Rating: Summary: A Very Good Second Book Review: The second book of a trilogy always has problems.
The first book gets to introduce the characters, and in an SF novel the world in which it is set.
The third book gets to wrap everything up.
The second book is kind of, well, continuing the story and setting the scene for the next book.
Having said that, this is a very, very good second book. If you've not read the first book in the series, Talon of the Silver Hawk, you should read it first. There the character Tal is introduced, the stage is set, he is wound up ready for revenge.
In this book, the challenges Tal faces in trying to prove his loyalty to the Duke make up a good bit of the story. The tasks he is set upon are difficult and repugnant. It begs the question, what price revenge, while it makes for good reading.
Rating: Summary: Book 3 is Available NOW!!!!! Review: This a great (*****) series and other fans might like to know that you can buy Book 3 (Conclave of Shadows) from Amazon.UK NOW!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: A Pretty Good Feist Novel Review: This was really a pretty good novel by Mr. Feist. It has all the action one expects out of the characters born and bred in the author's world of Midkemia as well as court intrigue and some superficial emotional baggage. Talon of the Silver Hawk, aka Squire Talwin Hawkins, has quickly become a character that, while I do not love him, I am very fond of him. King of Foxes is better, in my humble opinion, than it's predecessor Talon of the Silver Hawk, in that Tal's character does seem to grow a bit more. And, though he is still slightly too powerful, he does make mistakes and gets hurt. The only real problem I have with this book, in fact, is his reversal when he became hurt. I would have liked to have seen how he adapted. Otherwise, it was a great novel and I cannot wait for the third. Pick it up and read it. You'll love it.
Rating: Summary: excellent read Review: When raymond e feist changed onto talon i wasnt sure. But when i read the first book i was convinced that this would be an excellent series, if only the next book could be as good. To my surprise it was even better than the original. This just has to be read by all feist fans. The images put in your mind while reading this was amazing, i could actually see what was happening. It was great to see old favorites back as well, Pug, Nakor( this has got to be the strangest man ever- but brilliant though) etc. this has to be one of his best books to date( the rest are excellent- but this one goes beyond that). So i would really like to recomend this series to all. If you havent read any of his books yet, why not start with the first Talon book
Rating: Summary: Lives on it's promise Review: With the influence of G.R.R. Martin in the fantasy world, fantasy has taken a dramatic turn towards reality. This is not the Feist work that started in The Magician. The magic is light, the fantasy elements are a background source of material if anything. In the end it's a more realistic look at the world of Midkemia. The story continues from Talon of the Silver Hawk, with young Tal Hawkins continuing to avenge his destroyed people. Through the course of the story, you know certain things are going to happen. You know Tal will win, you know someone will betray him, that he will lose it all and regain it all back. The book is extremely predictable, yet like Feist earlier work it's predictable in a way that makes you smile. Unlike the overly realistic fantasy of Martin and Co. Feist takes great pleasure in creating his heroes and making them win. I found myself flipping through the pages, not out of suspense, but out of wanting to see how Tal would get out of one situation or another. Becauase you know he will. He will win, or he will die heroically and in a manner befitting a protagonist.
Rating: Summary: Feist is becoming a formula writer Review: ~I'm a big Raymond Feist fan. His stories have historically been fun, straight-forward entertainment. High fantasy in the classic tradition. Magic and warriors galore. Likeable characters. Good, easy reading. That being said, Feist has fallen into a predictable pattern lately. This book, King of the Foxes, contines where Talon of the Silver Hawk left off. The protagonist is rather one-dimensional. His motivation is revenge for the slaughter of his village/family. Unlike other main~~ characters, such as Pug, Aruthra, and Jimmy the Hand, Tal seems to lack some charm. Feist has attempted, I think, to inject some grittiness in this story that is ill-suited to his writing style. Tal comes across as cardboard thin, predictable, without personality or complexity. Feist has never been one for complexity, but he made up for that with charm and wit. Tal has none of these things. The story proceeds along what are becoming stereotypical Feist lines. Tal, an accomplished~~ swordsman, uncovers the big bad plot that is not really what it seems. The man Tal holds responsible for the massacre of his village is, in fact, a puppet to a much more powerful, evil, magical being. In some ways, Tal becomes the decoy for Pug and his son, Marcus, and their cadre of powerful magicians, to address the true problem behind the obvious. Usually, Feist includes clever dialogue, amusing moments, and moments of true tenderness in the storyline to add variety. Both books in this~~ Conclave series so far have been so focused and tunnel-visioned, that it wasn't nearly as fun. This has something to do with Talon's character, I'm sure-- he is a single-minded, focused individual with a fairly pure emotional drive. But combine that with the fact that Talon is pretty much the only protagonist in this book (unlike the much more entertaining combo of Pug and Thomas from Magician)-- and you get a pretty single-minded-- and predictable-- book. In contrast, Feist's work with~~ Wurts on the Empire series, while featuring one character: Mara of the Acoma-- was nonetheless filled with a combination of emotions, including self-doubt, revenge, love, loyalty. Not to mention a vivid new world of exotic beauty, politics, and "technology". Without totally revealing what happens in this book, it's true this book finishes off what started in Talon of the Silver Hawk. I suspect, however, that the series will continue with some of the plot elements started-- Talon gets a~~ "new" purpose in life, and the big bad evil is still out there. This is similar to the SerpentWar saga. The invasion was stuffed in book three, but there was a book four to deal with the big bad guy (or gal in that case), and finish up some things. Maybe Talon is still in the evolving process. And he seems to have, at the end of this book, found a new direction, one that might open him up as a character. But this has clearly not been Feist's best, and IMO, he has been slipping since~~ the SerpentWar saga (which, IMO, was excellent).~
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