Wrath of a Mad God- Spoilers May Be Included

[Balinor]

My thoughts on the Wrath of a Mad God - please forgive any spelling mistakes - particularly in names/races

As much as I love the work of Raymond Feist, this latest book struck me as somewhat disappointing.

The one thing I have admired about Feist's writing is his characters and their development. I enjoy seeing the characters struggle with flaws and overcome obstacles and I like the repetition of certain character traits...such as the "Jimmy the hand line". It makes it seem like there are always similar people no matter what time you live in. In WoaMG, I found some of the characters disappointing. Pug didn't seem his all powerful self, Thomas was conspicuously absent from most of the book, Miranda was too self restrained, and not enough was said about most of the main characters like Tad, Zane, Jommy, Kaspar, Erik et al.

I was also irritated at the inconsistancy between the other series that have already been mentioned, but also at the seemingly complete lack of imagination of the most brilliant minds of the midkemia/kelewan realms. With the ever mentioned awesome magical power that they commanded I fail to see why the magicians could only make a select number of rifts and why they couldn't contrive some way to speed the evacuation process along.

Another point of annoyance was that when fighting to save their world, and possibly by extension the universe, the tsuranni were fighting mostly alone, and the cho-ja, who refused to elave the world, and who had powerful magicians, were absent from all the conflict. I would have also thought that Thomas would have helped, along with whatever dragon he was with, maybe some elves and sauur (sp?) would have been drafted to assist them.

Also, I may have to go back and reread a few books, but I am under the impression that the deark god of the Dastati was a dread lord, and that Pug and Thomas had overcome and bound a dreadlord before.

And one more thing, I wish he wouldn't milk the "Mara of the Acoma" thing. I loved the Empire series more than all the others but in the WoaMG he mentions her a lot for someone thats been dead for a long time (over a century?) I liked it when there was a coupke of referances to other books but by the 10th time it seemed like he was leaning on it to explain all the actions of the Tsurani

However, I have to say that it was mainy the last half of the book that I disliked. The first part, with Kaspar + Jommy + crew meeting the elves, Pug and co. in the other realm meeting the others that were to become important later on, I liked.

I don't think Nalor is really dead either, you can't expect the expected when the trickster god is involved, and when it came to him saying he wouldn't be leaving I didn't think it would be a "forever" sort of death, Pug, Thomas and Macros have all died and come back, I think that Nakor would be put on the same kind of path.

One more thing before I end my longest ever post....what was the point in the Quor?

[nj1]

I also thought it was a bit odd that the fate of a whole world was left in the hands of the Tsuranni alone, surely the cho-ja would have fancied a crack at the Dasati rather than simply not bothering to get involved when thier entire existance was about to be wipped out?
The other bit that annoyed me was when Ban-ath said that he expected Pug to create a rift under the black dome of the dasati that would have dropped the whole structure into the molton core of the planet, why didn't he say so before as surely that would have meant the planets survival?

[Fake Vencar]

About the dark god; he was indeed a Dreadlord, but one so powerful that Pug and Tomas wouldn't have been able to best it for he gained more and more power by the death of others; ala the Dasati killings.

[Aldebaranian]

Originally Posted by Balinor

Also, I may have to go back and reread a few books, but I am under the impression that the deark god of the Dastati was a dread lord, and that Pug and Thomas had overcome and bound a dreadlord before.

<.....>

One more thing before I end my longest ever post....what was the point in the Quor?

The being that Tomas & Pug imprisoned in the City Forever (or whatever it is called) was a Dreadmaster. Tomas himself says that even the Valheru would be worried about going up against a Dreadlord. There is a Dreadlord at the end of the Darkness in Sethanon - it is he who fights and kills the dragon Ryana. So this Dasati Dark God which has been fed so much would surely be way outside the possibilities of Tomas & Pug to beat. In fact he had already devastated two realms and clearly the gods of Midkemia were worried about him.

As for the Quor, it was a completely odd addition I agree. Indeed the whole scene there was weird with the ship arriving with the magician & dark creature (whatever it was). My suspicion is that this is a prelude to the next series, and not very related to what we have seen.

Otherwise I agree with most of your points about the book although it did bring several issues properly to an end, which was more satisfying than the book really deserved

[MrWall]

I can honestly say that I hated it.

usually Feist is so good at characterisation. Arthua, Jimmy, Nakor, Erik, Roo, Trask... all had been great

But not now. Magnus is a cardboard cut out of any powerful mage in any series (and if i see that 'he will outstrip pug and miranda one day' one more bloody time i will scream). Miranda has gone from being a powerful, intelligent, strong minded individual to a petulant brat. We have a bunch of Jimmy wannabes running around and then, to add insult to injury, he managed to make Nakor seem 2 dimensional.

The inconsitancies grate as well. All the ones mentioned above, plus.... what the hell were the Minwabi still doing alive? they'd been wiped out refusing Mara's offer to let them live as I remember it. Was Feist rushed by the publishers? does he not keep notes? do teh editors bother to read what gets sent?

NAd the worst, worst, worst thing as far as I am concerned is that ending. Feist had, at the start, a believeable magic system. Since then he has expanded upon it and at times pushed the boundaries, sometimes too much. But now he has gone to far. Pug, who had been tired from creating just 7 normal rifts, is then able to create one to send a large section of the moon crashing into the planet, destroying it completely. Well.... rather a stretch that one. And why didnt he just do that on the Dasatii planet anyway?

Hell if he can do that much why didnt he just create a huge rift well before to alloow people to escape through. One a few miles wide would have given the tsuaranii a much better chance to escape.

Too much power, not enough thought in this book for me.

[nj1]

I have to say I agree with there MrWall, except that I didn't really hate it, I thought the book felt rushed as if he had a good plot but rushed it through.
I read an interview with him somewhere and he said the next book would be totally finished in 4 weeks, now thats either just fast writing or banging books out for the sake of it?

Does anybody out there actually like Magnus , not met anybody yet, hopefully he'll get bumped off in the near future.

Anyway welcome to Chrons from a fellow Taff

[woodsman]

We're being taken over..... Eeeeek
May I also extend some warm welcomes?

Yeah, I think most of Feists more recent work could have done with a smidgeon of a polish but this one certainly tok the biscuit for number of histroicl/reference/thingy errors.

And to kill Nakor, well, just not the done thing, eh?

[MrWall]

Thats right, we are taking over cyberspace... Mae Cymru am byth! (all the welsh i know)

cheers for the welcomes

[woodsman]

Well, I stretch to Araf, dammit araf I say.

And, so far as oi know nobody like Magnus, most despicable type of fellow, doncha know?

[Fake Vencar]

I will also send my warmest welcomes. Its been getting too quiet here of late, nice to see some new insights. As for Magnus, I don't despise him but I am also fed up with the 'going to be more powerful someday' phrase. He hasn't really shown any of his power yet at all

[Aldebaranian]

I'm also no fan of Magnus', but there was one time when I felt he might just about sneak into my list of accepted characters. That time when Caleb was hurt in Kesh and Magnus decided to go pay a visit to Lims-Kragma. That bit was pretty good, and I was desperately hoping to at least get some characterisation, but he has just stayed shallow.

I do have a strong feeling this is indeed because of Feist's rushed writing lately. In the Riftwar, Serpentwar & also the Mistress of Empire books (which I didn't like but I seem to be seriously out of step with most people on that he always spent enough time to create at least a few new figures that you would feel for (the Serpentwar was really excellent for that).

But the Conclave and Darkwar sagas have just generally been to rushed to let any such characters develop. I was quite hopeful when starting Flight of the Nighthawks, but it never worked out did it. In that respect these books read as if they are drafts where a few characters were tried but never worked out and then a new set come in etc. It is quite disappointing and it really stands out when you re-read a lot of books in rapid succession.

To me this was really the biggest disappointment of the last two series - inconsistencies rankles but I'll ignore those, but lack of characters to get invested in is much worse...

[woodsman]

At risk of repeating myself, the Serpentwar saga was, IMHO, REF's best. As you mentioned Alde the characterizationa nd feeling of attachement/hate towards characters was a great aspect to the book, alongside a strong plot, some surprises and....

Nakor. Ref's work also seems to have generally got shorter the rift and serpent war saa's seem to take up a fair chunk of shelf-space, whereas the conclave is insignificant.

[Scott_R]

Hello, all.

I finished Dark God a while ago, but just discovered these boards.
I started reading Feist over 20 years ago, and pretty much followed them all.

I've been a little disappointed by succeeding books. The Darkwar was engaging, but it's driving me crazy that he keeps changing the rules. It reminds me of the old Warner Brothers cartoons where the coyote unzips his skin pulls it of, becoming the sheep dog, then unzips that and becomes something else, then unzips that, and again....

The impression I get is that REF decides that the old explanations didn't make sense, or a new explanation is needed to sync with the new stories, or he just liked a newer idea. How many changing explanations have we had for the Chaos Wars? What about the Talnoy? How many times did what they were change? Nakor is influenced by an artifact to channel Wodar-Hospur. No wait, he's Kalkin. Ralan Bek has the Nameless in him. No, it's a Dasati god. (wait, didn't he give Tomas a workout *before* Nakor put that into him??)

Part of the problem is that the story was sometimes told from Nakor's perspective, apparently showing his thoughts, and those thoughts weren't consistent with later revelations.

Oh, well, I'll keep reading new books, but I hope REF finds explanations he likes and sticks with them.

[woodsman]

Welcome Scott. I like to think we're a nice bunch and t'would be great to hear your veiws on some other topics around this board as well!! (no pressure)

Yeah, seems like most long-term REF fans feel he's loosing it. Which, is a shame considering, I thinks he's one of the greats. I thought up until this series, most of explanation for 'stuff', was pretty good - if vague, even having characters with differing theories and opinions.

[Valko]

Originally Posted by Aldebaranian

I'm also no fan of Magnus', but there was one time when I felt he might just about sneak into my list of accepted characters. That time when Caleb was hurt in Kesh and Magnus decided to go pay a visit to Lims-Kragma. That bit was pretty good, and I was desperately hoping to at least get some characterisation, but he has just stayed shallow.

I do have a strong feeling this is indeed because of Feist's rushed writing lately. In the Riftwar, Serpentwar & also the Mistress of Empire books (which I didn't like but I seem to be seriously out of step with most people on that he always spent enough time to create at least a few new figures that you would feel for (the Serpentwar was really excellent for that).

But the Conclave and Darkwar sagas have just generally been to rushed to let any such characters develop. I was quite hopeful when starting Flight of the Nighthawks, but it never worked out did it. In that respect these books read as if they are drafts where a few characters were tried but never worked out and then a new set come in etc. It is quite disappointing and it really stands out when you re-read a lot of books in rapid succession.

To me this was really the biggest disappointment of the last two series - inconsistencies rankles but I'll ignore those, but lack of characters to get invested in is much worse...

I'm sure Mr Feist wont worry too much if you don't by any more of his books. Anyone would think you'd been forced to read the last 2 series! That's 7 or 8 books and it didn't dawn on you to stop reading on say the 3rd or 4th? You even admitted to re-reading them. So they can't be that bad then can they.
The thing is I'd put money on you buying the next series and you'll probably crit that aswell.