Servant of the Empire

Unfortunately, this book unambiguously disappointed me compared to the first book, primarily due to 1) Mara's incompetence, 2) the Midkemian slave plot device, and 3) the boring pace. In the first book, Mara makes mistakes, since she is a callow player of the Game, after all, recently torn from a convent of all places, but at the same time she shows flashes of brilliance, and executes a plot from end-to-end all on her own. In the second book, Mara loses all her competence - she receives accolades from enemies and allies alike, but never does she actually show, through her plans and actions, that she knows what she is doing, that she is a master strategist, that she's achieving her goals through her ability rather than luck or the show more ability of her subordinates.

I knew about and dreaded going in the Midkemian slave - he was every bit as annoying as I feared, and then some. Just as in the first Riftwar trilogy, I found the declared cultural superiority of Midkema over Kelewan to be racist and repellent. His relationship with Mara just exacerbated the annoying place he had in the plot and her character's development.

Finally, I had trouble staying awake through this book. It suffered from the uneven pacing of Feist's first Riftwar trilogy, and even worse, on multiple occasions it built up suspense only to switch perspectives at the climax so you didn't even know what happened much less get to experience the visceral payoff. I couldn't understand the decision to make the book so much less compelling than it could've been.

I had hopes that the trilogy would live up to the promise of the first book, but I'm going to have to pass on the third book. Servant of the Empire felt like a huge waste of time, and I have no reason to believe that the third book won't be even worse. show less

Wat een karakters, wat een plot! Op meerdere momenten in dit boek heb ik tranen over mijn wangen voelen glijden. Tranen van vreugde en verdriet. De plot is zo enorm meeslepend en absoluut uniek. De wereld is zo geloofwaardig en de verhaallijnen enorm goed uitgewerkt. Ik ben nog helemaal in extase. In dit boek speelt Kevin, een slaaf uit Midkemia een belangrijke rol en door zijn aanwezigheid worden de verschillen tussen de Tsurani en de Midkemiërs duidelijk gemaakt zonder dat het droog vertelt wordt. Ook een aantal karakers uit andere families worden belicht en de ingewikkelde en dodelijke politiek wordt in al haar facetten uit de doeken gedaan zonder dat het ook maar één moment verveelt. Waarschijnlijk omdat het in feite een verkapte show more vorm van oorlogsvoeren is. Wat een vaart zit er in dit boek. Het ene complot volgt het andere op en is dan weer een klein onderdeel van een groter complot wat bedoelt is om het nog groter complot te beïnvloeden. Volg je het nog? Ondanks die complexiteit is het verhaal zeer goed leesbaar en wordt je meegesleurd in een alles-of-niets poging om te overleven en een keizerrijk voor een burgeroorlog te behoeden.

Ik ben wel benieuwd naar het derde boek. Dit boek eindigt namelijk in een prachtig afgewerkt einde, dus ik weet niet zo goed wat ik nu van dat derde boek kan verwachten. Maar daar zal ik zo wel achter komen. show less

I couldn’t finish this sequel because I found it slow, predictable, and boring.

One hundred pages into its predecessor, Daughter of the Empire, Mara had survived an assassination attempt, saved the life of a trusted family retainer, and pulled off a plan to recruit gray warriors to her house. By the same point in this book, however, Mara has just kind of shuffled around the house and fell in love with a barbarian slave. I saw the romance coming from the very first scene, where Mara purchases him, and it progresses predictably.

I also got tired of the author(s) telling me exactly how every character was feeling. There’s no room for me to participate in the story if I’m told exactly what everyone’s actions mean. Imagine playing a show more game of checkers where your friend moves both his pieces and yours, because he doesn’t trust you to make good moves. It’s boring and demeaning.

What really killed the story for me, though, were the long scenes spent with Mara’s enemy, the Minwanabi. None of the Minwanabi characters were particularly interesting, and knowing exactly what the enemy was planning took away all the suspense. There was some dramatic irony as Mara wondered what they were up to, but that wasn’t enough to fuel my interest.

If only Feist and Wurts had kept up the tempo from their previous book! show less

This is quite good. Feist and Wurts have a compelling heroine, an aristocrat slave-owner who survives through her wits by the skin of her teeth. The sudden societal changes she instigates (which coincidentally makes her society more aligned with 20th century values) seems a bit wish-fulfillment, but I can overlook that.

I enjoyed this almost" as much as the first. However, the inclusion of Kevin really didn't work that well for me. I'm glad he was dealt with as he was at the end of the book.
Lots of politic'ing without nearly as much action as the first book. Other than that, it was cool to see how things played out after Milamber's meddling..."

I honestly think this second book in the trilogy is better than the first. Maybe it's due to getting used to the characters and the initial worldbuilding over on the other side of the pond... or I should say, the other side of the universe through the Rift from the previous Rifwar books... but I honestly don't think so.

This is a lot more solid than the last, focusing more on Kevin from the other side, the whole slavery issue, and plenty of war footing to round out the politics and the solidification of the House.

And then, there's the whole thing about SMITING ONE'S ENEMIES in every way possible, even saving enough energy for mercy which is NOT accepted, letting her DESTROY with impunity. :)

Very fun. I'm fully on board to rip through the show more third book in this trilogy. :) show less

I am loving this series. It is fun, it has romance, it has political intrigue, it has battles and it is built in a fascinating world.

The heroine, Mara, is going to be one of my favorite fantasy ladies of all time. She is strong, intelligent and loyal. The loyalty to Clan is important, but in a world where it is not acceptable, she is loyal to her servants and slaves. Her relationship with the barbarian from Midkemia grows and we also get to explore new areas of this fantastic world Feist created. Having Jenny Wurts along for the ride has doubled the pleasure of reading this story.