Raymond E. Feist - Talon of the Silver Hawk

I'm a Feist fan.  I have been for a long time. Not because I think he is a brilliant writer, or because his stories are particularly original. He isn't and they aren't.  I'm a fan because he has a laundry list of publications, all in the same world, all interconnected. I've only had to deal with completely unfamiliar territory once or twice in what - fifteen books? And there is something to be said for familiarity.  Sometimes I just want to read a generic fantasy novel, and Feist scratches that itch admirably.  Throw in an interesting character every now and then, and I'm a happy man. It's like cheesy harlequin romance for fantasy fans. Anyways, onto the novel of the night.

Talon of the Silver Hawk is book one in the Conclave of Shadows series.

What Doesn't Suck:   I would say the best aspect of this book is the main character himself, Talon. He starts out as your perfect little orphan Mary Sue, but as he develops he gains some rather nasty bad habits; womanizing, gambling, and a serious hankering for vengeance. Which is good, really.  A character needs some vices. I'm glad Feist didn't fall into the cliche of making him an excessively honorable, boring barbarian. Instead, he's got a bit of style. And of course, he's the best swordsmen in the world.  But who isn't these days?

As always in a Feist novel, the supporting cast is familiar to the point of cliche, but I find them reassuring all the same.  In particular, Magnus is a pretty cool, young, badass wizard type.  I predict cool developments for him in tomorrow's update (Book 2)

What Sucked: The plot.  The entirety of book one was a drawn out quest for vengeance and that's been done...oh lets say eleventy billion times before. That number sounds about right. There are hints of something larger, some grand overarching reason for what is actually going on...but end book 1, and nothing of consequence.  We'll see tomorrow.

Deep Thoughts: Satisfying in the way that a rerun of Seinfeld is satisfying; no surprises, but the characters are amusing and you don't have to think too much.  I'll be continuing the series. And yes, I'm aware this review sucked.  But you know what?  Screw you.  You're not even reading this.

Rating: Meh

Glen Cook: Darkwar series

The failings of my memory are legion.  With respect to that sad fact, I have decided to add my last three night's pursuit in a lump sum, lest it all slip away.  

Darkwar is the second series I have read by Cook, and is a beast of a completely different color than The Black Company.  At the outset it seems standard, if strange, fantasy, but soon enough you will begin some very serious Scifi elements.  We're talking space battles here.  I went in with absolutely no expectations.  The books were picked more or less at random, save for the fact that I had enjoyed Cook in the past.  

What didn't suck:  The series has some rather unique elements.  For one, the central race of the series was the non- human Meth.  Mammal, upright, intelligent, all that jazz, but with an alien thought process.  One has to respect Cook for thinking so far outside the norm, and giving the race as a whole a unique perspective.  Another element that I found interesting; it truly runs the gamut of civilization.  With no significant time lapses, it starts you with a primitive, hunting and gathering culture, and by the end you're dealing with space battles of epic proportion.  Not exactly what I expected, but the for the most part it worked.

What sucked:Sadly, it had some pretty serious flaws working against it.  First and foremost, the main character is the ultimate Mary Sue.  Seriously, Westley Crusher has nothing on her.  If there is a thing that has to be done, she will do it.  Given, everything and everyone that she loved would likely be ashes and dust by the time she was done, but that she would succeed was never in doubt. After the first few times her miraculous magical powers manifested themselves, this was annoying.  After the first couple books, this was maddening.  Throughout the series, the character always made the right decision, was always smarter, faster, stronger, ad nauseum.  Hardly unique in fantasy, but still it pisses me off to see it done to this extent.  Come on Cook, you're better than that!

Another thing that sucked.  The ending.  I won't ruin it, but to say it was dissatisfying is an understatement.  You see it coming, you hope you're wrong, but in the end...you're not.  Yeah, it's as lame as you think it will be.  Weak.

And character development?  I actually think the main character devolved throughout the series rather than evolving.  It was pretty painful at times.  

Deep Thoughts: Overall, I don't regret reading the series.  It had it's weakspots and then it had some more weakspots...but there was a thing or two that was cool as well.  And hell, I've got lots of free time.  

As an aside, I have decided on a rating system consisting of three tiers: Sucks, Meh, or the much vaunted Doesn't Suck.

Final Rating: Meh