Mistress of the Empire (Riftwar Cycle: The Empire Trilogy #3)

Casting off characters once they served their time in advancing a plot is a cruel trick. This final book in the trilogy is guilty of too many such eliminations. However, the book is enchanting enough to keep me awake into the wee hours of the morning. The story is far more predictable than the first two, but avoids the dangers of silliness or too much in perfect endings like so many other theologies do. This book feels planned, not rushed, and the story unfolds at a good pace, leaving just enough mystery for other stories to emerge.

Part of a sequence in Feist’s epic world(s)/saga, this trilogy benefits greatly from coauthorship with a woman. Feist’s earlier books were comprised of what felt like perhaps a dozen at most stock character molds, only one or two of them female, and very few very believable. The story itself is what made the books worth continuing to read. Feist appears to benefit, here, from both being more experienced as an author AND combining efforts with someone who actually HAS a woman’s perspective. The variety of characters is far more diverse and believable. While there remain a few one-dimensional characters, by and large the important players exhibit multifaceted personalities and complex motivations. I have not yet read any other works by Janny Wurts but certainly intend to explore them. The primary characters in this trilogy are truly wonderful and a great pleasure to watch evolve through the experiences of their successes and utter failures.

After Mara’s complete victory over her family’s ancient political rivals at the end of

Servant of the Empire

, it was hard to imagine what could challenge her supremacy in Tsurani politics. The answer comes in the form of one of the most feared and powerful groups on Kelewan, the Assembly of Magicians. It turns out that the Great Ones don’t appreciate having the ancient traditions of their rigid society challenged, and fear the change that a liberal leader like Mara would mean for the Empire. Among other serious challenges, like surviving assassination attempts by the hateful Jiro of the Anasati, Mara must learn to outmaneuver the almost-unified will of the Assembly of Magicians. Accustomed to complete submission and unquestioned loyalty, the magicians are offended and surprised by Mara’s willingness to go her own way and question the Tsurani way of life. The confrontation between Mara and the Assembly represents the final challenge along Mara’s road to total supremacy and her goals of abolishing the cruel and reason-less Game of the Council.

Well-accustomed to heart-ache, Mara nonetheless is pushed to her limits by some of the losses she endures in this final book of the trilogy. Readers will be surprised by the unflinching harshness the authors show in the treatment of their protagonist, but it does make for a more powerful story. For part of this book, Mara appears much like she did in SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE, worn down and self-pitying. But at some point, she reclaims the awesome and unflinching determination that made her such a favorite in the first book of the series,

Daughter of the Empire

. Much of MISTRESS OF THE EMPIRE centers around Mara uncovering the secret history of Tsurani customs and of the ties between the Assembly of Magicians and the enigmatic Cho-ja. She travels to distant lands and faces challenges unlike any she has been up against before. Along the way, she relies on her steadfast companions, mainly Arakasi and Lujan, both of whom mature and characters in this book.

In all, the book provides a very satisfying conclusion to the Empire Trilogy, leaving the reader with a complete story and a clear idea of what the future holds. It is a triumphant ending, and one that will leave most readers happy. While long, I recommend this trilogy to fans of fantasy looking for a good story with wonderful characters in a unique setting.

This is about the trilogy as a whole.

This trilogy would have been half as long if they would have cut out the repeating everything that happened in the last chapter for three pages in each chapter. Also, the first appearance of Pug would have been amazing but the entire vibe was very very wrong. It just seemed like they threw him in there and the way they described him was way off but his second appearance later one was very much like him.

All the extra explaining and over explaining just made me tired.

Feist writes in a way that allows any of his books to be picked up and read without much preface, but Mistress of the Empire is better read after Daughter of the Empire and Servant of the Empire. And preferably the whole series is best read after reading the entire Magician series, but you’ll be fine without it.

The following is also true for Servant and Daughter:
I love all of the books I’ve read in the Midkemian/Kelewan universe from Feist so far. After finishing the four Magician books, I happened across Daughter of the Empire. Once I finished Daughter I immediately bought Servant of the empire, which then led me to Mistress.

If you like Feist’s writing style then you will also love this book and the entire Empire Trilogy. The Empire Trilogy gives an incredible account of the Kelewan world, as well as a different look at the war from the Magician series.

In particular, Mistress of the Empire provides a great continuation of the foundation set out for Mara and the Acoma in DotE and SotE. All of the plotting you would expect from the Game of Council, as well as a great focus on Mara’s spymaster.

I will be keeping the entire series in my bookshelf so my future kids can read them as teenagers.

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