It is amazingly descriptive and has a huge range of awesome characters with their own stories. A massive series. ( )

Not badly written, but the story is not very innovative and the stereotypes come so thick that they contradict each other in places. The characters are as flat as modern mobiles and not a single one of them comes with a complete set of believeable motivations.

If you enjoy reading reading stereotype phantasy with dwarfes, elves, mages, princesses and little boys that meet them all while growing up to become master magicians, go ahead this is your book. ( )

I've heard this book described as everything from a meisterwerk to a literary trainwreck, so I approached it in a spirit of curiousity and found it to be neither. I understand this was Feist's first novel, and it shows in places - a certain clumsiness of expression, and some slightly hackneyed plot elements and characters. But that said, the story kept me turning the pages, the characters were mostly likeable, and he did introduce some long-running plot elements that kept the tension going right to the end. A very enjoyable read. ( )

"Martin spoke with no emotion, just a statement of fact. 'It's your life should you breathe a word of it to anyone.'
"Amos settled himself against the rail. 'I'm a bad man to threaten, Martin Longbow.'"

Gracious, elegant elves? Check. Gruff, hardy dwarves? Check. A bearded, pipe-smoking wizard? Check. Scheming noblemen? Check. A dark, silent yet noble woodsman with a secret history? Check. A mysterious old man of great magical power? Check. A young, insignificant boy, from a small town, who is about to learn many things and grow up and save the world? Check.

The string of fantasy clichés that Feist uses here almost made me hate the book. But I couldn't, in the end. There are enough good ideas around to balance out the poor ones. Most of the book covers a war with strange people from another dimension, who are invading in huge numbers. These invaders, the Tsurani, are well thought out, and their society pleasingly unusual. And, while the writing never really strikes one as excellent, the scope and pacing as the war develops are very well handled.

Maybe the clichés were a bit more forgivable back in 1982, when this was first published. If you're allergic to such things, you might want to avoid this. But if you don't mind them, there's a good, epic story here too. ( )

Grow up to fight the dark lord with your best mate, but gotta stop that alien invasion first.

Feist takes a fantasy epic that it seems grew out of his own fantasy roleplaying games, and gives the standard plot a pit of a tweak. While there is your evil dark lord figure to deal with, there is also an alien invasion (but of humans from a different culture, technology and type of magic).

One boy ends up in the other world with a touch of Shogun, learning magic, while the other ends up in a situation a lot more like Michael Moorcock's Corum.

An extremely well done fantasy adventure story that even appealed to my dad, of all people, being a bit of the old fashioned type of tale.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/10... ( )