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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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BIRD SOARED OVER THE CITY. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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.
"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.
His books continue to entertain and I have yet to find one which didn't satisfy my hunger for action/adventure.
The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt is another beginning to a great epic fantasy series. It being his first work ever published, it's a little rough, but the storyline and action more than make up for it. If you like sword fighting, battle, magic and gods, you will like this book. Give it a try.
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