Feist still worthy of a read?

[MalickaNeya]

I read a lot of confusing things too now in his new books. earlier it was simple, but now sometimes I can´t get it, they talk for so long and I can´t concentrate xD but maybe it´s because of translation too xD but I really love Riftwar saga, Empire saga, Krondor books and Serpent saga too (there I like the beginning when they are training and you know what I mean ) and I like Honour enemy a lot too, first time I read it I cried because I really imagined it in my head. It was the same as in the Riftwar and Empire saga, the amazing way to show us how does something look and the the picture shows in my head like a film xD I want to read them again, but I agree with all of you that the last ones are a little weaker in some ways. I´m also dissapointed that it is just too long story (on the other hand I´m glad for something) and almost all of my favourite characters died. If they died in battle or something I would cry and then they would be heroes, but they died because they were old but still love Feist´s books and if I´m recommending books then it´s always Feist xD

PS sorry for my English, I´m trying my best xD

 

[Turner]

one thing i noticed is that in later books feist gets the names of all his minor characters wrong. half of them are misspelled or changed (don't know which). also i don't know how many more times he can renew pug's life.

 

[xmurph37]

I have read all 27 books in this series and the last 2 have been dissappointments. They were a bit too mechanical, not passionate, and too short. It seems that he is missing some of his Friday Nighters. I just don't see how he can wrap things up in the next three books when the next one, a Kingdom Besieged, is only 320 pages short. I am hoping for a "Returning" of all the elves to Elvandar to help whatever is going to happen. I am also intrigued by the Anoredhel and the Sven'gar'ri, who they protect, and what role they might play in the end, if any. Lots of loose ends.

 

[xyz]

They were bad AND too short? Ha!

The last couple that have come out are terrible, don't bother. He must be paying some grad student to write them or something.

 

[cornelius]

I found the storyline to grow a bit repetitive over the different series. A bit like " New threat, new elves, someone dies unexpectedly, "bad guys" relate to the same main idea, peace with an if-clause, repeat."

I did enjoy most of Feist's books and I think his work is a good introduction to Fantasy, including both Magic and a fictional world with exotic races, politics and the lot.
but once you get into hardcore epic fantasy (Erikson) or hardcore political schemes with just a hint of fantasy (GRR Martin) then Feist will feel a bit... thin.

I don't want to bash Feist here, and it's just my opinion. And I don't mean "hardcore" as a bad thing.

 

[Grimbear]

I still read every one he writes....

I read Magician when I was about 12/13 and together with LoTR and the Belgariad this was my intro to fantasy. I have to agree though since the last Serpenwar book I have enjoyed each new book less than the one before.

It's gotten so bad I didn't even get half way into the latest one before I put it down in disappointment.

I found the storyline to grow a bit repetitive over the different series. A bit like " New threat, new elves, someone dies unexpectedly, "bad guys" relate to the same main idea, peace with an if-clause, repeat."

Yep - this is the problem. The characters too have become less distinct, more generic. He's churning them out it feels like - no longer trying.

A real pity.

But I still keep trying in the hopes that one day he'll write something more to the standard of Magician, Darkenss at Sethanon etc

 

[Clansman]

I stopped reading Feist years ago, with Shards of A Broken Crown being my last. In my opinion, his best was Magician (which I devoured), and then the Empire series with Janny Wurts, which had the best characterization and plot development of any of his books. Actually, it was Empire that led me to be a rabid Janny Wurts fan...

But back to Feist. He is out of ideas for Midkemia, and no, he is not trying anymore, he is showing up to work and putting in his eight hours a day, nothing more. I mean, putting out a "revised and updated" edition of Magician? Come on! do something new and exciting, for crying out loud! For Feist to get back to the heights that he achieved with Riftwar, he needs a totally new world, something that excites him about writing again. We know he has the ability, he just needs the fire in the belly. His fire for Midkemia burned down in the Serpentwar books, and was ashes after Shards...

You can't write good books on ashes. Ashes are only good for mourning (as long as you have some sackcloth handy), and for spreading on acidic soil.

 

[biodroid]

Clansman - I think he is having personal problems and it's really affecting him, maybe it's also hindering his writing. He needs to do something fresh for a big comeback. It's sad to see him fizzle out slowly as he is the man who got me reading fantasy and I will will always thank him for that.

 

[Grimbear]

It's sad to see him fizzle out slowly as he is the man who got me reading fantasy and I will will always thank him for that.

This is exactly how I feel.

Magician was the book that got me not only started on reading fantasy but thinking about it and writing it too. I think I even wrote an extremely terrible fan-fic set in Midkemia back then.

This has since been immolated together with all the other piles of absolute crap I wrote then

Thanks Droid

Another thought - one thing that has bothered me more lately about his last few books in particular is that Pug et al are just so unbelievable powerful.

 

[darksilence]

Magician, Jimmy The Hand with the Conclave of Shadow series were the best character developments in the series. I don't know if its good or bad but when Feist doesnt develop a character very nicely i can't enjoy the books as i should.

 

[Fake Vencar]

Character recycling is the main problem and it starts due to the time scales involved between his series. He developed so many great identities during the Riftwar and the Serpentwar sagas, but all those characters were brutally laid aside when the next book is set thirty years in the future.

 

[Valko]

I though A Kingdom Besieged was Feist back at his best

 

[darkfox]

Despite the stories being shorter than his usual offerings, I still love reading every new Feist book that comes out.

I started reading his books at "Shadow of a Dark Queen" and went back to read the Riftwar Saga and got completly hooked.

 

[Morvai_]

I think to be honest he has recycled stuff a lot, but overall theres still a core story there, he has two more to write, after that hes starting something new (sadly i dont think he will ever finish the Krondor series of books but we can figure out who the crawler was anyway its more how Jazhara died i will always wonder)

Its true the last few years the books have been a little less amazing than before but then each new series the scope has changed,

in the original few series we were only worried about the kingdom, then it expanded outwards towards the world of midkemia, then further, now we see the fates of various plains of reality held in the balance.

Admittedly the constant new varieties of elf are getting a little much, dont get me wrong i love the back story to the eldar, glamredhel, moredhel and eledhel but come on as fractured as the edhel are did we need the ocedhel, anoredhel and taredhel?

I will keep reading them as long as he keeps writing them i guess ive been a fan of his work since 1993 when i first played betrayal at krondor on my old computer 18 years later i have every book, short story, graphic novel and both games and while im intreaged at how this long saga is going to end and while ill admit part of me is going to be sad that a constant in my life for many years will end, im also kind of keen to see how the story ends so he can try write something else, Pug has never been my favourite character (dont get me wrong hes an amazing guy and all but the shorter lived characters who lived breathed and died all in one book are always the ones that got to me most (Morvai/tinuva, Gorath to name a couple)

 

[Hekateras]

FYI, Gorath was awesome. Pity Feist butchered him, he's an even more amazing character in the game. Feist just had to derail him

Betrayal at Krondor got me into Feist. (When I was seven.) Feist got me into fantasy. So it's been very bitter for me to realise what a sham he is.

See, it's like this: the best/most interesting elements of his books (to me) can almost invariably be traced back to the work of OTHER people.

The Midkemia setting was conceived together with Feist's college buddies, the Friday Nighters, for their DnD-ish campaign, set about 500 years after the events of the first Riftwar. Feist effectively wrote out the lore and ancient history they used for the game. I'm tempted to assume he based Arutha and Jimmy and the like on the game characters, but I have no idea, so let's give him credit where it's due: Arutha and Jimmy and Amos and many others in the original trilogy are awesome.

Then there's his co-written books. When a book is co-written, it is generally close to impossible to have equal shares of work or even real cooperation. At best, the writers come up with a plot together, and then one of them does the bulk of writing it out.

Did you like Honoured Enemy? I loved it. Especially the arc with Tinuva and Morvai. But then I emailed Feist about a lore error (Tinuva says "Bury me beside my brother", when we all know the edhel consider burial to be an insult to the spirit that inhabited the body). He said it was him "not catching a gaff by Bill" (as in, the co-writer, William Forstchen). So there you have it. A major climactic scene in the book, and it was written by the co-writer, and Feist didn't even notice a major lore error in it.

The same goes for the Empire Trilogy, which has unusually deep and rich characterisation. Unusually, because the characters change through time. Face it, Feist's characterisation arcs usually boil down to a Coming-of-Age story, he doesn't usually do deeper stuff.

And then of course there's the excellent game Betrayal at Krondor, which, I may note, was written entirely by Neal Hallford. Feist didn't write the story or the OC's or any of the in-game text - he was busy writing The King's Buccaneer at the time. Of course, didn't stop him from (badly) adapting the story into a novel and earning money off it. (I still can't forgive him for the way he butchered Owyn's character by making him some sort of unsympathetic comedic relief.)


Note that the Riftwar Trilogy, Honoured Enemy and the Empire Trilogy are the ones most unequivocally considered to be his best books, and the game Betrayal at Krondor is praised for its writing and likewise widely considered to be one of the best RPGs EVER.

...And then he has the gall to be an utter hypocrite and forbid fanfiction. Rrrright. Allegedly because it's a financial risk. Which is odd. The list of authors who forbid fanfiction on Wikipedia and FF.net is, what, a dozen? You'd think that if it presented an actual financial risk the thousands and thousands of writers who don't forbid it would have noticed something by now. Never mind how useful fanfiction is for keeping the fandom going, especially with books, where years can go by in-between updates. It can't be a coincidence that nearly all of the offical Feist forums have either closed down or don't talk about Feist at all anymore.


Now that Feist is on his own, he seems recycling old characters and archetypes, using a lazy and sloppy prose style (infodumps within a page of introducing a character? Really?), and generally being lazy. (Remember how freakishly short A Kingdom Besieged was?)

Midkemia is a great setting, one which can obviously be used to great advantage with love and motivation (of which Feist seems to have neither lately), but I wouldn't recommend his more recent books, and from what contact I've had with him, he seems snobbish and arrogant. That's the sad truth.