Rage of a Demon King (The Serpentwar Saga #3)

I really like this book and the whole series in general. It was one of my favorite series growing up and I’m now rereading it, since they published the final book in the series. This is a plus, since anyone who reads large or long running fantasy knows the frustration of waiting for the new books to come out.

Things I like about the series are the interesting characters, and the fantasy elements. It’s one large series, but instead of having a massive amount of information to slog through, its broken down into 3-4 book sections that each contain a story arch. Each section focuses on a particular time in the kingdom’s history. This is a benefit for anyone who is busy or who is having trouble getting into books as it doesn’t look like the monster series it is, but looks like a manageable 3-4 books at a time. Not having finished the series, I can’t comment as to whether I feel a reader would be disappointed or satisfied, but based on his writing I think I will be.

The only thing I consider a con for this series, and I’ve just noticed it on this last read through, since I’m powering through them, is that he created these really powerful characters at the beginning of the series and often has what I feel are too lame of a reason not to utilize them. There is reasoning there and sometimes its better than others. For instance, the elf queens consort is a particularly powerful being. Every book he’s been in, he’s a powerhouse character who usually swats the bad guys like swatting flies and rarely has trouble with the nastiest villains. However, in the book that I’m just about the finish, he can’t go destroy the threat because he got scratched by a poison arrow and is week. As far as I’ve read, this is the first and only time I remember him getting injured.

Overall, it’s a good series that I highly recommend. I don’t know if Raymond E. Feist planned the overall story plots or winged it, but he does a great job of incorporating past events into a larger plot. You read the insulated sections and feel like you have a handle until he tells you it relates to the meta series in a completely different way that’s now clear to you.

This book, like the previous one in the series, is poorly laid out for Kindle. I love the series… this is probably my 4th time through the Serpentwar… but it is DEEPLY confusing when the Epilogue is placed right after the prologue, and all of the markers of transitions (such as additional spaces) are removed.

Buy the paperback used. They didn’t bother to do any layout on this series.

[This applies to the Kindle version only.]

The book – story, plot, writing, characters – was excellent. However, it was very clear that the book had been prepared for ebook format through an optical scan, not from a text file. There were numerous typographical, spelling and punctuation errors as a result. There are no characters or lines – only an extra space – to break scenes. Since the line spacing is fairly loose to begin with, that made for some confusing moments. The production of the ebook does not do Feist’s works justice.

This assessment applies to the Kindle versions of all four Serpentwar books – Shadow of a Dark Queen, Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King and Shards of a Broken Crown. All were apparently prepared for publication in the same way, sans proofreading, with text just dumped on the page.

The audio book is a little annoying…I’ve read these….but they try to immigrate a voice and it sounds stupid….guys do it to woman and men to it woman….stop taking a crappy voice and just read the dang book…..wtf no one expects this to be a movie….the fact readers ruing the book by thinking they are in Hollywood but sound stupid is sad.

Rage of a Demon King, by Raymond is the follow up novel to Rise of a Merchant Prince, and the third book in the Serpent War Saga. First off, it needs to be said that if you are contemplating reading this book and have not yet read any of Feist’s other works you really need to start from the beginning. Otherwise, so much that happens in this book will be lost on you and you will be utterly confused. So, start with Magician: Apprentice by Feist and being what will surely be a wonderful journey in the land of Midkemia.

The plot and character development in this book are classic Feist, in that the characters are the guiding force of the book. The plot is certainly good and well written to be sure, but the characters are what really draws people into these books. If you have read a Feist book or two then you certainly know what to expect here.

As I said above, this book follows Rise of a Merchant Prince, Feist received some negative criticism over Rise of a Merchant Prince as it deviated a little from most of his other books in that it dealt heavily with being a Merchant an d Roo’s rise to prominence within Krondor. However, the plot of this book makes it crystal clear why Rise of a Merchant Prince was necessary in the storyline and could not be glossed over with a paragraph or chapter in a different book.

In Rage of a Demon King the reader is treated to a large scope war, but not just from the vantage point of the final battles. The reader is able to see the year or two leading up to the battle and how the anxiety begins to affect the characters, how they plan strategy, and how they gather the necessary resources to fight such a large battle. Of course, there are also side plots that Feist weaves into the book as well. However, I have said before about Feist, nothing he writes is done without reason. He does a fantastic job at weaving all elements of the story together to create a gripping tale that dares the reader to stop reading. Over the course of the last year or two, I have become increasingly jaded about reading large scale battles involving tens of thousands of people on each side. However, this exact thing occurs in this book, but Feist does it in such a way that I cared about the outcome. It was hard to know who would live and who would die. There is one complaint I have about this book, that I feel compelled to discuss. So I will do so in the next paragraph, if you don’t want to read spoilers skip the next paragraph.

****Spoilers****

Feist has tackled the different dimension/planes thing in another book and even then I didn’t like it. He has such a well rounded world here, then for some reason he drags his characters into the `Hall of Worlds’ and the beginning of creation. I absolutely hated these sections of the book. They seemed out of place and contrived. It just didn’t seem to fit the story as it was written. I understand the demons needed to come from a different plane, but so many planes make it less special to me.

*End of spoilers***

The character development in this book is right on par with what to expect from Feist. His characters are certainly heroes and have power to make decisions, but they also have flaws and weaknesses that Feist seeks to exploit from time to time. Weaknesses ranging from Lust, Greed, Power etc, he writes these characters so well, the reader begins to care about the struggles they are facing and rooting for them to pull through. I am also pleased that Feist doesn’t seem to be restricted from killing characters. Some authors refrain from killing characters when hey should obviously die, not so with Feist, if a death could be very meaningful and powerful it can happen. I truly enjoy Feist’s characters, as they are like us in so many ways.

All in all I would recommend Feist’s books without hesitation to any fantasy fan. In fact, if someone is trying to decide if they want to read fantasy I don’t think you could find a much better starting point than Feist and the Riftwar Saga. He has a very easy style that captivates the reader and makes for a very enjoyable ride. One I will gladly continue reading.

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