Rating: 
Summary: Well...
Review: I was very apprehensive when I first bought this book. Having finished Magician, I had gone on a bit of a Raymond Feist spree, buying every Midkemia book that he's ever written (as well as the Empire trilogy). The Riftwar saga I recommend almost unconditionally, at least the first four books. The next two books were still better than almost anything else out there, but somehow I thought they were lacking. The Empire trilogy was excellent, kudos to both of them. I assumed the Serpentwar saga would be just as good as his other books. Wrongly, it seems... The series seemed to decline a little more every book, but I thought that maybe this book would be able to pull it all together for a spectacular ending. Nope. The book, beyond countless typos and spelling errors, also gives me the feeling that it was rushed. The ending, while I won't give it away, I will say that it was extremely abrupt and incomplete. The casual killing off of one of my favorite characters, Greylock, for no apparent reason, did not put me in the best of moods. I really don't think that you should just kill off any of the important characters if their dying has no effect whatsoever. Erik mourns for ten seconds or so, then Greylock is completely forgotten, never to be mentioned again. While I like the fact that Feist is beginning to focus on the large picture, as another reviewer said, he's leaving out small details such as character development. However, the main thing that really ruined the series was Pug. Three and 99/100 books pass, and Pug doesn't lift a danged finger. Then, after lots of war and lots of innocents dying, he finally intervenes. (Interestingly enough, the reason Pug doesn't help at first is because he doesn't want to kill all the enemy soldiers, since they all have families etc... Er, what about the people of the Kingdom, don't they have families too? Oh well...) In approximately 2 seconds, Pug eliminates the enemy leader and sends his compatriot back through a gateway to hell. (Now, if the evil guy had an IQ higher than 5, he would know not to put his headquarters right next to the gateway, since the only way to get rid of him is to send him back) But, in only 2 pages or so, Pug easily kills off the enemy guy, and everyone lives happily ever after. All the work of the tens of thousands of Kingdom soldiers, giving their lives for their country, is nothing compared to what Pug can do in 2 pages. Riiiight... Really, one of the reasons Feist's books are going stale is because a few select (immortal, of course) god-characters can take out ANYTHING they come up against. 400 pages telling about the hardships of the army and the common citizens, then Pug comes in and does in five minutes what the entire army could not in several years. So if you'd like, just read the last 15 pages or so, since everything happening before that is completely irrelevant. If Feist doesn't come up with a way of dealing with the god-characters, as well as maybe changing his formula a little, his books are doomed to the bargain bin. I really hope this doesn't happen, since, as Feist showed with his Riftwar saga, he really is a superb author.
Rating: 
Summary: Shards of a Broken Plotline
Review: Definitely the very weakest book by Feist. My question is, why didn't he stop at a trilogy? This milked-out fourth volume seems to be concerned mostly with tidying up the storyline by clumsily killing off the older generation of characters and paving the way for the next series with Pug's Conclave. Dash's revival of the Mockers through a tragic romance was just pathetic! Equally terrible was the oh-I-better-throw-in-an-unconvincing-supernatural-menace. This simply detracted from an already unnecessary book. The overall characterization was pretty good, I will say, but that's all I can say that is positive here. I have never had such a bad reaction to the end a series for which I enjoyed the previous volumes.
Rating: 
Summary: Crumbs
Review: At the end of "Rage of a Demon King", The so called Serpent War Saga is just short of being over. Another novel just to cover a solid 100 pages of plot wasn't needed, but "Shards of a Broken Crown" arose for just such a purpose. Fragments of the enemy army are on the Western coast. Kesh decides now would be a good time to get a chunk of Midkemia. Feist also unravels what had been tied up earlier. The need to turn more tricks and bump off more characters comes up. Many of these tricks are built up quickly to be deflated with the wave of a main characters sword. Yawn. How can a foe be so powerful and terrible, if the main characters can defeat them so easily? In earlier Feist novels rarely did a main character die, but when he or she did it had significance and other main characters were affected for a long time. Yet in "Shards" a few more somewhat main characters are disposed of, as if it were time to take out the trash before the series ends. Their deaths are often brushed away which cheapens and lessens any effect their deaths might have. While yes people do die in warfare, it could be done better. A highly faulty character, Patrick, is new for this series as well. It's slightly strange he suddenly appears in this novel as if they let him out of the dungeon moments before you open the book cover. Despite his flatness, he foreshadows some interesting possibilities for future novels after pissing off the original main character, Pug. (No one told him what a dumb idea this is) Overall "Shards" felt like a leftover, as if the series was promised to be so long and enough extra material was thrown in for one final novel in this uneven saga. I can only hope his newer series is better than this.
Rating:
Summary: People have a right to be disapointed
Review: To the reviewer who is "disgusted" by all the critical reviews: the Legacy series was published after the Serpent War series, so people have every right to ask who this Sidi character is. Also, there is a big difference between having typos in a dinky Amazon.com review and having them in a published work that has gone through professional editors.Now, as to SoaBC, I really feel like Fiest just phoned the last couple of books in this series in. I think he had a few could ideas at the start of the series, but just ran out of gas half way through. Particularly the last two books in the series, he seemed to paint himself into a corner and have to do a lot of hand waving to get himself out. I really think the pace, plot, characterizations, and writing just come nowhere near the original Riftwar sage in quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Feist 101
Review: I have just finished reading the reviews, posted by numerous people on this site, and I have to say that each and everyone of you that criticized Mr. Feist disgust me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a writer? Probably not, since most of you could not even get you point across very clearly. I even saw one guy claiming to be an "Editor by profession" gripping about typos and other BS, but even he had typos. Everyone makes a few mistakes. So something is not spelled right, big deal "WE" as educated readers, and devoted Feist fans, know the point he is trying to get across. Some of you claimed to have read all of Feist's works, but ask stupid, easy questions, such as "Who is Sidi?" Well had you read the Riftwar Legacy you would know who Sidi is. Others say that you are confused and bored (Now you know how I felt reading you reviews), but what is there to be confused and bored about. NOTHING. It is a very well written book, and I will continue reading his novels. It is not that hard to understand, maybe if you pay more attention to details and less attention to typos, you will see what kind of author Feist really is. Feist is the type of offer that you need to read from book one all the way through to understand exactly what is going on. I suggest that EVERYONE read them all. In order they are: Riftwar Series: Magician Apprentice, Magician Master, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon, Riftwar Legacy: Krondor the Betrayal, Krondor the Assassin, The Tear of Gods*, Prince of the Blood, The King's Buccaneer, Serpentwar Series: Shadow of a Dark Queen, Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King, Shards of a Broken Crown, *Coming in December Unless you can completely understand an author you have no reason to gripe. This book follows the way Feist writes very closely. It is an excellent book just like all of his others. For those that were gripping about key character dying, that has happened in all of his books. Besides just about everyone has to die.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new here. Seemed like a filler.
Review: I will admit that the three books of the Riftwar saga, are some of the most original and imaginative works out there today. The subsequent books, however, failed to live up to my expectations. "Shards of a Broken Crown" basically destroyed my interest in Feist's novels. It was, in a word, boring. The continual cleaning out of present characters to create room for new ones drove me insane all throughout the series especially because many of the new characters were boring and the good ones had very few parts in the story. There were no really evil characters. Some of the plot turns made me throw the book down in disgust. Is there no good that can happen to the characters? Does every one have to die or get totally screwed over? I can only handle so much dispair in a boring book.
Rating:
Summary: great
Review: I loved this book. Feist is great.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Fantasy
Review: Certainly not Feist's best. But enjoyable nonetheless. I think Feist was a bit on his autopilot when he wrote this. Certainly all the ingredients of a good book, yet somehow it isn't quite up to his usual standards. Maybe because it feels like your average part 4... more of the same.
Rating:
Summary: Personally
Review: Personally I believe that feist has kept up to his usuall, even though others might object. I loved the serpent war saga just as much as I did the riftwar!!! Feist kept constant action, and each chapter in all of his books end with a cliffhanger, then moving to someone else, so you have to keep reading to find out what happened before. I suggest buying this book, and all the rest of his books!
Rating:
Summary: Get rid of Pug and Thomas
Review: Great story as usual from this author but completely ruined by ending. Heroic people do heroic things then poof! Pug just tells everyone to go home. You get the impression that Feist had written as many words as needed to fulfil committment to publisher. The problem with creating supermen is that the acts of the people around them are meaningless. Very few authors can make superman anything but a comic book and Feist is no exception.
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