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A review by cwt88
Magician's End by Raymond E. Feist
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
How do you rate a book that you skimmed for more than half... but still felt like you'd miss it when you were over? Sure, it's partly because of nostalgia for the series, but there's a conclusion here that harks back to Feist at his best, despite so much repetition (both within the book and of stuff from the series) and unnecessary waffling that he could've probably cut the book down to 150 pages without losing all that much.
The story thread following the 'human' characters is dull. REALLY dull. He literally says at one point none of it matters if Pug and co don't save the day from the magical threat. They're all characters we've seen a million times and do the same things over and over. Jim Dasher is beyond boring, despite being a rehash of one of the best characters from the golden era. I didn't need a whole chapter of Brendan on a boat in a storm that reads like Feist had been on a sailing trip recently and wanted to share it with us. Hal and Martin are nothing characters. The civil war story barely overlaps with the main threat facing the universe - at one point we're told it's all been set up to draw attention, but I don't know what good any of the human armies would be and the Conclave didn't get involved in the civil war, so... and I have no real idea why I'm supposed to care who was king in Rillanon at the end of the day, because none have them have done anything productive for like 4 series.
The magical journey that is set up as a massive cliffhanger in the previous book is like a flashback episode of your favourite sitcom. Remember all these old characters/stories you loved in previous series? We'll stick them together with a thinly constructed narrative to remind some main characters of something that'll help in the last five minutes of runtime. Other than repeating a few key phrases waaaay too many times during the final battle, I'm not really sure any of it helped them.
We also get the traditional Macros infodump - despite being long dead he's still got way more info and power that Pug and Magnus can dream of, even though they're now really old with whole teams of people, and he was one guy on his own. The whole thing descends into some pseudo-profound Platonic philosophy that anyone with a network of global wizards and priests who seem to understand metaphysics and multiple dimensions could have thought up in half an hour. The nature of his gods and reality is completely muddied in this discussion, as it doesn't match up at all with the various planes of existence Feist has introduced (e.g., why can the gods influence different planes of reality and to some extent worlds when they're a construct of the humans on those worlds. Why do the gods have huge powers to some extent, if they're also just a driving force for humans helping themselves and can only push people in the right direction to stop a universe-ending threat. Also... wtf are the angels that were briefly mentioned and dragged Pug and co to a different plane of reality and back and never appear again? I would much rather they been explained and cut out all the waffle that makes the gods not make a lot of sense ). We find out the nature of the threat in a mashup of astrophysics and more bastardised philosophy - and again I have no real idea how this played into the final conflict except repeating some generic phrases over and over until Pug unlocked a new power like a Shonen protagonist. This is a far cry from Pug and Tomas going on epic journeys into uncharted territory to find out secrets that could change their understanding of reality and magic.
And yet, the climax of dragons, magicians and rifts, and a finale with the gods, took me right back to the end of the first series. And the radical description of the magical aftermath, followed by a charming 'epilogue' final chapter (after the civil war aftermath is resolved *yawn*) is just like that quaint, original introduction to lonely Crydee and it's familiar, yet new, world... It felt like a great dungeon master setting up his next adventure, and I wish we could get back to that. Tell me more aboutCrydee, now cut off. About Magnus, 'rebuilding his Jedi order'. About Lims-Kragma's plan and why she's reincarnated Pug... - the personal stories about lonely humans in isolated, magical places, and the scheming of the great gods of this world who have always seemed unique to me (a strange blend of the Greek pantheon's ambivalent, chaotic interference and with a D&D system's magical blessing and moral code).
I wish I could believe that's where Feist will go with his new series and later return to Midkemia, but sadly having seen the synopsis of his next series I think he's sticking with the blandly characterised, medieval political drama and I can't take any more.
The story thread following the 'human' characters is dull. REALLY dull. He literally says at one point none of it matters if Pug and co don't save the day from the magical threat. They're all characters we've seen a million times and do the same things over and over. Jim Dasher is beyond boring, despite being a rehash of one of the best characters from the golden era. I didn't need a whole chapter of Brendan on a boat in a storm that reads like Feist had been on a sailing trip recently and wanted to share it with us. Hal and Martin are nothing characters. The civil war story barely overlaps with the main threat facing the universe - at one point we're told it's all been set up to draw attention, but I don't know what good any of the human armies would be and the Conclave didn't get involved in the civil war, so... and I have no real idea why I'm supposed to care who was king in Rillanon at the end of the day, because none have them have done anything productive for like 4 series.
The magical journey that is set up as a massive cliffhanger in the previous book is like a flashback episode of your favourite sitcom. Remember all these old characters/stories you loved in previous series? We'll stick them together with a thinly constructed narrative to remind some main characters of something that'll help in the last five minutes of runtime. Other than repeating a few key phrases waaaay too many times during the final battle, I'm not really sure any of it helped them.
We also get the traditional Macros infodump - despite being long dead he's still got way more info and power that Pug and Magnus can dream of, even though they're now really old with whole teams of people, and he was one guy on his own. The whole thing descends into some pseudo-profound Platonic philosophy that anyone with a network of global wizards and priests who seem to understand metaphysics and multiple dimensions could have thought up in half an hour. The nature of his gods and reality is completely muddied in this discussion, as it doesn't match up at all with the various planes of existence Feist has introduced (
And yet, the climax of dragons, magicians and rifts, and a finale with the gods, took me right back to the end of the first series. And the radical description of the magical aftermath, followed by a charming 'epilogue' final chapter (after the civil war aftermath is resolved *yawn*) is just like that quaint, original introduction to lonely Crydee and it's familiar, yet new, world... It felt like a great dungeon master setting up his next adventure, and I wish we could get back to that. Tell me more about
I wish I could believe that's where Feist will go with his new series and later return to Midkemia, but sadly having seen the synopsis of his next series I think he's sticking with the blandly characterised, medieval political drama and I can't take any more.