Prince of the Blood

When I first thought of reading these books back in the 90's, I had some sort of presentiment that I wouldn't like it half as much as the Magician books... and so I let it go by the wayside. Now, so many years later, I decided to go back and pick up all the rest of the Feist novels and finally enjoy them anyway. The author has proven a lot of staying power... and it's for good reason.

THIS WAS GREAT! :)

Prince Arutha's twin sons, Erland and Borric, begin a couple of troublemakers who get into just enough trouble to be sent away as diplomats to straighten them out. After Borric seems to have been killed only to be sent into slavery, the two brothers have a very wild and impressive fantasy adventure ranging from escaping a sea blockade, show more taking up with mercenaries, and falling in with the scantily-clad Kesh royalty as schemes and plots come to a boil. Treason and a coup is part of the table settings. :)

Sound pretty standard? It would be except Feist writes one hell of a fast, fun, and awesome tale. It's more than just a coming-of-age tale. It's popcorn adventure with cameos of so many of our favorites from the previous novels. Jimmy the Hand has a big role and Pug comes and goes, but it's Pug's daughter who rather stole the stage a few times. :)

I was never once bored as I read this. I had a great time throughout. :) The worldbuilding is just as fun as the characters and the plot is more than fine. It's complicated enough to keep any adventure freak on their toes. :) show less

En het boek is uit. Heerlijk verhaal, heerlijke humor. In feite zit in dit boek meer humor dan in de vorige boeken. De plot is ietsje minder geloofwaardig. Ik geloof bijvoorbeeld nooit dat ze Borricks lijk zouden hebben laten liggen om niet te laat te komen bij de keizerin. Alles wees erop dat die keizerin ook geen oorlog wilde en het lijkt me dat een kroonprins toch iets te belangrijk is om niet zeker te weten dat hij dood is voor je verder gaat, al heeft hij tien tweelingbroers. Ze hielden toch van hem? En kom me niet aan met plicht. Het is hun plicht om zeker te weten dat hij dood is voor ze een ander tot kroonprins bombarderen. Maar juist door de humor en ook door de karakters blijft het een zalig boek om bij weg te dromen. Nakur is show more een geweldig karakter en Borric en Erland zijn sympathieke jongens. Wel vind ik ze erg stereotiep, maar wie maalt daar nu om. Ze worden op een erg prettige manier neergezet en daar gaat het toch om. show less

It had been a long time since I first read this (and this is the first time I've read the re-written version), and I was surprised at the quick pace of this one compared to the original Riftwar trilogy.
Honestly? this one is fluff. But it's fun, exciting fluff that makes for engaging reading. Also, there's Nakor, who is one of the most memorable characters in Feist's entire universe.

Reading through the entire world of Feist's Midkemia with a fantasy buddy, and having a great time with it. This is our 8th book, and we have not lost the enthusiasm yet.

Taking place about 20 years after The Rift War, the twin princes of Kronder are off on a diplomatic mission to the Southern Lands of Kesh. Being young, impulsive and lacking any inkling of diplomacy, you just know trouble lies ahead. The world of Kesh has similarities to the Middle East and Africa and the court intrigue keeps the book moving at fast pace.

This book lacks the in-depth character studies, and seemed remedial compared to past books. However, still a good escape and I am happy to move on.

Borric and Erland, the carefree twin sons of Prince Arutha, are sent on a dangerous diplomatic mission to the Empire of Kesh. Amidst political intrigue, assassins, and separation, the twins mature into leaders, aided by James, Jimmy the Hand.

To escape their indulgent lives and learn responsibility, the twins are sent to Kesh for the Empress's 75th birthday, which becomes a treacherous political assignment.

Going more or less in publication order, Prince of the Blood is the third subseries in Raymond E. Feist’s larger Riftwar Cycle. I say “more or less” because this book was published between the first and second books in the previous subseries. To keep things more cohesive, I’m reading in “publication order of first book in subseries” rather than strict publication order. I think after this subseries, those two orders will amount to the same thing. When I originally read the first 16ish books, I read them in chronological order which is yet a different order altogether. This book takes place after a subseries that was published later. Since these books focus less on the generation I was most attached to, I’m glad to know I show more still have some books ahead of me that will take me back in time.

Note: The spoilers in this paragraph are to protect anybody who may be in the middle of reading the first subseries that starts with Magician. If you’ve read that entire series, this won’t spoil anything. This subseries focuses on the twin sons of Prince Arutha, who are 19 when the story begins. They aren’t bad kids, but they’re spoiled and a bit self-absorbed. (And that’s something I initially had some trouble buying into. They’re the sons of the most awesome, no-nonsense, and not-remotely-spoiled-or-self-absorbed Arutha, after all!) The twins are sent off on a diplomatic visit which turns into an unexpected adventure.

I actually enjoyed this book quite a lot, more than I expected to or remembered enjoying it the first time. I would have liked more focus on some of my favorites, but I grew to like the twins quite well. There was also a lot of humor. And there was Nakor! I had completely forgotten about his character until he showed up and pulled an orange out of that mysterious sack of his, then suddenly it all came flooding back to me. Aside from that, there were some sad moments also. I had completely forgotten that Lockyear died. I’m not sure I remember it even now that I’ve read it again. I was sure he was going to show up alive because I didn’t remember him dying. How does one forget something like that? And the death of the young boy who was helping Borric was at least as sad if not more.

I did have one big complaint, though. Feist has already shown a habit of taking two characters who barely know each other and making them fall madly in love with each other, i.e. “instalove”. This book had the most “insta” instalove I have ever seen. One of our characters meets a girl, falls in love with her, and is asking her father for her hand in marriage all within the course of a morning. Spoilers for this book: I’m talking about Jimmy and Gamina. I think it made me even more angry because it was Jimmy, who is such a great character and this just seemed out of left field. I think this was done more to get Gamina on the trip with them so she could give the characters a way to talk privately with her mind speech. She hardly served any purpose in the story other than to be a conduit for that. So at least there wasn’t a ton of annoying lovey-dovey stuff after the initial meeting, but it just all felt very forced and false and annoying. Plus there’s Feist’s tendency to portray marriage as the only thing that can make a person truly happy and fulfilled, especially if they’ve had a difficult past. Their great accomplishments and skills and friendships mean nothing if they haven’t yet met their soulmate, they’re really just a miserable person deep down. Blech! :p

It turns out that the edition I just finished was a 15-year-anniversary “Author’s Preferred Edition” that was revised in 2003. I had no idea. Yeah, it’s printed pretty clearly on the cover, but I read e-books and I tend not to notice covers that much. I also never read book blurbs, so if it’s mentioned on Amazon’s product page, I didn’t read it. I finally found out when I read the Author’s Afterward at the end of the book. I’m pretty sure this version was published after I read the book, so I think I originally read his original version. This may explain why I liked it better than I remembered, as he said one of the things he wanted to do was to better develop the twins, and I did quite enjoy their characters whereas they didn’t make any impression on me the first time I read this. I was also thoroughly confused earlier on in the book because there were occasional references to things that happened (I’m pretty sure) in the subseries that takes place before this one chronologically but wasn’t published until several years later. I actually went back and double-checked publication dates, feeling like I had somehow missed something. I guess maybe Feist went back and threw in a few references. show less

I picked this book to read because I found several books in the series pretty cheap and wanted to know if the series was worth getting, and this was the thinnest one my library had. So maybe it wasn't the best example of the series.

I guess the best I can say is it doesn't really have any bad points, but it just feels like more of something you've already read. It's not a story that stays with you after you put the book down. I like my fantasies in a rich, unique world, and the worldbuilding here feels like the bare minimum to tell a story in--I'm not surprised to learn the author is writing out of a D&D background, because that's how the book is, just enough of a world for a small band to have an adventure in. The story could almost be show more set in a historically-accurate medieval country with little adjustment to the characters.

So I passed on buying those books I found; maybe someday I'll get around to reading other books in the series. But there's more interesting series to read first. show less