Tad and Zane
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in this series he seems to mix up tad and zane alot and get things completely wrong from earlier series' anyone else notice?
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Nothing happens and yet not boring...
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How strange is my relationship with the work of Raymond E. Feist.
Feist fans think his best work is Magician. I'm not a fan of it, but I did absolutely love Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon. Not only were they action-packed, but they had great stories as well, and together they make up some of the most exciting fantasy I have ever had the pleasure to read.
But nothing else Feist has ever written has excited me. His Serpentwar saga was boring and hellishly drawn out, and now we have the Darkwar series, which I continue to read hoping that it will capture my imagination the way his early books did.
I'll deal with the positives of Into A Dark Realm before I go onto what was wrong with it. What I will say about it is that, as is usual with Feist, it's a good story (apart from one unnecessary and detractive subplot). It is in no way boring, certainly, and there are some reasonable revelations which expand the scope of the plot. It also explores in detail the culture of the Dasati, which was interesting to read about. By the end I still wanted to read on, I have to say.
But even so, that excitement of Silverthorn and Sethanon isn't there. IADR is better than "Flight of the Nighthawks", which was pretty boring in some places, but unbelievably there is not a single action set-piece in the whole book. The ending, certainly, is perhaps the only ending of a fantasy book I've read where none of the last few chapters contain any kind of action sequence. Given that we're supposed to be on the verge of the Darkwar here, shouldn't there be a bit more excitement?
It also has the same major flaw as its predecessor FOTNH, in that it spends a lot of time TELLING us that there is a great threat to two worlds, but no time at all actually SHOWING us the extent of this threat. Instead, there is an awful lot of TALK about how dangerous the situation is, but we've yet to see it for ourselves. Perhaps the third book in the trilogy will open the floodgates, but I think by that point it will be too late as Feist hasn't built up any suspense for it, as we have not been made to genuinely feel that there is any danger at all. In Silverthorn, Feist presented us with constant danger from Murmandamus' forces and creatures, so that even though we didn't see him, we knew he was a threat. That's not the case here. I think Feist has somewhat wasted the plot that he had.
But this isn't a terrible book by any means, and it did actually keep me just about interested despite the fact that nothing particularly exciting ever happens in it. I keep reading Feist hoping that he will return to the action-adventure of the early Riftwar series, but so far I have been repeatedly disappointed. That is why I don't hold out much hope that Wrath of a Mad God is going to redeem the series.
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