Instead of putting out reviews of books three, four, and five of the Serpent War Saga, I decided to wait until I finished the series before giving a review.
Overall, I enjoyed the books especially Erik von Darkmoor’s story. I am a sucker for the upstanding man who is the reluctant hero that rises to the occasion. The story of the military campaigns and the depth of which Feist explained the battles were some of my favorite parts. Honestly, that surprised me as I am usually more interested in characters than battles. Feist did a good job of weaving the characters I cared about into the battles.
I was not a huge fan of the storyline that followed Pug, Miranda, Macros, Nakor (though he is a fun character), and Tomas. The magical battles were a little anticlimactic and seemed to be a bit of a sideshow to the rest of the storylines. Those sections were prone to long infodumps about information that were hard to follow sometimes. Granted, if I had read the RiftWar books before this, I would have enjoyed these sections more. But… those books weren’t on sale for pennies at the library. =)
The other thing I can’t help but think is that Book 5 was completely unnecessary. I enjoyed following Dash and Jimmy, but the events of Book 5 could have been condensed and added to the end of Book 4. Also, the forced romance between Dash and the Mocker Woman Trina at the end of the book irritated me.
Despite the criticisms, I enjoyed the series. The world was vast and well-built. Midkemia is detailed and full of wonders.
Kyle Harvey Books 