Rating: 
Summary: One of the best fantasy series around
Review: As a reader who enjoyed Magician, but found the next two novels by Mr Feist to be poorly written, I began reading the Empire series on the recomendation of some friends - with much apprehension.But once I began, I could not put the book down. Ms Wurts must have contributed the majority of the actual writting skill as the way the sentences are constructed is simply beautiful to read - obviously the female influence. And the action and the plot never let up in this book, or in the series. You will be constantly be cheering for your favorite hero - who will not always survive - and hanging to read the demise of the evil charaters. One of the biggest pluses about the series of course is - it's already finished. You can begin with this book, and read the next two immidiately, without having to wait 2 years or more for the next installment which may not even prove worth having waited o long for (Mt Jordan - you should be ashamed that you let your standard slip so far). Do yourself a favor - pick it up and read it. The Empire series is by far and away one of the best fantasy series' I have read.
Rating: 
Summary: Mara the all perfect ruler
Review: This series is all about Mara, a young girl who has inherited her fathers ruling mantle as Lady of the Acoma in the kingdom of Kelewan. It tells of how she rebuilt her empire when it was on the brink of falling apart due to the scheming and plotting of other Ruling Lords. Basically thats what the whole series is about. One book, thats fine, but THREE books on nothing but her judgements and decisions? And to make things even less disbelievable, she always makes the perfect judgement. She always knows what to say, and how to thwart her enemies. The all perfect ruler basically.
It gets tiresome and tedious to read. The last two books bored me to tears.
My advice, buy just the first one and stop there. Don't bother going on to read further.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the series it is derived from
Review: I read and really liked the Riftwar Saga, but after reading the Empire trilogy, I now see the Riftwar Saga as just a background story to set up the exciting world of the Tsurani on Kelewan where this book is set. The world that is created by Feist and Wurts is incredibly interesting, with great depth. The culture and politics are all so well written and believable. You really feel like a part of the story. I first read this about 10 years ago, and recently re-read it, which is something I rarely do, and it was just as good the second time. I have read a lot of books by Feist, but the difference between this series and those makes me wonder if I should be looking for more from Wurts instead. This book begins an excellent series, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: The First in a Wonderful Trilogy!!!...
Review: I love this book and the other two in the trilogy! Daughter of the empire has it all. Action, suspense, intrige and shows the hand of two very great Fantasy authors! I can't say enought about this book and its trilogy. If you enjoy the Raymond E. Feist's Krondor series this is a book/trilogy you don't want to miss!! The book starts out with the heroine assuming control of her badly damaged noble house. From there she must fight for survival. She must use her head, her enemy's are powerful, her resources very limited. Yet she is willing to risk all, and her daring, her willness to break with tradition that binds many of her foes is blessed many times over. Mara, Lady of the Acoma in her own fashion is a woman such as James H. Cobb's Amanda Lee Garrett, or David Weber's Honor Herrington. She is a woman who knows that being a woman can give her the advantage when the foe thinks she will respond as a man would. Daughter of the Empire is definately worth the reading time and the cost of the book! It has a proud and lasting place in my library, I'm sure it will in yours as well!!
Rating:
Summary: Another book to keep me up all night
Review: This book is much better then I thought it was going to be. It compares greatly to rest of the Feist collection (starting with the Magician Apprentice). If you have read all other Fiests books then I suggest this one next. Much of the story stands alone, although its story takes place in the "past" (around the time of the first Tsurani invasion force). It works as a stand alone series and satisfies the folks who want to know more about the Tsurani culture. Learning about the culture, and the dynamics of the empire was very exciting. Reading of honor bound armies that would rather kill themselves in battle then be taken captured is an interesting concept (very asian in culture). The "daughter of the empire" is just the start of a great story about a young lady who is forced to come to power and take over her fathers empire with very little experience and training. If she fails, her honorable house becomes valueless "gray warriors" with no honor to roam the country side and perhaps die of disease or starvation. She alone can hold her house in order, or die trying.
Rating:
Summary: Fan-freakin'-tastic!
Review: I actually picked this book up as a last resort, having nothing better to read at the time. Wow! What a pleasant surprise it was. I was intrigued from the very beginning with the society of the Tsurani and their political machinations. I was on the edge of my seat reading all three books, and they only kept getting better. Mara was a strong, intelligent and cool woman and each book left me feeling supremely satisfied with its climax.
I think these books are actually better than the Riftwar saga, set on Midkemia, which tended to get boring about 3 books in.
I read somewhere that reading the Empire series is like reading a novel from the Empire's point of view in the Star Wars saga. A pretty good analogy actually.
Incidentally, my husband and I enjoyed these books so much, we named our first-born daughter Mara!
Rating:
Summary: One of my continuing favorites
Review: Absolutely stunning piece of work Feist and Wurts manage to accomplish here. The other two in the trilogy I did not like nearly as much. This book can stand alone easily. In a way its almost like some Fudel Japan/China with a few more intresting twists then pure sci-fi/fantasy and thats just one of the things that endears itself to you. As you read along you find not only are Mara's troops single mindely devoted to her but you yourself have become that way. AWESOME!
Rating: 
Summary: Good attempt, but flawed.
Review: I must give this book credit. I'm a modest fan of Feist, and I think Wurts does bring a good perspective to his work and weaves in some intelligent politics into the story. I also enjoyed the three-dimensional characterization of the female protagonist, as too few fiction books have them. However, "Daughter" is not a great book as a whole. The politics, while decent, are nothing new, and theplot is a bit contrived in order to fit in all of the twists. Second, the "culture" is really just a mish-mash of other cultures and nothing unique. In fact, it's actually quite boring, and the book suffers for it. Finally, none of the characters are very likeable. The authors have done such a good job creating a dreary, harsh world, that none of the characters can get by without doing some very ugly things themselves. Ultimately the work is nowhere near as engaging or epic as it could have been, and ends up as a fairly weak novel.
Rating:
Summary: Fine start to a fantasy series
Review: Mara is only seconds from being irrevocably sealed to a religious life when she learns of her father's and brother's death and that she is now ruling lady of the Acoma, a feudal house on a world based primarily on Korean custom and myth. With her family, most of the soldiers perished. Mara must gather her few resources and rebuild, while fighting a quiet war with her enemies. In her favor--her willingness to ignore custom and tap into unexpected resources. But will that be enough? Fine book from the other side of the Rift in Feist's Riftwar saga (Magician, etc.) While there is incidental contact with some of the characters from Magician and its sequels(we will briefly meet Pug in this series, but he will not play any major part), this series stands well on its own, and is probably more accessible than the Riftwar series, which got rather arcane in its final books. An interesting and fine read.
Rating:
Summary: Below average
Review: I will start off by saying that I have not read this book to the end and I never will. If you are a lover of this book and are down right insulted that I dare to come here and badmouth this book without even reading it through, then I am happy for you that you liked the book and didn't waste your money like I did. =P This book is probably just not for me. It doesn't speak to me. I got to page 95 and that was that. I do not care how Mara (the main character) ends up (especially not since there are two more books in this series). I didn't find Mara a very compelling character. The plot moved very slowly (at least the part I read), and when Mara at one point in the beginning was attacked by an assassin, I just sighed and rolled my eyes. It didn't surprise me, I knew she was going to survive, and that this attack would only "strengthen her will to get back at her father's murderers". I skipped large chunks of the book ever since page 3.
While I do like descriptions and such I think this book contains far too much and about things I don't care about. There was too far between the interesting bits (and those bits there were too few of) and all of the characters seemed hollow and boring to me. However, I do give it a 2, because I think it has potentials, at least for those who don't mind that it tends to drag on quite a bit. It would have interested me to hear about how Mara would deal with her marriage (she had to marry someone to strengthen her house), but I simply could not wait for this man to enter the picture. Then I'd rather just put it down. So, in conclusion, I won't recommend it, but if you don't mind it being somewhat slow you might enjoy it.
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