a Broken Crown (Serpentwar Saga, Book 4)

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I feel sorry for those people (including myself) who were suckered into buying the hardback version of this novel. If you truly want to know what happens in this, the conclusion of Feist's Serpentwar Saga, get the paper back...heck, borrow the book from your local library.

Over the course of Feist's 10 books set in this world of Midkemia, he has developed memorable characters and a winning formula, then slowly ruined it all with his weak, disjointed plot and incoherence. Developments occur out of the blue, there is no sense of consistency, and the rules of the game are revised continuously according to his whim, giving no sense of history and destroying the foundation that he laid in Magician.

The only redemption I could find in this book were the two main characters, James and Dashel, who make the novel bearable enough to complete. All of the old favorites are either dead (Arutha) or uninteresting (Pug, Nakor, Tomas). Feist has lost the edge he displayed in producing Magician, and we are left with the shards of a washed-up writer.

As a long-time Feist fan, I must say that the latter two books of this series has been disappointing. Shadows of a Dark Queen and Rise of a Merchant Prince were quite good in character development and it seemed the plot was going somewhere, much like the original Riftwar series. Then Rage of a Demon King and now this book, Shards of a Broken Crown, seem to be hurried and rushed. The previous major characters in the first two books are either killed or marginalized, while new characters and secrets are revealed at an alarming rate. Several story lines are not even fully explained to satisfaction, for example the refugee lizard-riders who were vassals of the snakes-priests. They only appear occassionally, and even in this final book they are given such a short amount of notice one wonders why Fiest used them to start off this series anyways. As for Miranda, I'd say the old Pug wouldn't even look at a two-timing tramp like her. And the Kingdom of the Bitter Sea? After Feist kills off all the old-time heroes all we get in the Kingdom basically rolling over and letting this happen? And Pug just sits around and does nothing? In short, Fiest attempts too much in too little space and strays from the Riftwar-type writing that enchanted readers such as myself.

I was very apprehensive when I first bought this book. Having finished Magician, I had gone on a bit of a Raymond Feist spree, buying every Midkemia book that he's ever written (as well as the Empire trilogy). The Riftwar saga I recommend almost unconditionally, at least the first four books. The next two books were still better than almost anything else out there, but somehow I thought they were lacking. The Empire trilogy was excellent, kudos to both of them. I assumed the Serpentwar saga would be just as good as his other books. Wrongly, it seems... The series seemed to decline a little more every book, but I thought that maybe this book would be able to pull it all together for a spectacular ending. Nope. The book, beyond countless typos and spelling errors, also gives me the feeling that it was rushed. The ending, while I won't give it away, I will say that it was extremely abrupt and incomplete. The casual killing off of one of my favorite characters, Greylock, for no apparent reason, did not put me in the best of moods. I really don't think that you should just kill off any of the important characters if their dying has no effect whatsoever. Erik mourns for ten seconds or so, then Greylock is completely forgotten, never to be mentioned again. While I like the fact that Feist is beginning to focus on the large picture, as another reviewer said, he's leaving out small details such as character development. However, the main thing that really ruined the series was Pug. Three and 99/100 books pass, and Pug doesn't lift a danged finger. Then, after lots of war and lots of innocents dying, he finally intervenes. (Interestingly enough, the reason Pug doesn't help at first is because he doesn't want to kill all the enemy soldiers, since they all have families etc... Er, what about the people of the Kingdom, don't they have families too? Oh well...) In approximately 2 seconds, Pug eliminates the enemy leader and sends his compatriot back through a gateway to hell. (Now, if the evil guy had an IQ higher than 5, he would know not to put his headquarters right next to the gateway, since the only way to get rid of him is to send him back) But, in only 2 pages or so, Pug easily kills off the enemy guy, and everyone lives happily ever after. All the work of the tens of thousands of Kingdom soldiers, giving their lives for their country, is nothing compared to what Pug can do in 2 pages. Riiiight... Really, one of the reasons Feist's books are going stale is because a few select (immortal, of course) god-characters can take out ANYTHING they come up against. 400 pages telling about the hardships of the army and the common citizens, then Pug comes in and does in five minutes what the entire army could not in several years. So if you'd like, just read the last 15 pages or so, since everything happening before that is completely irrelevant. If Feist doesn't come up with a way of dealing with the god-characters, as well as maybe changing his formula a little, his books are doomed to the bargain bin. I really hope this doesn't happen, since, as Feist showed with his Riftwar saga, he really is a superb author.

Firstly I must say that Raymond E Feist is my all time favourite author, he introduced me to the worlds of myth and magic and I have been hooked ever since. I have read all his books and loved evryone of them,unfortunately though I do have to critise this one. Due to the increasing popularity of his books they launched the compatiable computer game. Fine, personally it did not interest me but I am sure it did other people. Unfortunately someone suggested he cash in on the games success and write some books involved with the game. They were awful, and he ruined what could have been an excellent end to a decent saga by desperately trying to interlink these spin off books with the main ones through 'Shards'. Characters and history were suddenly chucked in that had never appeared before in the 8 previous books, it ruined the whole thing. Also the endy was scrappy, almost as if he got bored with the book and tried to finish off a soon as possible. Lets hope he redeems himself with the continuation of Pug etc in the fight against the nameless one and forgets all about his sideline money making venture that is destroying his world for a lot of devoted fans.

As fantasy novel comrades know, our favorite authors tease us to distraction with multiple book series! While it is a costly dance (buying book after book), with Raymond Feist, it is worth it!

Note: Please, editors of Mr. Feist, do a better job next time. It breaks my reading trance, when I see inconsistencies like confusions of Jimmy with Dash, giving the wrong character's name as a rapist in a past episode, mis-spellings of names of characters, some questionable grammar in a few phrases and the like. It makes me think that his own publishers are not even following his own story!

In addition, I felt that in this last of the Serpent War Saga, Mr. Feist was trying to get all of the old familiar characters involved in the finale. He even mentioned Lady Mara on Kelewan! However, in another one of those editting problems, she is mentioned her as the "Servant of the Empire" when in the last of that series, her son, the new Tsurannuni Emperor granted her the special and higher title of "Mistress of the Empire." (please editors: get with it!)

While the flash and flare of the ending was fantastic, I thought that having the power of Tomas, the last of the Valheru, Miranda, the mysterious magician/trickster Nakor and Pug fighting the "bad dream" of Nalar at the end, was over-kill in my opinion. They each played a small role in the victory, cool... but, it seems Pug and Tomas could have done it all alone.

Personally, I would have wanted more of Tomas's battle skills with his wonderful white armour and I would have expected Calis, after all his tremendous efforts in previous parts of the adventure, to come out of retirement to fight with the Kingdom in its most desperate hour of need in the battle over Krondor!

Also...call me dense....I didn't really follow the ending. I guess my mind isn't far enough into the cosmos to get the bad dream thing that Nakor was trying to explain. Oh well....

All things said, I enjoyed the story, my questions about my favorite characters were all answered, I was disappointed by, yet understood, Dash's final career choice, and I'd bet that we'll venture to Midkemia with Mr. Feist again.

I'm convinced someone murdered Feist after the magician series and then stole his name. If you enjoy going to family reunions and hearing about stories you heard a dozen times, then pick this book up.
If you have trouble sleeping, pick this book up.

A book that starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and ends nowhere...I think this is it for Feist for me.

Shards of a Broken Crown is book 4, and the conclusion of The Serpent War Saga, by Raymond Feist. This book picks up right where Rage of a Demon King left off and finishes up the tale of the Kingdom putting itself back together after the war. Now, if you have not read any other book in this series do not read this one. In order for this book to make sense you need to read the first three book, actually, in order for everything in this book to make sense you really need to start with the Rift War Saga the first book of that is Magician: Apprentice. Then the entire story arc will make more sense and be much more satisfying to the reader.

Overall I have mixed reviews about this book. There are many aspects I like, while there are still a few things that didn't sit well with me. For fans of Feist this is a typical work of his. The plot moves along at a good pace and keeps the reader interested, and there is a fair amount of character development as well. I have read several reviews of people who were disappointed in this book and some that think this was a waste of a book. If you consider how much happens in this book it's not a waste at all. But, I think I understand why people are not `happy' with it too.

This book is first and foremost about plot. There are many plot elements that Feist needed to include in this book to be able to make the just to his next set of books, The Conclave of Shadows trilogy. There are quite a few plot lines within this book and I won't rehash all of them, plus one or two would be spoilers and I won't do that. Suffice it to say that this plot is engaging and well thought out and certainly accomplishes what Feist was planning. To say anymore than that would ruin parts of the story though.

The character development in this book is again where Feist shines. Although this book is about moving the plot, the characters shine through at times. The biggest areas of development are Jimmy and Dash, two fantastic characters that really come into their own in this book. Also, the character of Prince Patrick fleshes out nicely. Erik Von Darkmoor has a strong presence as well. Actually, I could probably keep listing character after character, as Feist did a good job of moving each of them along, which is quite the feat considering how many characters are in this book.

Overall, I was satisfied with this book. I thought it was a fun read and stayed true to the characters. However, the ending disappointed me a little. It almost seemed like Feist was running out of room and quickly tied up all the loose ends as quickly and succinctly as possible. It doesn't really take anything away from the book, but it just doesn't `feel' like a Feist ending to me.

Fans of Feist's earlier work will want to read this just to complete that part of this grand story. People who are looking for some new fantasy to read should really start with Magician: Apprentice and go from there. Feist writes wonderful fantasy that is sure to please a broad spectrum of readers. I can't recommend his work enough.

First of all, who in the hell is Sidi?!! How about telling us about Pug's life over the last 50 years!! We don't even know the guy anymore!! Plus, what's with Miranda?! The Pug I knew and loved had better morals than sleeping with a woman who is sleeping with his best friend's son. She's a skank! I hope some one kills her pretty soon And how about making characters that are around for more than two books?!! We don't even know where some of the characters come from!! They pop up out of nowhere! And most of the time they suck. Dash, Jimmy, Erik, and Roo are okay! But Patrick? He's the grandson of Arutha, the Lord of the West? Come on! And what's with Pug needing to justify himself to everybody! He's a Great One! He knows he's serving the greater good and that should be enough! And how about a change of scenery? I have seen enough of Krondor the last 4 years. Let's go back to the Empire of Tsuranuanni. What's going on over there? Whatever happened to Lady Mara and the rest of her crew! Kalari said there were 3 plots to return her to the throne. Could this be another 3 Empire books with Janny Wurts? Over six years have passed since the last one and its long overdue that we see the Empire where Pug became a master! Heck, Pug made the series. He should interact with the Great Ones again or at least have some cameos in the new Empire books, if there are plans for some(which there should be) How would Justin react to meeting the most powerful magician of all time? And last time Pug made an appearance in the Empire books, Mara was bowing down to him. That's the way it should be. It would be good to explore Kelewan again. Tsubar? The Thuril? Chakahar? Pug has already explored all of Midkemia. It's time to go back to the Empire for awhile!! Pug could see how things have changed and maybe his presence will result in a interesting battle! It's quite possible Nalar has agents on Kelewan! It's time for Pug to visit the Tsurani again, if only to see what they are up to. Remember what happened when he gave Makala free reign!!!

To the reviewer who is "disgusted" by all the critical reviews: the Legacy series was published after the Serpent War series, so people have every right to ask who this Sidi character is. Also, there is a big difference between having typos in a dinky Amazon.com review and having them in a published work that has gone through professional editors.

Now, as to SoaBC, I really feel like Fiest just phoned the last couple of books in this series in. I think he had a few could ideas at the start of the series, but just ran out of gas half way through. Particularly the last two books in the series, he seemed to paint himself into a corner and have to do a lot of hand waving to get himself out. I really think the pace, plot, characterizations, and writing just come nowhere near the original Riftwar sage in quality.

Great story as usual from this author but completely ruined by ending. Heroic people do heroic things then poof! Pug just tells everyone to go home. You get the impression that Feist had written as many words as needed to fulfil committment to publisher. The problem with creating supermen is that the acts of the people around them are meaningless. Very few authors can make superman anything but a comic book and Feist is no exception.