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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good beginning to what should be another great series!, 12 Aug 2007
Inexplicably, this latest offering by acclaimed author C. S. Friedman has been flying under the radar since last January. And given its quality, this sad state of affairs continues to baffle me. Feast of Souls marks Friedman's return to the fantasy genre. That, in and of itself, should be reason enough to buy this book! Like many other readers, I have been waiting for this moment since Crown of Shadows was published.
And yet, having read both Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and Williams' Shadowplay earlier this year, I decided to wait a while before giving this one a chance. I try to balance everything by reading titles from various publishers -- an attempt to spread the joy, if you will. However, electing to wait before reading Feast of Souls proved to be a dumb move on my part, for the first volume of the Magister trilogy is without a doubt the very best of Daw Books' "big guns" of 2007.
More epic than dark fantasy this time around, Feast of Souls is a compelling opening chapter in a tale which appears vaster in scope than anything C. S. Friedman has written up until this point. Having said that, I feel that it's also the least self-contained novel the author has ever written. Whereas each volume of the Coldfire trilogy was more or less stand-alone -- even though part of an overall story arc -- Feast of Souls is definitely an introduction to a much more ambitious and complex fantasy epic.
Richly detailed worldbuilding intrigues the reader from the beginning. It's obvious that this book is meant to lay the groundwork for what will unfold in the upcoming sequels. As such, it makes for a slower pace for the better part of the first half of the novel. After that, the pace quickens and the storytelling makes it difficult to put this one down.
Characterization is a facet in which Friedman excels. It's a little harder to judge how memorable some of these characters will be, for Feast of Souls is comprised of multiple viewpoints. Hence, since the story reveals itself through the eyes of various POV characters, the narrative is not as powerful as that of the Coldfire trilogy. I'm not saying that the characterization leaves something to be desired, far from it. The author introduces us to an interesting and disparate cast of characters that give substance to this novel. The problem is that she leaves you wanting to learn more, again and again. This is especially true with Kamala, as well as the Magisters Colivar and Ramirus. More will be disclosed in the forthcoming volumes, of course. Sue me for wanting to know more right now!
One word of advice, though: C. S. Friedman now belongs to the school of thought which feels that having characters survive countless ordeals and star in multiple books/series is a somewhat obsolete concept. À la Martin, Lynch and Erikson, she has no qualms about getting rid of main characters when you least expect it. Consider yourself warned. . .;-)
The absence of a map did irk me to some extent. What can I say!?! Maybe I'm too "old school," but I'm one of those people who like to know where the action is taking place.
Imaginative and entertaining, with an ending that I never saw coming, Feast of Souls is probably the most underrated fantasy book of 2007. Give C. S. Friedman's latest a shot, lest it remains this year's best-kept secret!
Check out my blog: www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkly fantastic, 6 Sep 2008
Sometimes known as C.S. Friedman, Celia is the author of the acclaimed dark science-fantasy Coldfire series, of which Black Sun Rising is probably her most well known work. It's a series I'd always heard good things about, and the US edition sported fantastic artwork from the effulgent Michael Whelan, so I was eager to get my hands on the UK edition... And then, it was pointed out, by one of the lovely people at Orbit Books, that Celia had a new book out, the augurous Feast of Souls...
Yum...
Magic plays a very large part in Feast of Souls, perhaps even defining it. The story is a set in a world that is realistic (and thus rather dark), vividly realised, where everything good, and bad, and in-between, has a price. Magic is an awesome thing, but above all, a deadly, dangerous thing. There are two types of magic user: witches -- mostly women -- draw upon the athra, their own soul-fire, to use their power, thus shortening their own lives. But Magisters -- until now, all men -- have a seemingly endless supply of power, are capable of great feats at little risk to themselves, and are immortal.
All men, until Kamala. Believing the exercise to be largely pointless, probably fatal to his student, but still worth giving a go -- after all, if you're immortal, you have to have some way to spend your time -- a Magister trains her. She must work as a witch, drawing all the fire out of her soul at an unnatural pace, and then, when the last spark goes out, latch onto a new source of power ... and once she's done that, she will be told a truth Magisters have kept silent from all non-Magisters: the new power doesn't draw upon her own life-force -- she doesn't really have any -- it draws upon someone else's, slowly draining them dry. Magisters have no way of knowing what "consort" they have picked, and feeling the slightest moment of regret will free the soul and leave her a drained husk: a corpse.
Why no women Magisters, then? It's believed that women, having been designed to bring life into the world, are too gentle to survive Magister training. This is said in a sneering tone. The world of Feast of Souls is technologically advanced about as far as the 15/16th Century, and many of the ideas of women as chattel and inferiors -- mentally, magically, and emotionally -- pervade society. In fact, in certain parts of the book, I'm tempted to say that Friedman perhaps over-dwelt on that aspect, as men in the book, with some notable exceptions, are taken, nigh axiomatically, as savage, controlling, sly boors, power thirsty and oppressive. I say tempted, because except for the occasional time when it came over too strong, I enjoyed the originality -- or rather, the originality in depicting the real truth -- of Celia's medieval-ish society.
The athra Kamala is stealing belongs, alas, to someone rather high-profile: the son of the High King. His "wasting sickness" has been noticed, and from all across the lands, Magisters are meeting in an effort to stop anyone prying too deeply into the illness, and finding their secrets. Meanwhile, the very world itself is in danger ... Magisters aren't the only creatures that feed on men's souls...
After a somewhat slow start, Friedman's wonderful prose and well-crafted characterisations won me over completely. Fast paced and eminently readable -- yet hellishly dark -- Feast of Souls is one of the better reads of this year. An apparently standard medieval setting soon reveals it's darker side; brutal often, captivating always, those 582 pages were an easy read and I can't wait for the sequel.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good beginning for a new series, 4 Mar 2008
To be honest a book that I missed originally and one that I've come to lament in certain respects as it has some wonderful moments within the pages. Bigger, better and perhaps longer than anything Celia has written before this epic novel really does hit the spot for fantasy fans. Richly painted in descriptive words you can't help but get sucked into this world however youre really going to want the additional novels when you pick this up as to be honest its not neatly tied up with a bow by the end in much the same way that her other novels are but perhaps best of all are the characters within, each one ready to jump off the page to the readers imagination and I hope that they will continue to grow with each subsequent outing. I will eagerly await the next novel.
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