A Darkness at the Riftwar

A Darkness at Riftwar

I hate being scammed, and I finished the Riftwar saga with this bittersweet taste in my mind. I did enjoy part of it, but the way I was led since the beginning, the way the story shifted and twisted, left me not wanting to read any other work from Raymond E. Feist.

It all started fairly well. I can’t say I loved the first two books, Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, but they are way up there among the good reads. In these books I was promised magic, fantasy, high fantasy even, adventure, and some hints of sci-fim and truthfully, it was delivered. Although Pug was a slow learner who couldn’t do much, the promise of greatness was there. The worldbuilding was nice. Midkemia is basically medieval Earth with magic and elves and dwarves, but Kelewan was very interesting, and the hints of a possible common ancestry being revealed little by little were great. The protagonists and supporting characters were all well portrayed, I could see different people, different personalities, interesting conflicts, and different cultures. Even within each world, several distinct cultures existed, which should be the norm but is still commendable because it is very common in works of fiction that when different worlds are portrayed, they end up being of a single environment, a single mindset, a single culture, and in the Riftwar, seeing the internal differences between the people of Midkemia (Earth) and the internal differences in the culture, landscape, and mindset of the people of Kelewan (not Earth) was great, extraordinary.

I do have some nitpicks here and there within the first two books, but they fall in the “personal preference” category, along with some poorly made decisions by certain characters. Still, putting myself in the shoes of those characters, I’m fairly certain I would have done or reacted similarly.

And the war. What a good description of an old-style war that takes years to complete, where months are needed to move soldiers from place to place. Many fronts far away from each other, many different characters had the chance to be highlighted and to grow, both as individuals and as contributors to the story of the books.

In any case, great reads, good worldbuilding, good characters and side characters, good pace.

Then comes Silverthorn. And with it, the feelings of being scammed.

And the scam started in the very first pages. I know it is common to have a “previously…” section at the beginning, because the books take some years to be released, and people who read the previous entries 4, 5, 6 years earlier might not remember everything. But Raymond E. Feist details the previous books so much, and so often, that I was left thinking, “Why bother buying the previous books?” It’s not only a very detailed summary in the first pages, but at every opportunity Mr. Feist goes back and describes previous happenings again, and again, and again. Every time a character appears, there’s a new re-introduction and some pages of one character remembering, reflecting, or pondering on what they did in the earlier books. It was so frustrating. Mr. Feist tried to put these “rememberings” together in the story, sometimes literally having the character think about what another character had done before, with 2, 3, 4 pages of remembering through someone’s mind. But it wasn’t good enough, it was clear that the author was just shoving a flashback down our throats. So the first feeling of being scammed was this, i was robbed of money and, most importantly, time, if all main events of previous books are going to be replayed as flashbacks or memories in the current one, why should I waste my time reading the earlier books then? Just to follow the dialogue? If I ever feel like reading something by Raymond E. Feist again, I will certainly skip all first books and will get only the final book of whatever series I decide to read, because surely it will include all details of the big events leading up to it.

And then comes the second scam, Arutha.
Silverthorn, I hated the book. I read it all, but it was a forced read, why was a side character, whose main quality was being born rich, suddenly the protagonist of my fantasy and magic series? I was sold Pug and a bit of Thomas, and the first books were mostly focused on Pug, and magic, and fantasy, and adventure. I was curious to see what would happen next with Pug, and Kelewan, and Thomas in the Elven Forest. I don’t care about a side character, a normal human born rich. Who cares that Arutha won a big battle in the Riftwar? He’s a sidekick to Pug and Thomas’ story. Why is my high fantasy, magic-focused series suddenly following a rich-born princeling around?

During my terrible read of Silverthorn, at every corner, at every chapter, I was just waiting to see more of Pug, or Thomas, or the Elves and Dwarves, or anything from Kelewan. And at every chapter, I was left disappointed yet again. Pug does show up occasionally, but only for a few paragraphs, and magic is even less used or shown here. Just frustrating.
And zombies! Right, I almost forgot the zombies but it is ok because the author forgot about them too. I can’t complain much here because if there’s magic, there’s always the possibility of necromancy, and I do like stories of necromancers as well, but here it was kind of unexpected, not only the zombies but the whole cursed magic or dark magic angle, turning high fantasy into grimdark. I do like grimdark books too, but I was so frustrated by too much Arutha and too little Pug that the whole Murmandamus throwing zombies and odd gore creatures around was lost on me.

And then comes A Darkness at Sethanon, and again the feeling of being scammed.
Again the detailed summary at every opportunity, but luckily less so than in Silverthorn. But now even the bad guy Murmandamus changed his class, now in this book, instead of a dark magician or necromancer, he was just a strong fighter. Murmandamus does throw some magic once or twice during an attack, but mostly he just uses a magic shield around him. What happened to the zombies and strange creatures that the previous book made it look like he could create at will? Where are the dark powers that killed some nice characters just for being in his virtual presence? In Silverthorn I was sold a powerful dark magician that could rival gods, would put the Assembly to its knees, but here in the last book, I was delivered just a strong fighter with one attack spell and one magic shield. Even the final battle between Murmandamus and Thomas was a sword fight. I think Raymond E. Feist forgot about Silverthorn while writing this book. Well, good for him, because I’d like to forget it too.

And now here I am, not knowing how many stars to put for the books on Goodreads. Terrible problem to have. I liked some aspects of the story. I enjoyed the adventure of Pug, Thomas, and Macros, I liked the worldbuilding and how Midkemia’s and Kelewan’s history intertwine, i enjoyed reading about Katala, Jimmy, Laurie, Martin, Kulgan, Hochopepa (funny name, reminds me of Sancho Panza) and the Assembly people, the little dog-dragon Fantus, the kids in Pug’s school, Meecham one of the best supporting characters, appears rarely, does nothing most of the time, but even he is enjoyable. But I hated most of the times I was reading about Arutha, or Lyam, or Guy du Bas-Tyra, and frustratingly they were the focus of the entire Silverthorn and most of the final book, A Darkness at Sethanon.

I was scammed. I would like the time I dedicated to Silverthorn back.