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Review
‘Talon of the Silver Hawk is a vibrant and compelling tale’
Dreamwatch
Product Description
In the second instalment of The Conclave of Shadows.
The Conclave demands its membership price from their new protégé: Tal must gather information on the sinister magician Laso Varen. But, to do this means service with the sorcerer's master, Duke Kaspar of Olasko – the very man he suspects of killing his family.
A POWERFUL NEW EPIC FANTASY SERIES FROM ONE OF THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE GENRE
Talon, orphan of the Orosini tribe and last of his people has been transformed by the Conclave of Shadows from a trusting young boy to the dashing young nobleman Talwin Hawkins: educated, confident and now Roldem's premier swordsman. The title, won at the Masters’ Court, in front of the King, brought him a step closer to his desire – to avenge the massacre of his family. Two participants in the slaughter are dead by his hand; Lieutenant Campaneal fell under his blade during the Master's Tournament and the other, Raven, died whilst attempting to butcher an Orodon village as he did Tal's people.
But still his lust for vengeance will not be sated until the reason for the massacres has been uncovered and their architect revealed and punished. The Conclave demands its price from Tal: he must gather information on Laso Varen, a magician of terrible power and subtle craft, dangerous beyond contemplation. To do this means service with the sorcerer’s master, Duke Kaspar of Olasko – and swearing loyalty to the very man he suspects of killing his family, even if it means becoming the Duke’s right-hand and tracking down his enemies – the members of the Conclave and Talon's own friends.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
It could have been so good, but.........,
By
This review is from: King of Foxes (Conclave of Shadows) (Hardcover)
Oh dear Mr Feist, are we bound by a contract to our publishers by any chance? It is sad that a once brilliant author of a book which made it into the Top 100 books of all time (Magician) is reduced to 'writing by numbers'.
As a number of reviewers have already pointed out, King Of Foxes falls a long way short of the book that it ought to have been. Book One of the Conclave series, Talon Of The Silver Hawk, marked a welcome return to gripping fantasy writing following a number of 'collaborations' (for which you can read Feist allowed others to play around with his world and characters, usually to disastrous results in terms of the quality of the books, and took a co-writer credit) and, I hoped, paved the way for greater things to come. I completely agree that it's as though Feist just decided that he couldn't be bothered and so churned out this rubbish as quickly as he could. It's sad that Talon (now Tal) has become so wooden that his creator doesn't feel it necessary to paint him with any kind of emotions and so even the most major setbacks (one of which caused me to feel physically sick) and betrayals fail to create any sense of despair or sadness in what is essentially the book's only character. Which leads me to the second main criticism of KOF: where are the other plots and characters which made former Feist novels so intriguing and readable. As a nod to loyal readers, Feist manages to name-check a number of former characters (for example we see Erik Von Darkmoor, of the Serpentwar Saga, now in his old age, for a fleeting moment), but where are the sub-plots and other characters to care about? When Feist does his usual trick of showing that the 'good' guys don't have it all their own way, and kills off various people as the book progresses, you just don't care about it. As for a sub-plot, what greater one could there be than the mysterious workings of the Conclave of the Shadows, yet Feist gives the reader absolutely zero insight into their operations. He could easily have done it without Tal being in the know, but that would have involved making the book longer and more effort on Feist's part. The point is that I have only just finished the book and I can't think of a single scene that didn't involve Tal - that may be ok for children's authors but from the writer of 3 of the best series in fantasy history (the Riftwar Saga, the Serpentwar Saga, the Empire series), it just isn't good enough. I've given the book a very generous 2 stars, simply because the plot itself, one dimensional as it may have been, was sufficient to keep me reading to the end, but if I were reviewing it purely on the basis of things which have made previous Feist novels so enjoyable (character development, multiple plots and sub-plots, epic descriptions etc. etc.), then Feist should count himself lucky that Amazon doesn't allow a zero star rating. If you can't be bothered anymore then just give up and let Magician and co take pride-of-place on my bookshelf without having to sit embarrassed alongside this sort of nonsense.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Quick, predictable, far less exciting than classic Fiest,
This review is from: King of Foxes (Conclave of Shadows) (Hardcover)
After several sub-par collaborations, Raymond E. Feist returned to epic fantasy in 2002 with "Talon of the Silver Hawk," Book 1 of the Conclave of Shadows. The boy Talon saw his tribe slaughtered and was raised by the Conclave, founded at the close of Feist's previous Serpent War Saga. After learning typically Feistian lessons in swordplay and boyhood love, Talon extracted revenge on his tribe's executioners, but without any sense of the greater evil that necessitated the Conclave's founding."King of Foxes" sees Tal swear fealty to Duke Olasko, the noble who ordered his tribe exterminated, and Tal must mesh his thirst for revenge with his Conclave directive to investigate Olasko's magician Varen. The novel starts with plodding court intrigue, but the story quickens as Tal enters Olasko's service. Feist's novels have always relied on plot rather than narrative, but the prose in "King of Foxes" rings particularly wooden, and none of the new settings such as Opardum feel as real as the grit of Krondor in past novels. After Tal suffers a reversal, Feist rushes through a predictable detention and escape sequence and then Tal easily assembles an army of thousands for his personal revenge, since the Conclave's barely mentioned goals fortunately coincide with his own. The predictable endgame effortlessly thwarts the supposedly powerful enemy, with scant explanation of the Conclave's findings. Tal redeems his clouded heart, but his character oddly ends the novel in a state of complete resolution, as though Feist plans to switch to a new main character for Book 3 (of a projected five). In the Serpent War Saga, Feist used two new young characters and half a dozen older ones to tell a spellbinding tale of invasion that took the bold risk of killing old characters and destroying Feist's core city. The Conclave of Shadows novels thus far have centered on only one new character, Tal, with bare flashes of older ones. Tal's plain thirst for revenge and his cold manipulation of fencing opponents and women alike render him dull, and his isolation from the Conclave's motives saps any overall tension of impending doom from the story. Perhaps a shift to a different main character, such as one more involved in the decisions of the Conclave, might enliven this saga.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed,
By James Shaw (Godalming, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: King of Foxes (Conclave of Shadows) (Hardcover)
I am afraid to say that i found King of Foxes to be a disappointment. Whilst it continued the Conclave of Shadows story line, it felt as Mr Feist was simply coasting along. Too much of what happened in the story was glossed over, and very little detail was given. On the plus side the book was well paced, and the pages slip by extremely quickly. However without a doubt this is not one of Mr Feist better efforts. I for one, will simply never be happy with explanations of the type 'well they have done bad things ! and hence must be punished' If there are evil plots, and greater depth to the story line, let your reader know it. Trust me, letting the readers have some insight does not distract from the story. As avid Feist readers will know, compare this book to Daughter of the Empire, when there were whole passages detailing both sides of the plot. This made for a compelling read. Sadly, King of Foxes, was not the book that it could have been.
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