Rating: 
Summary: An interesting twist on Medieval Japan
Review: The authors created a world which infuses a variety of aspects of medieval Japanese culture with elements of fantasy and even an alien species. The Japanese influence can be seen even without the use of Japanese terms. The roles of emperor, shogun, daimyo and samurai are all easy to see. Also important is the code of honor that all Tsurani must play by. The soldiers must abide by a code akin to the Japanese bushido (way of the warrior) and the lords (and lady in the case of Mara) have to play according to the rules of honor.
Infused with all of this is the politics, known as "the Game of the Council." Aspects of this are also derived from Japan. The heads of all of the houses seek to gain advantage over the other, by all honorable means possible. The dishonorable is allowed so long as you are not caught.
Enter into this intriging world Mara, a seventeen-year old girl just a few gongs from becomming initiated into the Order of Lashima in the Holy City of Kentosani. Soldiers from her house arrive during the ceremony to announce that the is "Lady of the Acoma," a chilling announcement that meant her father and brother were dead. Thus, she was not only thrust into the Game of the Council, she was faced with a life and death struggle with the Lord of the Minwanabi, a clan with whom the Acoma had a long-standing blood feud. While the Acoma had been weakened by Minwabi treachery, the Minwanabi were the most powerful House in the Empire.
Mara has to use her wits and her feminine wiles to make gains in the Game of the Council and to secure her House from its enemies. Her greatest triumph in this volume occurs in the very house of the Minwanabi, where she is able to force dishonor on the host Lord.
The reading is compelling and the story well thought out. You get a feeling for the complexity of the characters in the story. The plot thickens with each of Mara's triumphs in the Game. Unlike some stories, not everything ends well. Good people as well as bad die through Mara's triumphs. This book makes good reading and I am eager to get on to book two.
Rating:
Summary: Get the other side of the story
Review: Any fan of Feist's Riftwar Saga will appreciate learning about the Tsurani. This book, set completely on Kelewan, delves into the matters of honor, clan and The Great Game, only touched upon in the Riftwar Saga.
I know that some find this book boring. For some reasons many fantasy fans have trouble getting into books with female protagonists. However, garnering a better understanding of the Tsurani made me appreciate the Riftwar Saga even more. I highly recommend the entire trilogy (including Servant and Mistress) to further your enjoyment of all of Feist's work.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I have read all of Feist's books MANY times and this series is easily one of my favorites. After reading the Riftwar Saga series it was great to read these books to get a look at life on the other side of the Rift. The Tsurani culture is rife with politcal intrigue and bloody deeds and there is never a dull moment. The story's heroine, Lady Mara, is a refreshing switch from the usual and we see her grow from a shy unsure young girl to a strong intelligent player of the Great Game. The book will have you turning pages to see where the next asassins blade will come from and what ingeneous plan Mara will come up with to save the Acoma from obliteration. The entire series is worth reading again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and engaging, an interesting contrast to Midkemia
Review: (This review is for the Empire Series: Daughter, Servant, & Mistress)When I first read Daughter of the Empire, I had just finished reading Darkness at Sethanon. I was looking for something more of the Kingdom, and was really just settling for something the Tsurani Empire. I was hooked very quickly and this became one of my favorite series. Some earlier critiques have suggested that the is excessive repetition of themes and plot in the book, even to the extent that it became boring. I agree with this to some extent, but believe they have missed an important point. Throughout the books, the idea is that this is a culture steeped in tradition. It is stagnant and rotting with self-inflicted wounds. Mara sees her only route to survival and the only hope for the survival of her people in the evolution of their culture. In addition to the political machinations of those who seel to capitalize on her weakness, she also has to deal with the powerful who resist her revolutionary ideas. The repetition is intentional, the reader truly sees the problems of the continuous political battling and feels the frustration that is necessary for their joy at the resolution. I would say the Janny and Raymond have truly tapped into the psychology of the READER. Mara is one of the most well-developed characters I have ever seen in this genre. I can say that I began responding as though I loved her. I felt her pain, wept for her nobility and sacrifice, cheered her successes and mourned her losses. When the stories were over, I actually missed her.
Rarely in this genre are strong female characters allowed to be -female. Usually, strong woman are shown to be strong in the way that they can act like men. Mara is different. She is strong in her femininity and tough as nails as a woman. The fact that so many men (readers that is) fell in love with her, tells me Wurts and Feist put the story together very well. I am usually a tough sell for emotional involvement in stories, but certainly got caught here. Anybody who loves fantasy and does not read this is missing something. Any Raymond Feist fan who misses this is missing something important. Oh, I know some of the other side tales (Voyager publications: Honoured Enemy, Jimmy the Hand, Murder in Lamut) were not up to Feist (though I still enjoyed them), but the Empire series is at par with Feist or perhaps even better than some of his stories. Read it for the incredibly strong female character that always remains a woman and never becomes a man to be strong.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: The most boring book in an excellent trilogy! Highly recommend the trilogy!
Rating:
Summary: Good storytelling with a heroine to root for.
Review: Just a few short gongs away from being pronounced a priestess of the Goddess Lashima, Mara of the Acoma is whisked away from the sanctuary of the Goddess to take over as Ruling Lady of her House. Her father and brother, through the devious machinations of a lifelong enemy have perished in the Riftwar. Now it is up to Mara, a young, naïve girl to see to it that her family name isn't obliterated. In the land of Tsurani, the ruling houses play a deadly form of political one-upmanship known as The Great Game. Murder is only frowned upon if you do it in poor form. And Mara's death is being meticulously planned by the same wily person who planned her father's death. But Mara, young though she is, won't go without a fight. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Mara flouts long held traditions in order to bring her family name back to strength. Mara quickly learns how to play the Game and to manipulate events to her favor. She gains a provident alliance with an alien race, she chances upon a very clever spy, and she brokers herself into an advantageous marriage. And while Mara only does what she needs to in order to survive, others see her as ambitious and dangerous, creating more enemies than she started with. The Good:
I love political intrigue books especially set in fantasy, alien worlds. Tsurani has a very oriental flavor which is a real nice departure from the more common western-European/medieval flavor most fantasy novels have. The authors do a fantastic job of painting a picture of a very mannered culture steeped in very rigid ideals of honor, caste and duty. Mara is an engaging heroine. You get her inner dialogue full of doubt, fear, desperation and you get her outer visage that is remote, serene and above all, correct. She is the ultimate out-of-the box thinker and in the context of the story it works. Desperation often makes people do unconventional things. It is also nice that while the authors make her a generally sympathetic character she can also be as manipulative and ambitious as her detractors think she is. Great set up for the next book in the series. The Not So Good.
Things happen too neatly for Mara. She is extremely lucky and I think this is a flaw in the storytelling. Yes, it is great to see Mara triumph and outwit her enemies, but I wish the road to her triumph was a bit sloppier, not so precise. People don't act like you want them to all the time. They are unpredictable and surprising. But they fall into her traps easily enough. Also she hits the right mark too often. Yes, she listened to her father practice state craft as a child but sometimes her actions bespeak a sophistication that should be beyond her. But these are small quibbles. Overall this was a fun and fast read and leaves you anticipating the follow up. I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and More Fun
Review: I read this series several years ago, when I was in high school. OK, I lied, I am 30 now, so it was more than several... Anyhow, I absolutely loved the books. My only caveat- read them only AFTER you have read the Feist Riftwar saga, at least in part. There is much in this series that is explained in the Riftwar series that might be confusing otherwise.
Other than that, I have to say I think this series was actually a better read than Feist's solo shot. The mix of fantasy with Eastern culture is fascinating, and the world-building was superbly done. All in all, a great read.
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