Product Description

The first book in a brand new series by the master of epic fantasy, Raymond E. Feist. Ten years after the cataclysmic events of Wrath of a Mad God took place, Midkemia now faces a new danger thought buried in myth and antiquity. A lost race of elves, the taredhel or 'people of the stars', have found a way across the universe to reach Midkemia. On their current home world, these elves are hard pressed by a ravaging demon horde, and what was once a huge empire has been reduced to a handful of survivors. The cornerstone of taredhel lore is the tale of their lost origins in the world they call simply 'Home', a place lost in the mists of time. Now they are convinced that Midkemia is that place, and they are coming to reclaim it. Ruthless and arrogant, the taredhel intend to let nothing stand in their way; but before long, Pug and the Conclave realise that it's not necessarily the elves, but the demon horde pursuing them where the true danger lies. And hanging over Pug always is the prophecy that he will be doomed to watch everyone he loves die before him!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4474 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

From the Author
When did you start writing?
If you mean when did I seriously start writing, that was in 1977, the year I graduated from University. I really got serious a year later which was when I took a rough coming-of-age story and started turning into Magician, my first published novel.

Where do you write?
I have a home office.

What are the pros and cons of being a writer?
The same as with any self-employment: you’re your own boss, you set your own schedule, you determine the quality of the product, etc. The downside is you have no corporate safety net, no unemployment insurance, no health care benefits, no retirement plan, so you bear responsibility for all of those things. It is not a job for the timid.

What writers have inspired you?
Too long a list to cover them all. Anything good, in one fashion or another influences. There are some very obvious names, to begin with: Shakespeare, Marlow, Dickens, the Russians, Twain, Melville, and some slightly less obvious, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander Dumas, Anthony Hope, and the other "boy’s adventure" authors. Also, historical authors like Mary Renault, Rosemary Suttcliff, and Thomas Costain. And the pulp authors: Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Ridder Haggard, A. Merrrit, and among fantasy writers, Fritz Lieber. Toss in as diverse a range of writers as Zane Grey and Louis L’amour in westerns to Dashel Hammett , Raymond Chandler, and John D. McDonald in mystery, to comedic writers like Max Schulman and Dan Jenkins. I could keep going, but that’s the tip of the iceberg.

How important is a sense of place in your writing?
Tough question to answer in brief; every element in a fantasy has to “make sense” to the reader. You can not condescend to your art because it’s “make believe,” so even though the place in which I set my work is a fantasy world, it has to feel “real” structurally, else the reader will ultimately be unhappy.

Do you spend a lot of time researching your novels?
Only enough to convince the reader the characters know what they’re doing. I don’t have to be the expert; I just need to be persuasive.

Do your characters ever surprise you?
All the time. In fact, as I get older, more and more often. I suspect this is a function of my subconscious coming up with better story notions than I had originally planned.

How much of your life and the people around you do you put into your books?
In specific, none of it; in general, all of it. The old saw is that writers write what they know. It’s like what actors call “sense memory.” You have to sell emotion and there has to be a foundation of validity or it will not work. How did it feel when you saw your book in print for the first time? A little disbelieving, and very pleased.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing now?
Probably looking for a job, given this economy. My last one was in the health field as an administrator.

About the Author
Feist is one of the world's leading fantasy writers. His Riftwar and Serpentwar Sagas have been global bestsellers for years. Born and raised in Southern California, Raymond E. Feist was educated at the University of California, San Diego, where he graduated with honours in Communication Arts. He is the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Riftwar Saga.

Customer Reviews

Sigh. More retconning. Another Big Bad. See it all before.
It's about on a level with his last effort - whether you think that's a good thing or not will determine whether you buy it. Me? I've been getting REF's books from the library for several years now.

One of the things that bugs me more and more about the never-ending series of Acme War Sagas he churns out is the exposition of story by describing how characters feel. So Tomas is now feeling that what's around the corner could be the worst thing *ever*! And Pug is getting ever-more worried about the prophecy of Lims-Kragma - crumbs, you don't think that means people he loves could get killed in *completely random and meaningless* ways, do you?

So the Valheru were the Big Bad. No they weren't, it was the Pantathians. No! It was the demons who killed the Saaur. Hang on! It's Nalar. Wait a sec, perhaps it's someone completely new that we never suspected until now! Retconning insanity.

I love "Magician" with a passion. It's my favourite fantasy novel. But I wish Ray would just give it a rest now.

Fun to read, but could be a lot better
As far as Feist goes this is extremely fun to read and is written in much the same style as the last 6 books. However it is often simplistic and you get the impression that the author is just trying to churn out the books due to the publisher's demands.

The storyline is good and introduces a whole new range of powerful characters all of who are magic users. This gives a bit of spice to the story which is often lacking in previous books. However, most of the book consists of the main characters discussing what to do and you get the impression that this book is just setting the scene for the next one.

There is a massive shock ending which involves a bit of action, but a lot more could have been good. The story is rapped up very quickly in the last few pages and lacks emotion. But all in all, a very enjoyable read.

very disappointing
having read most of feist's books,enjoying the early ones (up to buccaneer) the most but the more recent ones, more in hope than expectation. i picked this latest one up as i'm a sucker for continuations of story lines and my curiosity got the better of me, but yet and again i have been let down by what i consider to be nothing more than a marketing ploy. the writing is substandard, disjointed and the plot lines very predicable with very little new approaches to story telling, the new characters tired rehashed spin offs & very much a clone of previous books. i feel now that feist is living off past glories and should really put his pen down and leave it to those authors willing to think outside the cliches he runs through, its almost by numbers with this book... if it was marketed for a teenage audience i could almost make a case for it, almost. but if you are a serious reader beware. it will leave you completely unsatisfied. personally i wont be reading anymore new feist books as this put the final nail in the coffin so to speak. check steven erikson for a proper adult storys told like it should be..