Talon of the Silver Hawk (Conclave of Shadows, Book 1)

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Summary: a new Midkemia novel
Review: Book 1 of the Conclave of Shadows

Raymond Feist returns to Midkemia, the world of his bestselling Riftwar and Serpentwar sagas. With each novel, Feist has broadened his world and shown more and more of the lands that make up Midkemia. This novel begins in the Eastern Kingdoms, to the far east (and somewhat to the north) of the Kingdom of the Isles. We also see the Kingdom of Roldem and get to revisit the Sorcerer's Isle.

Kieli is a boy about to become a man on Midsummer's Day. His people, the Orosini, get their adult names by going on a vision quest high up a mountain. Just as Kieli gets his adult name, Talon of the Silver Hawk, he sees smoke coming from his village. Hurrying home, he finds his village in flames and most of his people slaughtered. He tries to fight, but is severely wounded and left for dead. He is found and rescued by Robert de Lysis and a couple of other men. Talon awakes at Kendrick's, a tavern/small fortress. Because Robert saved his life, Talon owes him a life-debt and begins to serve under Robert. Robert, Caleb (a hunter), and Magnus (a sorcerer) train Talon but do not yet tell him to what end. Talon thinks only of revenge on the men who slaughtered his people. Talon is now the last of the Orosini.

For most of the first part of the book, Talon's benefactors remain a mystery. Who are these men? Who do they work for? We get hints of Magnus's and Caleb's parentage. The book does not directly tell when the novel is taking place, but we get hints from some things. Rupert Avery had commissioned a book before he died. Grandsons of Duke James are mentioned. We do get to revisit some of the characters with abnormally long lifespans (Nakor, Pug, Miranda).

The second half of the book takes place in Roldem, a kingdom mentioned several times throughout the Riftwar novels. Talon is in a tournament to become to the world's greatest swordsman.

I enjoyed this book, and Midkemia is one of my favorite fantasy worlds, but Feist didn't really build the locations very well in this novel. Kendrick's was well done, but the rest of it (Sorcerer's Isle, Roldem) were merely place names instead of actual locations that I could picture. Also, despite the horrible things that had happened to Talon, I never really grew to care for him as I did for Pug, Tomas, Arutha, and Jimmy. I am curious to see how Talon grows into his new role with the mysterious group, The Conclave of Shadows, but I haven't grown as attached to Talon as I did with other characters. With that said, this is a very good offering from Raymond Feist.

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Summary: Where are the characters I've come to love?
Review: Talon of the Silver Hawk is the long awaited continuation of novels set in the world of Midkemia. The main character in the plot is Talon, a boy whose tribe, in an obscure & heretofore unknown part of Midkemia, is obliterated by a mercenary army. Being the sole survivor of the massacre, Talon swears to avenge his people. Talon is found by members of the Conclave of Shadows who then take steps to train him as their agent. This book takes place decades after the Serpentwar, whose effects are only mentioned in passing. All the main characters from the previous novels, (who aren't immortal, or nearly so) are dead. No mention is given to the state of the Kingdom, or their efforts to dislodge the mercenary army dug in along the coast of the Bitter Sea. Although a few new characters are introduced, Talon is the only one that gets developed. Talon is the only character to cheer for, & the others that are introduced look suspiciously like clones of the previous ones. In a world that so heavilly depends on its characters, Feist did a good job of alienating any sense of connection the readers had with Midkemia. This plot would have done better as a stand-alone novel with no connection to Midkemia. The book was packed with rather obscure references to things that had happend in a past so far gone from Talons point in time as to be useless nostalgia. At least in the Serpentwar Saga the timeline was such that the new characters were able to intertwine with the old ones we'd come to love. None of that here. I would reccomend this book only to those who have followed the series since the begining. I rushed out & bought the book as soon as it was released & regret that decision. This certainly wasn't work the [money]...

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Summary: Fair enough, but lacks epic scope
Review: Talon of the Silver Hawk is the first installment of Feist's latest Midkemia series. It's a decent fantasy/adventure story in its own right, but unlike the Riftwar Saga, it didn't leave me hungering for the next book. I kept waiting for some ominous foreshadowing of the future, a growing realization that the fate of the universe might depend on young Talon's actions, but the end of the book left me less than convinced. I'm willing to withhold any further criticism until I read the rest of the Conclave of Shadows series. Maybe the series in its entirety will justify this somewhat slow introduction--who knows?

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Summary: The fine beginning of another great trilogy!
Review: When young Kieli sees his whole village massacred, he is selected by some power to be the instrument of his people's revenge. Rescued by people who begin to mold him for a purpose he cannot understand, Kieli (now called Talon of the Silver Hawk) develops into a great hunter and a peerless swordsman. But, Talon finds that those he must revenge himself on are more numerous than he had thought, and their power seems to know few limits. This is the story of Talon's development, and his beginning on a road that will take him where he never would have thought that he would go.

I must admit that I have been a Raymond Feist fan for many years now, starting all the way back with Magician. As with his earlier books, I found this one to be quite exciting, with interesting characters and milieus. If you liked Raymond Feist's earlier works, such as the Serpentwar Saga, then I think that you will also like this one as well. It appears that we are in for another great trilogy!

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Summary: A repeat in different clothes
Review: Is there anyone else who is tired of Raymond Feist's repeating of old plots and styles in new incarnations? The young-man- coming-of-age saga is getting to be grating, especially when one looks back to his earlier efforts and see that he is getting to repeat himself ad nauseum. It is my cross to bear that I discovered Feist when no one I knew had heard of him, and now that he is commercial, his work no longer appeals to me. But at least it is not as embarrassing as Krondor.

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Summary: classic Feist
Review: One of the great things about Feist is that you almost don't feel like you are reading when you get into his story. There is no difficulty in understanding what is happening - it just flows. This is a wonderful story that definitely leaves you wanting more!

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Summary: Talon of the Silver Hawk Reminds me of Feist's Magician
Review: For anyone that who has never read about Feist's Midkemia, then this book is a good place to start. It leaves one wanting to know more about the places, characters, and history of this rich world.

For a long time fan, this is another excellent starting point for a new trilogy with several familiar characters and lots of new characters.

The boy who becomes Talon of the Silver Hawk reminded me a lot of Pug in Magician: Apprentice. I foresee him doing great things in future books, just as Pug did.

This book left me wanting to read the next one!

I highly recommend it to any existing Feist Fans or to any fans of Fantasy.

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Summary: Right on Feist!
Review: Sometimes I think that reviewers of books like to see their words in print so much that they give too much of the story away especially if someone is coming to see if the book is just worth reading. Without going into characters and plot and everything that Talon goes through this is a WONDERFUL book! Feist is right on with this tale. I cannot wait to read the next installment of Talon's tale and I fully recommend that you pick this book up and give it a go.

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Summary: Old story line.
Review: If you're looking for a new story line or a plot with a twist then this isn't your book. But if you enjoy just the way Raymond Fiest writes then you won't be disappointed. He does a great job of developing new charactors and always paints a detailed, wonderful world. He does rely that you have read most his other books and already have some knowledge of his older charactors to understand some of the underlying motivations they have. So to sum up again this book is a good read for fantasy lovers. But the good is not in the plot; it is in the writing and development of charactors.

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Summary: Nice cover
Review: Well, this is a really skimpy exploration of the other cultures of Midkemia. I liked the book well enough to finish it in 2 nights and 1 morning. It was easy to read, better written than the Krondor series, which I didn't finish, and fast-paced. In the opening chapter of the book and throughout most of the beginning of Talon's training, the narrator stays inside Talon's head. We know how he feels about the destruction of his tribe. We sense his depression and despair, as well as his uncertainty of the future. We sympathize with this young boy slowly trying to make sense of the changes in his life. All that he has ever known of the world is challenged, but instead of being overwhelmed by his confusion and loss, he remembers his grandfather's advice to put things in perspective. Because we are inside Talon's head, we can see how perceptive he is. It is as if he has an inner eye, and he can perceive patterns and layouts of buildings. This kind of seeing at first seems to be a supernatural almost magical talent, but it doesn't come into play during latter parts of the novel. Sure, we know that Talon has certain unexplained abilities that enable him to survive and fight. We expect Talon to be something special, but in the second half of the book, the action puts Talon where he is supposed to be without much explanation or suspense about how he gets there. He becomes a hero, as we expect, but his actions are explained as matters of luck and some skill and talent, but not the supernatural or magical abilities we were led to believe he possessed at the beginning of the novel. The action also takes over the narrative. We aren't in Talon's head as much, and we don't even know how he feels about ruthlessly dispatching Raven's men one by one. All we get is this one sentence saying that he hopes his family are now in peace. I would like to think that Talon is a much more sensitive human being, even if he has been trained as an assassin. If he's numb or dispassionate, we should see that. I had a hard time even feeling for him when he found out that Alysandra was part of his training. We knew it before he did, and we expected him to be depressed about it, but I didn't know why he loved her in the first place. Just because she was hot and they had great sex? What made her different from all the other women in his life? His feelings are explained as youthful passion, but I like to think that Talon is a bit deeper than that, and if he is, then we need more than one chapter of Alysandra and Talon's affair in a cottage to believe that his feelings for her were different. The ending seems to suggest that Alysandra means a lot more to Tal and that their relationship will develop more in later installments. This installment was entertaining enough, although it wasn't very humorous or fun. The relationships between characters weren't fully developed; the intimacy between them seems superficial. Remember the close friendship between Pug and Tomas, the heartfelt loyalty Jimmy felt for Arutha? Those passionate, simple yet complex, human emotions are strangely missing from this narrative. I wanted to be personally invested in this novel. I wanted to be drawn into this world and its characters, to the point that I couldn't wait to read the next book. But I really don't feel that urgency at all.