Welcome to the final book in the Riftwar Saga! A Darkness at Sethanon brings to a close this sub-series by Raymond E. Feist, and it's a doozy of a book. I'm inclined to say this is my favorite book by Feist, for its tone, pacing, character arcs, and focus. Plus, it's some well-earned epicness, that has been thoroughly justified by the previous books.
This book has two main plot lines, and one of those splits late in the book to make a third minor plot line. There is a bit of desperation throughout the story, and it's well-justified. I'm not a big fan of the "ticking clock" trope, but the timing of events in this book is handled well, neither being too precise nor too vague.
We get to experience a massive siege on a city called Armengar, and Feist handles this type of warfare expertly. The action is realistic and full of surprises, and even an occasional laugh. Feist's descriptions of routed armies and the danger of being in their paths is fascinating and uncommon in fiction; most authors assume that retreating forces just run.
My least favorite part of Feist is typically "big magic," and there's quite a bit of it in this book, but it's handled pretty well, compared to other books, and feels earned after the three previous books. Feist manages to avoid the temptation to make big light shows, which always feel kind of silly in prose, and instead he actually comes up with some fun things for the big magic to accomplish.
And, as usual, we get some heart-wrenching moments and some great character development.
If you haven't read the previous books in this Saga, you may want to stop here, as I won't be able to avoid spoiling some parts of the end of Silverthorn in describing the beginning of this book.
I recommend that you read my Silverthorn review here, and maybe even Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, and check those books out first.
And now, for a little bit of plot teasing:
This book begins with Pug completing his training under the Eldar, on Kelewan. His idea that the Enemy is trying once again to go on the attack, and in order to thwart its plans, he and Tomas have to go on a journey to find a way to stop it. We get some very good mythological world-building here, with detailed narratives involving the goddess of death, the afterlife, the legacy of the Dragon Lords, and more.
That part of Pug's adventure is fine, but one sour point is that, as they proceed, the traps they face, magical, creature, or otherwise, get so repetitive that even Pug gets bored of them, and says so.
In the Kingdom, a moredhel leader claiming to be the second coming of a mythical conqueror is on the march, and without Pug and Tomas, the rest of our cast of characters need to stop him without recourse to huge, powerful magic. Of course, this means lots of descriptive and exciting combat, something that Feist excels at writing.
Our main actors are Arutha, Martin, Laurie, Roald, Baru, Jimmy, and Locklear. They head north to see if they can figure out a way to forestall Murmandamus's invasion. Then, we get a pleasant and fun surprise: several background characters from earlier books suddenly move to the foreground, and their development is incredibly intriguing. Shades of gray, which can be trite, but Feist handles it well in this case. We hit some interesting questions of honor and duty later in the story.
The ending of the book is suitably exciting, with a world-ending threat that's been building up for three previous books finally making its move. We get some reunions that you might not expect, some thrilling turn-arounds, and a satisfying conclusion.
Grab a copy of A Darkness at Sethanon here: https://a.co/d/gxWAv3m
This book finishes the Riftwar Saga with a bang. There are two places you can go next from here: either the "Krondor's Sons" pair of books, which was written next, or the "Riftwar Legacy" saga, a three-book series that gives Jimmy the Hand a bit more time to shine, but was also written much later and honestly, it gets a bit weak by the third book. Not quite sure which saga I'll hit next, but as of this writing, I'm thinking Riftwar Legacy, because it happens next chronologically in canon.
No comments:
Post a Comment