Is Feist using Ghost Writers or just sloppy? (SPOILERS! are contained)

[TheReverend]

Before I vault into some criticism, let me start by saying that the Riftwar and Serpentwar, were absolutely incredible. I loved the directions and adventure of the stories and the depth of the characters.

This continued in Talon of the Silver Hawk and on into King of Foxes before starting a steady decline in Exile's Return.

Exile's Return is where mistakes in his own plot start to build... Tal's business partners are people the book claims he met in Roldem, but if you go back to King of Foxes, they work for him in Salador.

Okay... nitpicky, I admit, but certainly enough to start irking me.

The Darkwar saga is just absurd by the time it's completed. He starts developing Tad and Zane and then by book two, they're an afterthought to Jommy. He, yet again, rehashes Jimmy the Hand into great-great grandson Jimmy. Tal has a daughter and the older son (who was a product of Teal being raped repeatedly after the Orosini genocide) gets his looks from his father?!? Kaspar not only claims he's never been to Elvandar, but that he would like to meet Tomas sometime, but in Exile's Return, he spends days with Tomas and fights alongside him at the climax of the story! They mention the Dasati threat and the millions of potential invaders and then say the Tsuranuanni came with 20,000 and the Emerald Queen invaded with 60,000 and say most of which were destroyed before nightmare ridge... No... the Emerald Queen had 250,000 in her invading army... Also, this series claims Erik von Darkmoor never married and spent his life alone... Rosalynn was a pretty big plot line of the 2nd half of the Serpentwar!

The worst blatant oversight in this disappointing trilogy is Ralan Bek and Leso Varen. Bek supposedly has a fragment of the nameless inside him, while Leso only serves Nalar. In fact, that's exactly what the Nighthawks at Cavall Keep tell him when they pledge service to Bek before he slaughters them all.

Naturally, this ends up being not true... why keep a story consistent, ya know? Bek ends up being a Dasati war god and Leso has a fragment of Nalar...

I've come to suspect more from Feist. I loved him as a writer. This is just a blatant disregard for telling his story properly.

 

[Fake Vencar]

I agree fully with everything you just said because there are lots of mistakes made in many of his later books. Now, I know Feist doesn't reread his books after he has written them so this could be one part of the problem

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Some writers don't care a great deal about continuity, figuring each book stands or fails on its own, and that's that. The late Marion Zimmer Bradley used to incorporate massive rewrites of Darkover history into the plots of later books. She'd even do this with the personal histories of her characters. Then she would go back and write a completely different version of their backstory and get that published. Very confusing, but her fans didn't seem to mind.

Other writers try to be utterly meticulous about continuity from one book to the next. (Although I will say, even with the best intentions, doing this does get harder as the mind ages.)

 

[Cayal]

Saying Erik was never married was a fairly big over sight.

 

[nj1]

I know Fake says that Fiest never re-reads a books he's writing, but perhaps he doesn't read any of his own work and since he's been writing these books for well over a decade, he simply can't remember all the facts. Surely though the facts from his more recent books would be easier for him to remember? and if not then doesn't he or his publisher hire someone to check the book for mistakes, again there were quite a few spelling errors in his latest book.

 

[Overread]

I think it probably a case the he is starting to forget facts and the fact that he is milking the cow a little too much. In my opinion he has been milking since Magicain - since that is hte first and still very much, best bit of writing he has done in the series. The rest is not as inspired as his original tale (not bad to say the least) and he has somehow got stuck writing in only this world (part of me wonders if this is his desire or his publishers desire -- if the former I would expect more continuity than if it were the latter)

 

[nj1]

I think it probably a case the he is starting to forget facts and the fact that he is milking the cow a little too much. In my opinion he has been milking since Magicain - since that is hte first and still very much, best bit of writing he has done in the series. The rest is not as inspired as his original tale (not bad to say the least) and he has somehow got stuck writing in only this world (part of me wonders if this is his desire or his publishers desire -- if the former I would expect more continuity than if it were the latter)

I don't know how things work in the publishing world but is there a possibility that he signed a contract to write say for arguments sake 5 further books about this topic and he is just filling his quota?

To be honest I love Fiests books but I feel that he should have ended after the Serpent Wars and gone on to pastures new.(just my opinion and ducks in case any blunt objects are thrown in my direction )

 

[TheReverend]

Some writers don't care a great deal about continuity, figuring each book stands or fails on its own, and that's that. The late Marion Zimmer Bradley used to incorporate massive rewrites of Darkover history into the plots of later books. She'd even do this with the personal histories of her characters. Then she would go back and write a completely different version of their backstory and get that published. Very confusing, but her fans didn't seem to mind.

Other writers try to be utterly meticulous about continuity from one book to the next. (Although I will say, even with the best intentions, doing this does get harder as the mind ages.)

I'd completely agree with this, but he's making mistakes in a book to huge plot lines EARLIER in that SAME book... drives me mad.

 

[TheReverend]

I don't know how things work in the publishing world but is there a possibility that he signed a contract to write say for arguments sake 5 further books about this topic and he is just filling his quota?

To be honest I love Fiests books but I feel that he should have ended after the Serpent Wars and gone on to pastures new.(just my opinion and ducks in case any blunt objects are thrown in my direction )

I disagree. I think continuing it is great for fans and great for both his bank account and legacy... but if you're going to continue a good story in a good world you created, at least do it right.

 

[Overread]

I have to say that whilst continuing for the sake of money is not a bad thing in itself, it does tend to lead to repetative, predictable and uninspired writing. There is just not the buzz and life of a work that is waiting and wanting to get into words from a mind - often the story gets stuck in these repetative areas because the author can't think of anything else to do with thier world/story - at this point they should stop as it is not helping the works in the long run (you get a batch of weak events which you then have to some how deal with if you ever to get the spark back) and (I feel) that it is an insult to fans. Yes its nice to get new books in a world, but not when there is just not the quality. (to compare with something else - just look at the fiction around starwars - so much is based too heavily on the first 3 films that it adds nothing and only muddles the story - going nowhere big)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'd completely agree with this, but he's making mistakes in a book to huge plot lines EARLIER in that SAME book... drives me mad.

In that case, while he most certainly should have been more careful, his editor, and especially the copy editor should have caught the continuity errors.

 

[Sar]

I have loved Feist's books, but I agree that he begins to get redundant. I also caught myself thinking "How can one world be on the brink of utter destruction so many times? What is it now?" Maybe Feist should move on to other worlds, characters, and stories. Maybe he can't think of anything else? I don't know, but he is definately messing things up in his plots. And I think it is a weak excuse to blame an editor. He is the one doing the creating so he should be able to keep everything straight. If he can't, and his editors apparently aren't even catching the mistakes, then that is an excellent indicator that the story is getting over done.

After all that, I still really enjoy Feist's work. I love how he focuses on the action part of the plotlines that he creates.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

And I think it is a weak excuse to blame an editor. He is the one doing the creating so he should be able to keep everything straight.

In the case of huge continuity errors within one book, there is plenty of blame to go around. Yes, the author should be able to keep everything straight, but copy editors, in particular, are responsible for these things, too. They're paid to do much more than correct the grammar and punctuation, and keeping everything consistent -- names, dates, relationships, descriptions, and much, much more -- is an important part of the job.

So, no, it's not a weak excuse, because it's not an excuse at all. It's pointing out that more than one person has slipped up.

 

[woodsman]

Well.

I thought The Serpent War saga was Feists best not the rift war, but hey, there we do go. I think Feist does need to change direction whilst not entirely deserting Midkemia. There's still life left in the place yet but he perhaps need to try a different approach. Some more about the Valeru would interest me, but not more than a book - perhaps two at most. I'd love to hear more about Nakor as well, Feist killed his best character, (damn him) and thats p[utting me off continuing with him in someways unless he really picks up his game form now on. ramblerant over.

Incosistencies are not a massive downer on a great yarn or unuiqe style but if nothing's setting the book apart they start to become a big weakness IMHO.

 

[nj1]

Well.

I thought The Serpent War saga was Feists best not the rift war, but hey, there we do go. I think Feist does need to change direction whilst not entirely deserting Midkemia. There's still life left in the place yet but he perhaps need to try a different approach. Some more about the Valeru would interest me, but not more than a book - perhaps two at most.

I'm sure that if you take a look at the Crydee site, there's a trilogoy on the Chaos Wars planned for the future. Hopefully it'll be about the Valheru. I'd love to read more on thier exploits.

 

[Cayal]

In my opinion he has been milking since Magicain

You don't milk your only success for 20 years. He wouldn't be writing anymore if that were the case, no one would buy his books.

 

[MKG]

I would have thought that, ESPECIALLY in the case of SF and F, internal consistency has to be paramount. Le Guin has always been insistent on that - that's good enough for me.

I haven't read Feist's latest books (thanks for telling me that Nakor dies ).