A Darkness in Sethanon (Riftwar Saga #4) by Raymond E Feist

Having finished ' A Darkness in Sethanon', I have completed the first series 'Riftwar Saga' in this huge Riftwar Cycle. In this post I am going to discuss my thoughts about this book. So. Here. We . Go....

A Darkness at Sethanon is the stunning climax to Raymond E. Feist's brilliant epic fantasy trilogy, the Riftwar Saga. 

Here be dragons and sorcery, swordplay, quests, pursuits, intrigues, stratagems, journeys to the darkest realms of the dead and titanic battles between the forces of good and darkest evil. 

Here is the final dramatic confrontation between Arutha and Murmandamus - and the perilous quest of Pug the magician and Tomas the warrior for Macros the Black. A Darkness at Sethanon is heroic fantasy of the highest excitement and on the grandest scale, a magnificent conclusion to one of the great fantasy sagas of our time

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Although not my favourite in the series I still liked it. Story follows Arutha with his previous group in addition to Locklear as they goes to Northernlands. Their part of the story was action packed, filled with adventure and after they reached Armenger, it was full of battles. Another part of the story follows Pug and Tomas and their journey in finding Macros and getting to know the reasons for all that is happening, in the past and in the present and for the future.

What I did not like -

- I was hoping for something more in terms of the role of Pug and Tomas in the final battle.While it was pretty important, their storyline did not mingle with the rest of the group until the very end, that somehow made me quite disappointed.

-  Underwhelming fight at the very end. After so much anticipation from the glorious battle scenes, I was expecting something more and that more was missing at the end, making the ending quite underwhelming.

- Pacing was little slow in some parts, that could have been avoided.

- Not all the characters were shown or explored. Some characters were showed only at the starting and at the end, that was disappointing to see. I was really expecting all three ConDoin brothers in the final showdown but it did not happen.

What I really did like -

- Battle Scenes and the Super exciting action scenes were great.Although it felt dragged at some places, I still loved it!

- The Camaraderie between the characters was awesome. The hardship of the battles and stress did not make them assholes but everyone was supportive with few exceptions (which we always have)

- I loved the history of Valheru and the Gods. We got to know a lot about Tomas's half valheru part (Ashen Shugar) and how it was relevant and tied with 'The Enemy'.



Overall Book Rating  - ☆☆☆☆

Other Books in 'Riftwar Saga' Series -

( Both first and second book were later released as one book " Magician", but I read both separately so consider it a four book series instead of three)

Magician : Apprentice (Book #1) - 3.75 Stars
Magician : Master (Book #2) -  5 Stars
Silverthorn (Book #3) - 5 Stars

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Book Review - Silverthorn (Riftwar Saga #3) by Raymond E Feist

Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist
My rating -  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (out of 5)


Third in the 'Riftwar Saga' series,this book continues an year after the events of second book.Arutha finally confesses his love to Anita and proposes marriage to her.We see that a very dark ancient power is after Arutha and tries to finish him off from the face of Midkemia.In the process of destroying him,his bride gets the brunt of it and now Arutha will do anything to save his love.On the day of the wedding , Princess Anita is injured due to a poisoned bolt and is now on the verge of death.After that the most part of the book is about Arutha and his journey to the different lands of the kingdom in search of a herb called 'Silverthorn' for the sake of his beloved's life.Will he be able to find it in time and defeat the evil power who is after him? The answer is in this awesome book of 400+ pages.

My Thoughts

Plot, World & Writing-

The first part of the book is all about Arutha and his group, which have Jimmy, Martin, Laurie and Gardan for the most of the part, later accompanied by few more new characters.This part is mostly spent travelling and trying to outrun this evil power's army,finding the cure of the poisoned bolt and the understanding the reason behind it.It was a slow read for me,as the group went from one city to another in this quest, it was all same for me,with same pattern.

But I loved the second part of the book, it had both Pug and Arutha's chapters. We had Pug, who is on another mission to find the source of this evil power, once again he goes to Kelewan and deals with the repercussions of the previous book's events.Each and every information and revelation somehow is like a piece of puzzle which contribute to the old and dark time of Chaos War in both worlds. Last third part of the book had me engrossed with its action packed plot and I flew through that part in just matter of hours.

Overall I loved the Second half of the book a lot. If you think you got the both world uncovered in last books,you got it wrong! We gets into even more unknown parts of Midkemia and Kelewan in this one and you can feel the surroundings as you experience what our characters are going through in both the worlds.The writing is vivid and descriptive, but not overly descriptive and you can imagine yourself in the forests,mountains and the dark and wintery worlds.

☆☆☆☆☆

Characters & Relationships- 

I loved everyone in this book.Unlike the previous books,there was not a single person with whom I actually had any issue.We had Arutha and Jimmy as our main characters for the most part of the book and I loved their bonding and bickering.Arutha is a serious character but Jimmy's witty and fun nature brought the best of him.Even when he was sulking due to 

circumstances,Jimmy was their to help him out along with Martin. Apart of them I loved our ConDoin brothers trio and I  would love to have them as my group of siblings.

As for our old beloved protagonists, we had most of the Pug scenes in the second half and I lived for them.Only sad part was very less Tomas but I guess we will have that in next book.I loved how much understanding there was in between Pug and Katala (#RelationshipGoals)

So like the previous two,we had the resolution at the end but also knows that worst is yet to come, everything is not over yet. Ending brought even more anticipation of what is going to happen next and how this first series is going to conclude and I can't wait to get my hands into the next one

☆☆☆☆☆

Favourite Quote - 

“Life is problems. Living is solving problems.” 

See you in the next post...Bye 🙋

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Book Review - Magician : Master (Riftwar Saga Book 2) by Raymond E. Feist

Book Title - Magician : Master 
Series - Riftwar Saga Book #2
Author - Raymond E Feist
Genre - Fantasy
My Ratings - ★★★★★

Three years after the events of the first book 'Magician:Apprentice', Pug is now working as a slave in a swamp camp of the Empire of Tsuranuanni in the world of Kelewan. Meanwhile, in the Midkemia, war is still going on and Prince Arutha in Crydee embarks a journey to Krondor for aid as he suspects a powerful attack from Tsurani very soon. Back in Elvander, Tomas has a war within himself as he is going through his own struggle for not to give in to the power of Ashen Shugar, the ancient Dragon Lord whose armor he wore.

All of them have their own struggles and own path to choose, but will they able to survive and free the Kingdom from a very long ongoing war or will the kingdom be ruined in the midst of politics and the possibility of a civil war?

My Thoughts

After an okay read of the first book,I was not expecting much from this second one.But it really turns out to be one of the best fantasies I have read so far! What really made this book better than its predecessor was all the character arcs, well explained culture and very intriguing political dynamics within the society.We had multiple perspectives and different plot lines for our characters from the previous book. Each had back and forth chapters dedicated in between Kelewan and Midkemia.

What I did not Like

There was nothing which really bothered me but there were few scenes I would have loved to see explored, but author did not invest much time getting into them.

What I did Like!

- My favourite and most engaging part was Pug's evolution as 'Great One'.We got to see a lot through his training and his coming to the power.All the history of Kelewan and how Tsurani emerges as a race among others, political structure and dynamics among the Kelewan and how it was described to us, was awesome and it was told as Pug came to power as 'Milamber'.
- Great Character Development especially Pug and Carline. Both had very different journey on very different worlds but at the end we can really see that they have come a very long way from what they started.I did not like Carline in the first book,she was really very immature and drama queen but in this book we got to see a very mature part of her,especially given what took place.

- I was disappointed when we had very few female characters introduced in the first one,but this one had many females (old & new) in the story.Though we still did not have them as main part of the plot but it was definitely an improvement from earlier. 

- World Building and the way differences between both the world,Midkemia and Kelewan was showed,it was very interesting.I really liked that Raymond created two worlds with such bloody and great history and so different yet so similar in many areas.We got introduced to different species and races of Kelewan and the contrast between both worlds culture and beliefs was amazing.

- Romance.Though it is never an important and mostly overlooked factor for me in most of fantasies, as I tend to get very choosy in romance and most of my hated tropes are related to romance overall.This book had both insta-love and slow burning romances between the pairs but I really liked them unlike the unnecessary Love Triangle in the first book.Which was a plus point for me.

I would definitely recommend his book to all those fantasies lovers who really like world building and political intrigue within as well as across the nation.If you really like the tropes like 'Coming to Power','War Bound Nation',World Building and lots & lots of political intrigue again!
I will definitely say do not waste time and start with the first book,it will definitely worth the journey for coming to this point.

“There are many ways to love someone. Sometimes we want to love so much we're not too choosy about who we love. Other times we make love such a pure and noble thing no poor human can ever meet our vision. But for the most part, love is a recognition, an opportunity to say, 'There is something about you I cherish.' It doesn't entail marriage, or even physical love. There's love of parents, love of city or nation, love of life, and love of people. All different, all love” *

{*Excerpts/Quotes from Book 'Magician:Master'}


See ya in the Next post! 🙋

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Book Review - Magician : Apprentice (Riftwar Saga #1) by Raymond E Feist

Summary -

Growing up in the castle of Duke of Crydee, Pug is an orphan who along with his friend Tomas, awaits for his choosing (education) which will decide his future on the day of Midsummer.Imagine his surprise when he becomes an apprentice of Duke's Master Magician.From there onwards starts his adventure, first in castle where he emerges higher in rank among the royals and in magic, then to a journey all over 'The Kingdom' to aware the other cities and clans about an alien force invasion seen near the coastal province, Crydee .Why are these alien force trying to infiltrate the westlands of the kingdom? Where did they come from? Will Pug and others be able to stop them or their nation will become slaves to these outwordly empire?

My Thoughts -

This is quite an old fantasy, first published in eighties and then republished as author's preferred edition in 1992.Overall, I loved Raymond E Feist's writing and his description of the world of Midkemia, which was very descriptive and captivating.

It is not only about our protagonist, Pug (weird name, I know!) but also shifted focus to other characters in each chapter as per the direction of the story.The plot as a whole could be divided into three parts, all of it took place in the span of few years.

First part of the story was more about Pug and how he deals with his new status, second part was all about the travelling and Pug's and other character's journey, where we gets to see more of this world and the last but not the least third part, was more focused on politics, war and was the most action packed one out of all three and which I enjoyed reading the most! 

What I did not like was the romance in the first part, there was a love triangle which in my opinion was not necessary and could have been skipped.I was also little bored in that first part and had to forced myself there a little bit.But as the story progressed and we got to the  more adventurous part , it once again picked my interest and I was interested to see what will happen next. 

I was also little disappointed to see very few female characters in the book and would like to see more females in action in the next one.The magical aspect of the story was very underdeveloped in the second and third part of the story on Pug's side , but I guess this will be explored in the further books so I will be patient on that one!

Still, by the end of the book I was invested enough to care about all the characters,I loved Pug,Tomas,Arutha,Martin and other characters and would love to continue with the next book, 'Magician : Master', 2nd one in the series to see what will happen to all these characters and how this story will further take place.

Overall Rating - 3.75 Stars!

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