Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31555 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Synopsis
The third book in the latest series, The Darkwar from the world-wide bestselling author of Magician The Darkwar has fallen upon the worlds of Kelewan and Midkemia; a time of heroes, trials and destruction. Following their dangerous mission to the realm of the alien Dasati, Magnus and the other members of the Conclave must now find a way to use what they discovered to help save their own people from the wrath of a mad god.

Customer Reviews

A compelling finale
I have to say, I put off reading both the Conclave of Shadows and the Darkwar saga due to relatively poor reviews, having read and loved Magician over 10 years ago and the Serpent War about three years ago.

Although I would concur that the series isn't as heavyweight as the previous ones, for those that love Feist's work, Wrath of a Mad God presented a compelling finale to what is essentially a six book series marketed as two x three books, and once again revealed a series of twists and turns that surprised and shocked, making me want to go back again to read Magician again and certainly making me ready to read his next books.

The Conclave was interesting but really a set up trilogy, Flight of the Nighthawks likewise, but I found both Into a Dark Realm and Wrath of a Mad God un-put-down-able and WOAMG in particular had one of the best climaxes of the whole Riftwar Saga series.

Others may not agree, but I'd say make up your own mind and if you're a fan, I'd go for it with no questions asked.

If you're never tried Feist before, of course, start at the beginning - Magician is still one of the best books written in fantasy, all the other books afterwards just extend the pleasure.

Better than expected
At 516 pages, this is a lot chunkier than Into A Dark Realm -- and it shows. While there were definitely some interesting threads in IADR, I don't think they really had the story time to come to fruition. They do in this one. The incursion into the Dasati realm picks up pace in the story, with Pug, Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek (having met up with a surprise visitor in the last book) meeting the White and the Bloodwitch Sisters in full. That surprise visitor both pleased and annoyed some people -- we learn more about his nature, as we do about a lot of characters, particularly two of my favourites: Ralan (who really comes into his own among the Dasati) and, gambling, extremely powerful, funny Nakor.

The "three worlds at stake" bit is very true in this novel, as not only is the Dark God of the Dasati trying to force his way into the first realm -- which the planets Midkemia and Kelewan call home -- but Dread also seem to be making incursions, too. Something which is baffling everyone. It seems that even the Nameless One -- the god of absolute evil -- is trying to stop this happening. Kelewan is also under threat; as we know from the last book, the Dasati managed rifts to Kelewan ... well they're are about to manage some more!

Valko, the Dasati, upon which their prophecy -- not too much emphasis on it, which was great for a prophecy hater like me! -- hangs plays a large part in this novel, but we didn't really see his character develop that much. To be honest, I don't really think it was really very possible. The Dasati while fascinating, and on the road to becoming "normal", have been restrained by millennia of barbaric tradition -- and though the White are different, they still have to fight those murderous impulses. We did, though, see Martuch -- one of my favourite Dasati -- and others show a dry sense of humour which didn't require the spilling of blood.

Miranda is also a much stronger character in this book -- even if she does occasionally mention how much she misses Pug a bit too much -- and while at the end of Into A Dark Realm I was surprised and a little annoyed by how easily she was taken by the enemy ... well, it was just as easy to escape. There's also a new character called Jim who seems to be Jimmy the Hand reborn -- while this is explained, it was still a bit too similar and still a bit too easy for my liking.

I really enjoyed the ending to Wrath. Epic on scale -- beyond anything we've seen, even Magician and the Serpentwar Saga --, very tragic, but still hopeful, and then, with that epilogue -- bitter-sweet, darkly amusing and wrapping up another mystery. With Wrath of a Mad God there was more sense of closure than at the end of any of the other cycles -- there are of course some mysteries left. I'm not to sure whether they will play any part in the next few books, but I found a new race introduced -- the Quor -- to be extremely interesting, and I have a few guesses to what they are -- guesses which will, of course, be wrong! Beyond that it will be interesting to see if there any other travels to the Dasati to give them a helping hand -- and the Tsurani.

I really enjoyed this one, and it is -- with a few flaws -- still one of the best Feist book of late. I stayed up very late for this one. 9/10. Another thing: where are the maps?! Where are the be-damned ... Oh, enough of that. I don't like maps, anyway ;)

This volume wraps up the Darkwar cycle; there is now the two book cycle, Demonwar, then the three book cycle, Chaoswar, and the series is complete.

Not Feist's best work, but if you're a fan still worth reading.
This is the last book in Feist's the Darkwar trilogy, now for a bit of the story.

In this novel we see the evil and blood thirsty Dastai gain a foothold in the world of Kelewan, the Tsurani warriors do there all to fight agianst the death magic of the Dastai mages and the brutality of there warriors, on there side though they have some of the great military leaders of Midkemia, Eric Von Darkmoor, the former Duke Kasper and from the far land of of Novindus the general Alenburga to fight and lead the warriors, but will that be enough? On the Dastai home world we see Pug and his followers battle the evil Dread Lord and his minions with the aid of the white, a political and military group of Dastai who strive for the good of their people, but will they all make it out of the battle alive?

This is a good book, it's no where near as good as his previous work but it is still worth reading, the one point the irked me was in the book we see Feist tell that Eric Von Darkmoor served all his like with the Kingdom and was never married or had children, when any fan of Erik's knows his was married to Kitty in the Serpent war saga, this mistake is unforgivable when you consider Erik is one of the main characters in Fiest's work, hence the reason for three stars and not four.

I hope this review was of some help to you.