The SoapVox

…the most powerful magician of the Universe…

Raymond E. Feist has one of the longest series of books written in a single universe that I’ve read. At this point in time, there’s 23 published books in his Riftwar/Magician universe, with 8 more in the works, with probably more after those…I’m pretty sure he’ll keep writing Riftwar books until the day he dies, which I hope takes a long long time, ’cause I enjoy his books a lot :)

The Riftwar universe is currently composed of 8 series, with 2 more series in the works, and all of the 23/31 books are related among themselves, with characters appearing in this and that series as secondary characters, and then appearing in another series as the main character. It is, indeed, a very complex story, all the way through, but it can also be read by subseries, and you can enjoy the books just as much.

I’ve read most of the 23 published books by now, both in a single line from series one to the latest series, following the whole story, and then in separate reads of the series out of order, just because there are series that, as is normal, I enjoy more than others…the Legends of the Riftwar series is one of those I really enjoy.

The universe is made up of the following series and books so far:

• Riftwar Saga
• Magician
• Silverthorn
• A Darkness at Sethanon
• Empire Trilogy
Daughter of the Empire
• Servant of the Empire
• Mistress of the Empire
• Krondor’s Sons (Riftwar Stories)
• Prince of the Blood
• The King’s Buccaneer
• Serpent War
• Shadow of a Dark Queen
• Rise of a Merchant Prince
• Rage of a Demon King
• Shards of a Broken Crown
• Riftwar Legacy
• Krondor: The Betrayal
• Krondor: The Assassins
• Krondor: Tear of the Gods
• Krondor: The Crawler (not published yet)
• Krondor: The Dark Mage (not published yet)
• Legends of the Riftwar
• Honoured Enemy
• Murder in LaMut
• Jimmy the Hand
• Conclave of Shadows
• Talon of the Silver Hawk
• King of Foxes
• Exile’s Return
• Darkwar Saga
• Flight of the Nighthawks
• Into a Dark Realm
• Wrath of a Mad God (not published yet)

Plus two still not written series, temporarily refered by fans to as 4th Riftwar/Demonwar and Demonwar/Godswars.

On this review, I’m gonna concentrate on Legends of the Riftware, which is a strange series for this universe, in that none of the 3 books is actually necessary for understanding the main story, but they give you a great view of what the Kingdom of the Isles is about, and a very fun and interesting view of the backstory of one of the more important characters in the whole deal. The books for this series are (these are Amazon links…normal ones, so I don’t get any cash from them if you buy them :)

• Honoured Enemy
• Murder in LaMut
• Jimmy the Hand

In Honoured Enemy, we get to see the story of two small companies during the Riftwar; on one hand, Dennis Hartraft’s Mauraders, the equivalent to the modern-day paratroopers, operating always behind the enemy lines, ready to do as much harm as possible for as little casualities as they can get away with; on the other hand, Asayaga’s company, from a small Tsurani clan, fierce and honorable to a fault, as most Tsuranis tend to be.

Normally, any meeting between these two companies would start up in bloodshed and get worse, but this time, they have a greater enemy to fight, which brings them together. The Dark Brotherhood, the moredhels or dark elfs. The soldiers of Clan Raven follow their Chief, Bovai, as he tries to hunt down Dennis and, more importantly, Tinuva, an eledhel (better known as elfs); the moment Bovai learns that it’s Dennis’ company and that Tinuva is with him, the hunt is on…the Mauraders have hurt the northern clans all through the war, and the Hartraft family for even longer than that; Tinuva…well, blood feuds are always hot, no matter if 200 years have passed since the last time they faced each other.

In Murder in LaMut, we get to follow the story of three mercenary soldiers who end up trapped in a game of high stakes, noble politics. Kethol, Pirojil and Durine are your typical mercenary soldiers, who care about nothing except their next payday, and that makes them important in LaMut’s lethal political games, being as the three of them are the only guys without any stakes in the results. And the stakes are high when nobles get murdered and the future of the Duchy and maybe the Riftwar comes to depend on three cutthroats who don’t actually care and only want to get out of LaMut.

In many ways, this is a strange book, almost a detectives’ novel and not the usual battle-filled book about the Riftwar, but even so, it’s very well written, the characters are interesting and story gets better by the page.

And the third book in this series is about one of my favourite characters to be involved in the Riftwar and the story of the Kingdom of the Isles; Jimmy the Hand, a teenage thief, member of the Mockers, the Thiefs’ Guild of Krondor, whose life gets complicated by helping Prince Arutha and Princess Anita to make their escape. Baron Jose del Garza, acting governor of Krondor in the absence of Duke Bas-Tyra, decides to make the Mockers pay for their participation in the escape, and starts hauling in anybody and everybody that his soldiers and secret police can find that may be a member of the Guild. Jimmy and Larry the Ear decide to help the Mockers and anybody else caught by del Garza escape, and…things don’t go as expected. I don’t want to spoil the fun, so let’s just say that the Upright Man, the Mocker’s unknown leader, decides that it’s best for Jimmy’s health to be out of Krondor before del Garza or the Mockers themselfs find him and decide to stretch his neck or bash his head in.

Jimmy goes into exile with one of the Mockers he rescued, a teenaged prostitute called Flora, and they decide to go to Land’s End, a small duchy near the Keshian border, and that’s where the adventures of Jimmy the Hand really begin.

This is one of my favourite books in this series, well worth the read and reread, and the whole Legends trilogy makes for a fun series to go through; it may not be essential for the understanding of the history of the Kingdom, but it’s an interesting view into the story of several characters that make their every day life in this universe.

Technorati Tags: raymond e. feist, legends of the riftwar, book review, jimmy the hand, honoured enemy, murder in lamut

Tags: Books, Reviews

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