A Darkness At Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga #4)

I started this series when it first came out 35 years ago. Then came college, work, family… I restarted it months ago with warm memories. But now the characters seemed more real, the scenes more colored, the action more vivid. First hadn’t gotten to be a better writer – I was a better reader. Now I picked up Sethanon. This is the culmination of all of the story lines of Magician and Silverthorn. I haven’t seen descriptions of battles this intense since Lord of the Rings. The psychology of the struggle between Arathorn and Guy to understand each other and become necessary allies instead of hated foes is wonderfully told. But what really struck me after a while was how picturesque the novel was. It took me a while because Feist did it so well that it was hard to see. Believe me, Mr. Feist, it was worth the wait. Thank you.

My wife and I love him and have bought all but one of his 30+ books that he has written in this world. We have both gone through all of the books now and the only book of his that we don’t have is a special edition that is outrageously expensive. Love his story line, the world and his character development. To have the best understanding you need to start with the oldest book (and starting point of the entire series, The Magician). You can read them out of order but he goes through time with sons and daughters of the original characters and it makes far more sense if you read from the beginning. Feist is in a 3-way tie for my favorite sci-fi author along with R.A. Salvatore and Terry Brooks. For my wife its pretty much a tie between Feist and Jim Butcher.

The characters continued their story in a satisfying conclusion. Pug, Thomas, and Macros were fun characters that we’ve watched since their childhood but it must have been difficult for Feist to manage god-like characters like those and keep Arutha and the more mundane characters interesting. He did a great job managing the culmination of the story lines and, as always, left you wanting more. Great series.

This was my second time reading this finale of the much-loved Riftwar Saga, and I have to say that I enjoyed it more this time than the first. It might just be due to lower expectations, but I think it may be partly attributable to slightly higher maturity and broader views on my part. Where before I was looking for action, action, action (which is still plentiful here), now I tend to enjoy the subtle character building and philosophical space-time explorations found here.

The scope of the story in A DARKNESS AT SETHANON is expanded massively when compared to its predecessor,

Silverthorn

, getting back to the more completely epic feel of

Magician

. Inter-planetary travel, history of the Chaos Wars and the Dragon Lords, and even time travel, are interspersed with your more commonplace swords and arrow, siege warfare, and politics. This book also brings back many of the greatest characters from the first book of the trilogy, including Pug, Tomas, Macros, and even Black Guy. While some reviewers have complained that the parts with Pug and Tomas, both of whom seem superhuman and unstoppable, were overblown, unrealistic, and unexplained, I’d counter by pointing out that you really do need such powerful protagonists to battle against an enemy like ‘The Enemy’. As far as not explaining how the magic works, that is something that we should expect from Feist by now. You just have to accept it as it comes and not look for detailed explanations.

All in all, this book has it all. Emotionally connected characters like Arutha, Martin, and Jimmy (and unfortunately Locky), as well as the realm expanding adventures of Pug and Tomas. Highly recommended.

This caps off my Riftwar reading. I reread these books after 20 years of first reading them. I wish Mr. Feist would have attempted to get his world made into something more than books. It’s been too long since the excellent well recieved video game Betrayal of Krondor came out. There could be a well thought out table top RPG game based upon this world. A movie…why not? It’s full of action, characters you become attached to and a world full of potential development.

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