Magician's End Book Review

Magician's End marks the 30th and final novel in the great Midkemian series by Raymond E Feist. The first in the series, Magician was published in 1982.  Magician's End was the highly anticipated conclusion to a set of novels that spanned over thirty years and a story that spanned centuries.

Magician's End

My review of Magician's End is later than I planned. I enjoyed Feist's latest novel but had a hard time, initially, to summarize my thoughts on this concluding chapter of the Midkemian universe. The story ends, not quite happily ever after but, with its cutesy and clumsy finish, M.E. wraps up thirty years of books and centuries of plot-lines into too neat a package.

Feist tried creating a mystery and answer to explain the magical powers at play but in the end we have no great mystery. Do not try to explain away magic. The magic and passion we have is lost when logic enters the mix. Remember what George Lucas did in Star Wars to explain the Force? We do not care.

Once the will to act and
to make decisions is removed from our heroes, they become pawns and are no longer the heroes we came to love.

Feist also revisited the Condoin birth line, and I understand why. From the Condoins came the foundation of the novels. The books were not just about Pug the Magician. Arutha and Lyam Condoin were noble and brilliant and had flaws and self-doubt.

The new Condoins are superheroes, the men who could do no wrong. Magician's End brought little intrigue, and little character development. Through repetition Feist tried to drive home the message that the Condoins, Hal, Martin and Brendan are such good boys.

Nothing they did went wrong.

In the first four books, Feist developed the characters and showed us they were noble and heroic, through action. Here we are told they are heroic. Over and over.

All in all Magician's End was a good book. I was relieved that it was detailed and lengthy unlike some of the later rushed novels. While predictable in some ways, it tied up many story lines. We knew how the story would end. We just didn't know how we would get there. Tell me if you didn't know who would be king.

While the novel capped many a story line that spread over these many novels, it was satisfying to a point, but missing its mark on others.

The last book in any series is often the hardest to read. And once read all we have are the pages staring back at us. With every expectation that was developed throughout the reading of the previous books we are left either frustrated or satisfied.

Magician's End

Magician's End was an enjoyable book. And a worthy end to thirty years of story telling. While not his best, M.E. is clearly not Feist's worst novel, and similar to the buildup in the previous couple novels, predictability aside, we are left waiting for the story to unfold until the final climax.
Seeing as how Feist brought back everyone, I would have liked to get Amos' take on things. Do you think that Magician's End was a fitting ending to the series?

Civil war is tearing apart the Kingdom of the Isles, for the throne lies empty and rivals are converging. Having spirited his beloved Princess Stephanie safely out of Roldem, Hal - now Duke of Crydee - must turn his attention to the defence of the ancient realm so that a king can be anointed by the Congress of Lords, rather than by right of might.

Elves and men must stand together, ancient heroes must rise again, dragons must fly and Pug, Magnus and the other magic-users of Midkemia must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if the world is to be saved

Book Review: A Crown Imperilled

In Raymond Feist's latest novel A Crown Imperilled he returns to the form that made his early novels so successful. Much like Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon, the pages of A Crown Imperilled are filled with action, political intrigue and rich and interesting characters.

Since the time of the Serpentwar, we witnessed a dilution in the line of kings in the Kingdom of the Isles. In the Chaoswar, the ConDoin royal family returns to its heroic past.

As war once again ravages Midkemia, its brave and loyal defenders battle to survive. In each kingdom a single petty noble has risen from obscurity to threaten the throne. Enemies march across the realm wreaking destruction — a struggle made more perilous now that Jim Dasher's trusted intelligence network has been cleverly dismantled. Region by region, Midkemia is being ripped apart, and the loyal spy and his allies find themselves overpowered at every turn.

In thirty years of publishing, R.E.F. has had his ups and downs. His excellent stories in the Riftwar Saga and Empire trilogy preceded the very good Serpent War Saga and Conclave of the Shadows. But along with the good came the mediocre and the bad such as the Darkwar and Demonwar books.

With A Crown Imperilled Feist discards some of the weaker characters introduced in his last few novels, focusing in on the stronger heroes, and brings back three of the most popular.

The novel A Crown Imperilled serves as a perfect cliffhanger and leap to the final chapter that has been thirty years in coming. We are left with some intriguing questions. Who will be the next king? Who is behind the turmoil? If not the Pantathian serpents, if not the Valheru, who is behind the war? Much is happening and we have not figured out why. We know a new war is coming and that Midkemia will look different politically and geographically. The return of Nakor and Miranda, Thomas and Calis are hopefully a sign that they will have bigger roles in the final book Magincian's End due for release in early 2013.

Go The Fuck To Sleep

I was in the Chapters bookstore a few days back and ran into my cousin. He introduced me to Go the F**K To Sleep by Adam Mansbach. The book can best be described as a children's story for the parent. The sweetly drawn art work is typical of any children's storybook. The profanity laced prose is what makes Mansbach's book stand out. Of course, I immediately wanted to buy the book but my good old cousin was holding the store's last copy. Here is the awesome audio of Samuel L. Jackson with the accompanying video. In the introduction Jackson says, his own experiences proved that reading stories to put kids to sleep does not work. Jackson said he used to say "go the fuck to sleep" to his own daughter growing up.

While Jackson is perfect in style and voice I started thinking about who else could pull it off. What about Dennis Leary? How about Christopher Walken? He didn't make a recording himself - here is the awesome Kevin Pollack from his show Kevin Pollack's Chat Show impersonating Walken doing the same read.

Go the F**k to Sleep

Book Review: Raymond Feist's A Kingdom Besieged

Raymond E. Feist's latest release A Kingdom Besieged launches the final story arc called the Chaoswar Saga. A Kingdom Besieged is also the first of the final three novels in his Midkemian universe coming almost 30 years after the publication of his first, and arguably best novel, Magician: Apprentice.

A Kingdom Besieged

I have compared this series to the Star Wars saga in the sense that we already know what is going to happen and Feist had lately pigeon-holed himself into completing the entire story in a set number of books all the while filling in the gaps. Another problem that has surfaced stems from Feist killing off his best and most original characters. His last few books were far from his best, A Kingdom Besieged is a great read and a return to the Feist of old.


In many ways A Kingdom Besieged is a return to form for Feist. There are what I would call the 'oh no he didn't moments'. And yes, he did find a plausible loophole to raise the dead without it coming across as contrived. Almost. I will avoid any specific spoilers. A Kingdom Besieged is Feist's best book since those of The Serpentwar Saga. 


In his earlier books Feist's characters were so well thought out we recognized that REF was writing about people he knew personally. Those characters were close to him. Later, the new characters seemed foreign and their stories communicated as if they were being repeated and not a topic known first hand. This perhaps reflects on a rushed development process or, perhaps, someone running out of ideas. Feist always had success with developing rich characters that would leap off the page. Even some of his regular characters had lately seemed foreign to him. 


A Kingdom Besieged Book One of the Chaoswar Saga
The story picks up with the mighty army of Kesh marching into the Kingdom of the Isles, capturing towns and killing its residents. Initially Kesh's plans appear to be to recapture the land lost centuries before to the Kingdom. At the same time Pug, the most powerful magician in the world, recovering from the loss of his family, discovers increased turmoil in the Demon world. 

A Kingdom Besieged

The novel is faster paced than some of his more recent work. Perhaps Feist can be excused for a few lapses as, after nearly thirty years and more than two dozen novels his story is coming to its conclusion. With two more novels to go, the author will be challenged to match his best work. The next novel, A Crown Imperilled, is set for a spring 2012 release. While the final book, Magician's End is expected in 2013.

If you haven't read Feist before, A Kingdom Besieged is not the book with which to start. With limited character building the new reader will be left confused. The story though is quite good and there are enough twists and cliff hangers to perk your interest. Feist also managed to clear up some of the plot that didn't make sense in the last book. All of the Midkemian series are of the historical fantasy-adventure variety. The Riftwar series, contained much political intrigue. His Serpent War series, while still steeped in historical fantasy, took on a theological theme in this polytheistic universe.

Feist remains one of my favourite authors. A feat he won with his first four novels. His world of Midkemia is  the most detailed and interesting literary world since The Lord of the Rings. His novels Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon, along with the Empire Trilogy he co-wrote with Janny Wurts are numbered as his best works to date. (Click here for my review of At the Gates of Darkness)

A Kingdom Besieged - Feist Novel Released

Raymond E. Feist's long awaited follow-up novel A Kingdom Besieged has finally hit the bookshelves in the U.K. and will hit the stores in North America April 12th. Feist's 29th novel follows At the Gates of Darkness, a book considered a major disappointment by many readers. A Kingdom Besieged launches the final story arc, the Chaoswar Saga, and is the first of the final three novels in the Midkemian universe. This release comes almost 30 years after the publication of the first novel Magician: Apprentice. Stay tuned to this very space for a personal review. I will have my hands on the novel tomorrow morning.

A Kingdom Besieged

Happy Birthday and Welcome

As we approach the first anniversary of the launch of stubbornfool.com I got to thinking of how to take the site to the next level. In doing so, I looked back at the last year and what drove people to the site in the first place. I figured the best places to start were Google Analytics and Blogger Stats. Both provide similar resources for tracking visitors.

I launched Stubborn Fool in February of 2010 with a few ideas but no real plan. I had dreams of this site erupting on the blogosphere. I imagined my brilliant posts going viral. At best perhaps, they have gone bacterial. I have a select few "old" friends that visit the site. I have a number of "blog" friends that are regular visitors. I wanted to know about the semi-regular and random guests. What brought my new readers, my occasional readers and random viewers to Stubborn Fool? I thought of presenting my favourite posts but did not have the patience to read everything I wrote. Some of my personal favourites are posts with random thoughts strung together.

The first thing that I looked at was which sites drew the most people to Stubborn Fool. It turns out it was Google. From there I was hoping to find some odd or funny search terms. But this was not exactly the case. I should probably improve my SEO. I did get the few people looking for sex or sex related items, and they ended up here mostly because of my post called My Friend Andy Had Sex.

I then spent several days studying the search terms that brought my most welcomed guests to my site. I dumped all the results into Excel and started plugging in my formulas. Part of my job involves analytics and Excel so this was right up my alley.

I have had two posts that have brought a huge number of visitors, relatively speaking. I will get to those in a moment as they weren't the largest search term entries according to Blogger Stats. The most commonly searched item that drove people to my site? 'Best Looking Man' or some variation of this. I have to think that many people were disappointed with their end results. Unless of course they were fans of Kids in the Hall or have a sense of humour. Watch that video and tell me that isn't the best strutting you have ever seen.

The next most commonly searched item was 'What should I eat for supper'. I had a lot of hits but the only comments were from Cardiogirl. Thanks to her comments, I had a several additional hits from people searching for Humphrey Bogart, Pork chops and Applesauce, W.C. Fields and James Cagney.

The next big item was my run down of the top upbeat breakup songs. I found over twenty and had to split the post in two. Springsteen, Paul Simon, Gloria Gaynor and Frank Black.

Next on the list, garnering 8% of the Google search terms was The Top 60 Ghetto Names or Top 60 Jewish Ghetto Names. I still chuckle when I watch the video.

One of my favourite writers of all time is Raymond E Feist, a fantasy author with over 25 published titles, of which I have read every single one. Feist was next on the list with 7% of the total search items. Feist shared this feat with his last book titled At the Gates of Darkness. Feist had a knack for political intrigue while staying true to the fantasy genre. His world of Midkemia was probably the most detailed and descriptive since Tolkien. Alas, Feist has not been as strong in his later works, but at this point, I am so addicted, I will have to read his final three novels as he wraps up the series. The next one, A Kingdom Besieged, is due for release in March 2011.

How many people searched for my email address in the last year? Enough to make it to the top 10. A whole bunch of people were looking for my contact information. Kind of creepy.

I was surprised to find the movie Inception so low on the list at number eight just because my post about the film is my second most viewed. It is hardly a typical film review but I had fun writing it.

Zombies are big. They are better than most other monsters. The only monsters that are better are those vampires in the early Anne Rice chronicles. I wrote a bit about the amazing new TV series, The Walking Dead. But what had more hits was my review of the online game Road of the Dead. It's a pretty cool driving game where you get to run over Zombies. Yes, just like a Monday morning drive to work.

Another one of my favourite authors sits at number nine on the list of most searched items. Jean Auel, the less then prolific writer of Clan of the Cave Bear is set to release her first novel in nine years. Auel's writing is captivating in its descriptive nature. The reason for the delay between releases is largely due to the amount of research she puts into her novels. Land of Painted Caves is due for a March 2011 worldwide release.

Rounding out the top ten of most searched items that drew readers to my site is Red Dawn. The 1984 film was a success in the box office and its long delayed remake will finally be released in 2011.

The post with the most hits doesn't even make it into the top 20 of Google searches. The Expendables was a wild movie, mostly for the action stars that made an appearance.
Most of the remaining search terms were related to videos I posted, the Batman fan film and music or film reviews. Quite a few were interested in my home projects and my bathroom stories.
Google Analytics and Blogger stats continue to be great resources for understanding your readers. With their help in the coming days, I plan on taking a look at where my readers live, from whence they come and how else they ended up on my site. All visitors and comments are welcome.

Book Review: Raymond Feist's At The Gates of Darkness

Raymond E Feist's 2010 novel At The Gates of Darkness continues the saga of Pug the magician. In this novel Pug marshals the Conclave of Shadows, their allies, master spy Jim Dasher, the young Knight-Adamant Sandreena, and the warlock Amirantha against the invading horde of battle demons. The demon invasion has already caused the fall of dozens of worlds and the deaths of millions. Among those deaths were Pug's wife Miranda and their youngest son.

Murmandamus in Armengar

I enjoyed At The Gates of Darkness but it is far from Feist's best. As a stand alone novel, or if you have only recently been introduced to the author, you may enjoy it more than the seasoned Midkemian reader.

His early books were epic. Gates of Darkness comes across as an afterthought or a quickly thrown together story as if Feist was rushed to meet his publication deadline. This is a novella and, his ideas may be running thin. I got the impression at times that I was reading fan fiction.

As of late, I have compared this series to the Star Wars saga in the sense that we already know what is going to happen and Feist is pigeon-holed into completing the entire story in a set number of books all the while filling in the gaps. Another problem that has surfaced stems from Feist killing off his best and most original characters. Sandreena and Amirantha pale in comparison to the heroes of yore Arutha, Jimmy the Hand, all the way to Nakor and Miranda. Feist's 26 novels span hundred's of years, so it is expected that his mortal characters would have to be killed off. For every Arutha that dies an Erik Von Darkmoor is born. But for this latest publication, At The Gates of Darkness where was Thomas? He was barely mentioned. The author should at least make full use of his characters.

At the Gates of Darkness: Book Two of the Demonwar Saga

And (spoiler alert if you didn't read Rides a Dread Legion) why does Feist keep repeating over and over that Miranda's death has effected Pug? It only brings attention to what most fans consider a waste, the death of a popular character. Mention it once and move on Ray.

Feist's earlier books were epic novels of great detail, with well developed characters. He was recognized for producing well researched fantasy stories of adventure and political intrigue. Feist knew who he was writing about, he knew his characters personally. His later books are filled with rushed stories and thin characters almost as if he is repeating a story secondhand.

Over his last couple novels I also began to wonder how many other types of elves he is going to discover. I hope the Keeblers don't attack next.

All in all, the book was not bad. It fits in as a placeholder before the final trilogy. The two books that make up the Demon War Saga would have been better released as one novel. I could have stomached the teaser ending much easier on a full length novel.

I remember reading Magician, Silverthorn and Sethanon for the first time and staying up all night because I could, literally, not put them down. Here's to hoping that the final three Midkemian books contain some of that spark that made us fall in love with the world Feist created. Anyone know what happened to Honest John's at Hallofworlds.net? Honest John's seems to have disappeared. (edit: click here for my review of A Kingdom Besieged.)

Expected Release dates:
A Kingdom Besieged (2011)
A Crown Imperilled  (2012)
Magicians End (2013)

At the Gates of Darkness: Book Two of the Demonwar Saga