Wrath of a Mad God: Darkwar Book 3 [Hardcover]

I hate having to do this with an author who was once my favourite but here comes another poor review.....

I guess I shouldn't have been overly surprised given his recent efforts (for my main gripes, see my review of King Of Foxes) but like many loyal readers, I simply wanted to know what happens to a number of characters and worlds about whom I care greatly. I've felt that he has been rushing his books for too long, probably spending six months every year putting his feet up (and why not, he's earned the right to do so) but then spending the remaining six hastily putting together as many pages as he can muster in a short space of time in order to meet his publishers' demand that he put out a book roughly every twelve months.

The last book, Into A Dark Realm, ended so abruptly that I thought maybe Feist had died before he finished writing it. This latest offering literally picks up where the last one left off without any recap whatsoever, almost as though he threw what he had written at the publisher in order to meet their deadline and then carried on writing, so as a standalone book it would make almost no sense to a reader who hadn't read the last couple of books. Other reviewers have mentioned the factual mistakes so I won't go into these apart from to say that it simply isn't good enough. Equally, the number of typos in the book is disgraceful; HarperVoyager should hang their heads in shame.

I understand that Feist has started work on his next series and I pray that he will be allowed time to do them justice. I really don't care if I have to wait five years for the first book if that means it could present some value for money. I've just got my wife to start reading Magician and I could have cried when I picked it up again and realised that you could probably have fitted two to three of the pages from Wrath into one page of Magician, yet Magician is over twice as long. I really have felt ripped off by the last few books as, frankly, the whole of the Darkwar saga could have been presented as one, reasonably good value, book.

I suppose I should finish by saying whether I would recommend the book itself. If you're an avid Feist reader then you will have no choice but to read it as, like me, you will want to discover the latest episode in the lives of characters that have been around for over two decades. You'll probably agree that events in the book that would have previously been dealt with in epic proportions are now given little more than lip-service but I suppose it's better than nothing at all. However, even at Amazon's discounted price, I implore you to wait for the paperback version or get down to your local library. If you have never read a Feist book before, or haven't read the other Darkwar books, avoid this at all costs. If you fall into the former category, do yourself a favour and buy Magician - my wife hasn't been able to put it down and she isn't even a fan of the genre.

I finished this book feeling fairly satisfied with the ending: questions were answered - major ones - character arcs were tied off, and storylines were brought together and concluded. But it simply doesn't captivate like the Riftwar and Serpentwar Sagas.

The characters aren't developed, explored and furthered enough; I never feel like I know or can relate to many of Feist's newer characters. I also feel I'm losing touch with Pug and Tomas (barely used, and where he was, it didn't really fit into the conclusion), as their emotions and motivations aren't explored as they used to be, or as authors like Jordan or Martin might do. To be fair, Feist has always focused on scope, grandeur and philosophy (and on this last he's still the best), but it wouldn't kill him to explore his main characters more fully. Instead the feeling is that he's ploughing on doggedly for the ending - the last 30% - the best stuff of this entire Darkwar Saga.

And this last 30% IS really good. Oldschool Feist - scope, ambition, twists, ruthlessness and a load of action and magic. Very entertaining stuff. We find out the truth about that mercurial and brilliant character, Nakor, and the strange young warrior, Ralan Bek. Bek is one of Feist's best creations since Serpentwar, and his nature and abilities were always a pleasure to read about. The truth behind Nakor wasn't handled as well as it could have been, but was by no means a failure - it is just that you can sum his role up in a sentence, instead of listening to the luxury of his life story, as every Nakor fan yearns to do. We also have a twist in the foes the Conclave think they are facing - a good one, but one that reminded me too much of a big one we've witnessed before. Come to think of it, we've witnessed it twice before...

These two characters are arguably the most interesting in the whole series, and it remains a mystery why Feist opened this Darkwar trilogy with Caleb's two foster-sons, Tad and Zane, who feature in only a couple of scenes in the whole book. Feist's lack of conviction in these two characters was evidenced in 'Into a Dark Realm' when Jommy dwarfed the other two boys, who one can only assume were introduced as carbon-copies of the much-missed Roo and Erik.

Speaking of carbon-copies, and under-used and surplus-to-requirements characters, Feist again mines his glory days to try to reinvigorate a less-fresh series by introducing, out of left-field, another Jimmy the Hand. It was painful to witness, although the character was in himself likeable enough. Not only was he shamelessly named similarly, he had every attribute bar brilliant sorcerer, and one wonders why this guy wasn't brought in earlier, as he plays an important part and can seemingly do everything the unforgiving world of Midkemia can throw at him.

Erik does feature, but it's another reliving of glorious days past, and while it's a pleasure having Erik on my page again, he doesn't have the relevance he used to, and is essentially a 'yes-man' to the Conclave of Shadows.

But this story is all about Pug, really, and I think there's a sense that the prophecy delivered him years before in the halls of death is finally on the road to being understood. It's no secret Feist is ending the cycle in five books time, and I think he's getting everything out of the way to make way for a grand finale - here a trip to another realm, and a longer look at a foe not really seen since the early days. There's exploration of the role of the gods in the universe and the nature of the various realities - stuff Feist fans wait for with bated-breath, but it somehow feels a little confused and less sure than it used to. It may be that all the retconning seen in this book is catching up with him.

This last is very frustrating, coupled with the multiple continuity errors and poor editing. This, Feist suggests, is down to outsourced copyediting - an insult to Feist by his publisher, in my opinion. Surely they can afford to have someone who knows his books well read an early draft to pick up the bad continuity errors? Not only this, but the editing itself is poor. Whoever proofread this should be ashamed.

In summary, though, this does have a lot to like about it: the increasing pace and tension of the ending, the epic nature of the final struggle, a couple of cracking twists, revelations, and the beauty of Feist's universes. But it doesn't have the conviction and purpose of earlier works, and by those, we will always judge him.

A must read for any Feist fan. I agree with the other reviewers that it is not as good as his earlier works, but I still read it through without putting it down once.