(Amy) And so I continue my re-read of the Riftwar books, with another book I'd apparently entirely forgotten. Go me and my LEET reading skillz, or at least those of some 15 years ago.

In this book, absolutely everything that irritated and bored me about Magician was absent. The pacing wasn't sluggish, the politics weren't overstated and overplayed, there were no tedious battle scenes, and no one was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead dragon lord. In short, a win! ...OK, that's a trifle flippant, but it's true in essence, nonetheless.

Herein, Arutha's wedding is rudely interrupted by an assassin who misses him and hits his bride instead, and so she spends all but the opening chapters stuffed in a closet somewhere (well, no, it's a bedroom, with a frozen-time spell so she won't die while people are trying to save her), and the other woman in the book throws a fit about Her Man going off with the group to save her, and then the boys all sneak out and quest for the McGuffin without any icky girls around.

...and it was still less annoying than Magician!

I'm joking, mostly. The boys' club nature of the thing doesn't actually bother me in any real sense, because that's just the way this type of story works, especially 20 years ago. Not only that, it's the way this type of world works, and if there'd been two or three butch grrls along on the quest I would probably have cried Bullshit! on it for that. It does seem like the women that are there (who at least have the potential to be real people, not just decorative plot devices, which is something) could have been a little less sidelined, though. Oh, well. It's actually a fairly minor quibble, as such things go. The next book will be along soon, and we'll see if it trips this particular trigger, too, hey?

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... ) ( )

Well you can definitely tell this is a middle book. Nothing is really resolved and the story seems to be just stuck in there to get from book 1 to book 3. Having said that. This is a good story and I enjoyed it. It also did its job as a middle book, to setup the finale and make the reader wanting more. Looking forward to reading the final book in this trilogy. One thing I've noticed in this book and in the previous ones are the many editing mistakes that are left in the book. At times it seems the first draft was printed. Hasn't distracted from the story yet, but I'm not really anal about those type of things, so if you are be forewarned. Nevertheless, great book and series. ( )

This book ofthe Riftwar Saga takes a bit of detour. The evil forces have struck directly at the royal family, and Arutha must undertake a quest to find the extremely rare Silverthorn to cure her. Feist takes the opportunity to explore more of the area around the Kingdom in the process, and broaden the scope of the conflict between MIdkemia and Kelewan. While not making a lot of progress on the overall plot of the series, this is still an excellent book. ( )

This trilogy wasn't quite as good as the Empire trilogy but I still loved it and it was interesting to see the events unfold from the point of view of the Midkemians. ( )

Arutha has been made Prince of Krondor just in time to bail teenaged street thief Jimmy the Hand out of a tough circumstance - one that requires him to become respectable. Arutha is about the marry Anita, and there is much rejoicing. Except Jimmy stumbles upon a would be assassin at the wedding - too late! A bolt from a crossbow meant to kill Arutha has instead wounded and poisoned Anita. Arutha and Jimmy set out with a small group of people to find the cure and learn more about these strange assassins.

I am a fan of this book, a fan of the characters, and a fan of the cover of my edition of the book. This book takes place after Magician (Magician Master if you are reading paperbacks), but has enough context to be read as a starting point in and of itself.

This is a great book for people who like high fantasy, featuring some interesting twists on common archetypes. It can be read by advanced middle school readers or on up to adults. ( )