An interesting start to the Empire trilogy. The rise of Mara from a pre-novitiate to the ruler of the Acoma family makes a good read. ( )

This is a really good book. It was a delight to find something so good that it kept me up well past my bed time several nights running. I really enjoyed this one -- its set on Kelwan, the planet that invades Midkemia in the Riftwar series, and is written from the perspective of the invaders.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Raymond_E... ( )

Great read. Excellent story.

Superb dual authored continuation of the tales of the Rift. Set solely in Kelewan at about the time of Magician (a few events are mentioned). Mara of the Acoma family assumes the Lady of the house after her father and elder brother are killed during an attack in Midkemia. A rival house pulled back instead of supportying them, earning a bloodfued.

Mara only 17 has to quickly rise to the intelligence and cunning required to survive at this level of the Game of the Council. Her expolits with various neighbours and schemes show that she is remarkably talented in this.

Superbly written - each author took an alternate chapter and then polished the gaps - you can't tell the difference in style. There are a very few glitches in tense which I think may be attributable to this, but it is marvelous. It has all of Janny's polished prose and attention grabbing world details with Feists' quick running smooth talking characters. A joy to read, the only slight downside is that is occasionally disjointed. There are some hefty jumps between chapters and past events are not neatly rounded up in the manner one might expect. ( )

Murder, politics and revenge.

This series is set in the Tsurani world of Kelewan, so is somewhat different to the Midkemia adventures. Their society is somewhat like feudal Japan's. The focus is on a young woman whose family is murdered because of political machinations that are desirous of obtaining her family interests.

To regain her power she has to employ some lateral thinking and employ the very few resources she has left to claw her way back.

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