As you know, I have many weaknesses. I’ve listed them several times. Once more I’ll say: I am weak for devil-may-care princes. A spoiled prince who learns a few lessons on his journey is a tried and true trope, and I’m a total sucker for it. I thought I hit the jackpot with twin princes. I thought I was going to experience a rich fantasy court setting–Feist is, depending on your social circles, considered one of the granddad’s of fantasy, after all. What I got instead was surprisingly lackluster.
Borric and Erland are highly skilled in sword fighting, languages, and commanding battlefields–their social skills, however, need a lot of work. While their father, Prince Arutha, tries to press on them the severity of their future, Borric and Erland are too busy gambling to pay attention. It’s only when they’re tasked to travel to Kesh that they start to gain an understanding.
The book is set in an established world that begins with what would be called the Riftwar, and Pug, a magician who would become the strongest ever. This particular book takes place after the Riftwar. While it’s a new series, separate from the Riftwar series, I felt I was missing a lot. These are all recurring characters, recurring settings, and a lot of times someone mused on information that long time readers would know; other times names were mentioned without any follow-up, expecting you to already know the severity behind the events.
One scene in particular was really perplexing. I guess it’s a staple in the series that everyone has a “magical love” moment. One look and suddenly you’re completely love drunk. A character that I was enjoying suddenly became a giggling school boy. He was married and the bride brought a convenient deus ex machina with her: telepathic communication. This is only the first deus ex machina.
The second deus ex machina arrives later in the form of Nakor, a traveling monk. This deus ex machina is assigned to Borric, basically to spring him from any and every sticky situation; the other deus ex machina hangs out with Erland to read minds and keep communication between the royal party in a palace of spies. Pretty convenient, if you ask me.
I found I didn’t really care about the plot. I was invested in Borric’s side of the journey, wondering how he would cross so much distance or get into a heavily guarded palace, but I didn’t care about the possibility of assassinations or looming war. There’s not a single point in the beginning or middle of the plot that I could recite; the majority was Erland meeting officials, and that’s about it.
I didn’t really care about the characters. In fact, one of the main characters who was vital throughout the past series is killed off-screen and hardly mentioned again. I can only imagine what a slap that was for that character’s fans. When Borric was thought dead, Erland barely batted an eye. He didn’t grieve, didn’t air his emotions, didn’t go through “fits of rage and grief” as the blurb promises. His other half, the one person he was never far from, is suddenly ripped away and Erland just kind of goes along and says “Hey, if Borric was dead, I’d feel it.”
And if you’re expecting at least one woman in this book to be interesting, think again. Even in Kesh, a matriarchy ruled by a powerful empress, not a single woman jumps off the page. There are plenty to be sure, but they’re no more important than the columns throughout the palace. With her telepathy, Gamina should have been the most interesting woman in the place, but she was your typical 80s damsel.
I will say the descriptions of the world are lovely and rich and draw you in. They’re absolutely wonderful! A part of me wants to think the characters suffered in this book because of the previous series; the reader should know who’s who and their past actions should give you all the info you need about their character. The other part of me believes it was pure laziness. Maybe coasting on the popularity of the Riftwar series at the time, Feist wrote a quick cash grab?
All in all, it was a flat book. Maybe if I had started at the very beginning with Pug I would have enjoyed it more, but as a stand-alone series, there’s not enough original meat to make it a good read.