A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, Vol. 4)

I'm not a fan of the plot over character style of writing Feist adopts after the 3/4 mark of the first book and sticks with. Too many time skips and glossing over details. This book spends a lot of time with exposition dump and setup for a scene that ends anticlimactically and quickly. There is literally a line in the book "Suddenly the city was under siege." Show much telling but not much showing. I honestly had trouble following what the heck was going on halfway through book 3 and by the end of this book I realized I didn't care about most the characters because they weren't relatable and there was a severe lack of emotional storytelling or wonder to this universe. There just didn't seem to be much focus in the plot of the quadrilogy overall. The first two books were all about building up the Tsurani invasion but then they seemed to be near irrelevant by book 4. Characters just meander on and off the stage so the books don't feel very connected and more episodic even though they aren't supposed too I guess. If you're really intrigued by the world of Midkemia, I can see why this might be a real pick me up but for me the second half of this series ended up being a whole lot of plot and lore but no substance and personal attachment.

The three previous books only hinted at Raymond Feist's brilliance!The Riftwar Saga is a perfect example of why I say it is impossible to rate/review a single book in a series. Magician, Silverthorn and A darkness at Sethanon are chapters in a single novel in my opinion. In most novels I've read there are basically three parts. Starting the car: introduction of the characters, environment and plot. Acceleration: the interaction of the characters within the environment furthering the plot. A screeching fiery explosion OR a clanking noise followed by a slow halt: the amazing weaving of all aspects, large or small, into a stunning conclusion OR the confusion and letdown at the end of a poorly conceived ending. Magician is Part 1 and 2, Silverthorn is also Part 2 and A Darkness at Sethanon is the SCREECHING FIERY EXPLOSION!I picked up this series almost 15 years ago and it is still my favorite epic fantasy. I think that is really saying something because I have read hundreds of other fantasy novels (by Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Robert Jordan, R. A Salvatore, Terry Goodkind and many others).P.S. I didn't write anything specific about the story because I didn't want to spoil it for you.

This is a wonderful conclusion to one of the best fantasy series of all time.If you have not read the prior three books (Magician I & II and Silverthorn), you probably will not get much out of this, though. This book builds upon characters introduced earlier, so new readers will find themselves lost quickly.However, as I said, this is a wonderful book -- my favorite out of all Feist novels. The characters of Pug, Arutha, and Jimmy are fully explored, and more background is given on the mysterious and awesome Macros. The story is intelligent, and the manner in which Feist weaves several subplots and storylines together is truly magnificent. Read this book, and read this series.

Taken alone, this is a good book. But after Magician and Silverthorn it's perfect. Everything- every stray thought, every suposedly useless character, every unexplained event- in the previous books is explained and finds its meaning in these pages. One of the best parts is seeing both Pug and Tomas (especially Tomas!) finally come into the power promised them from the beginning. Since I had also read both Prince of the Blood and The King's Buccaneer before this one, it was nice to see how closely tied it was to these that followed as well.

A mind blowing conclusion to my favorite fantasy series. I must admit to an SF point of view, and that may color my evaluation of this book. Whatever the case, "A Darkness at Sethanon" satisfied me on a great many levels. I have just one problem with it: I want the entire series republished in a single hardcover volume, because my paperbacks are worn out from all the rereadings!

My two favorite fantasy series are Dragonlance and Riftwar. (I think Riftwar is better, but I read Dragonlance first, so that makes them tie in my mind.) Riftwar is so great because it accomplishes two things that I haven't encountered in other fantasy series (Xanth, Tolkien): 1. Its characters include all the major fantasy types (wizards, warriors, thieves, sages, clerics, etc.) without stripping them of their personality. Most D & D-derived books have trouble justifying characters of different "class" because classes make more sense from a game-designer's point of view than from an author's or reader's. Feist is able to fit his characters into the class framework without making them less as characters, and I have a feeling that's very difficult. 2. It's realistic, in that it's the best balance I've seen between outright heroic fantasy (Tolkien, Dragonlance) and the actual medieval European milieu. There have been some series devoted to depicting the latter, but they're more historical fiction than fantasy; Feist has been the only author I know of who has been able to integrate these two extremes.Now that I've babbled about the series, where does Sethanon fit in? Out of the original four books of the series, it ties for first with "Magician: Master." (Magician: Apprentice is next and Silverthorn takes the rear.)