Book Review: Legends of The Rift War (Honoured Enemy, Murder In Lamut, Jimmy The Hand) by Raymond Feist, 2001-2003
★ Another 2/3rds stinker. Feist's Trilogies are becoming a recipe for distress: one part good, one part bad, and one part dog turd.
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Another 2/3rds stinker.

Feist’s Trilogies are becoming a recipe for distress: one part good, one part bad, and one part dog turd.

My Rating: ★

[INTRO]

Is it happening? Please don’t tell me it is happening! I’ve come too far for things to disintegrate, and more importantly, too far to go if things keep up like this.

With the previous trilogy The Riftwar Legacy, the cracks finally started to show. After twelve straight solid/excellent books, things wavered but at least there was an excuse: the books were based on video game stories he didn’t write, and when he tried to retcon them back into the actual cannon, it just didn’t work. The one purely original entry, The Assassins, still had the same intensity and interesting twist that I came to expect.

There was hope!

This Trilogy starts that way with Honoured Enemy. I always count on Feist to have one thing you can hang your hat on, whether a twist, location, or dynamic that makes the WHOLE thing go round. We had enough of that to make Honoured Enemy pop.

And then what is easily going to be the worst book in the entire Riftwar Saga Series happens: Murder in Lamut.

[REVIEW]

It comes so much easier to me to write about the bad versus the good, so let’s hurry up and get the good out of the way: Honoured Enemy is a book worthy of being in the Riftwar Saga. While it doesn’t break any new ground from a meta-narrative perspective, it is a nice encapsulated story using the already known players of the invading Tsurani and defending denzeiens of Midkemia.

The twist that makes it all work? An invading Tsurani army gets stuck in enemy territory and has to join forces with a wayward regiment from the kingdom to survive. To not cooperate is mutually assured destruction as a group of dark elves are bearing down on both equally and without prejudice.

The Tsurani in their forever rigid morality has to be constantly massaged by the kingdom commander while also avoiding mutiny on his own side. It is a pleasant and above average book.

Now that that’s over: lets rip apart the hyena carcass that is Murder in Lamut.

I’m going to make a bold prediction: there is no way anything in this series is worse than this. This HAS to be rock bottom. This isn’t a one star books. It is a no star book. It is so perplexingly bad that I think it worthy of lengthy and scholastic analysis, but I promise to keep it short.

The purpose of Murder in Lamont is to be a whoodunit in the same vein of Perry Mason or Agatha Christie. Hitherto, Feist has never done anything resembling a mystery novel, and in theory this could be the one “thing” that makes the whole thing go round like I’ve come to expect from him.

We find out the book is a murder mystery on page 250. It’s only a 300 page book. There isn’t even a prelude to this being the purpose of the book. When the murder finally happens, it is chapter twelve. There are only sixteen chapters.

FOUR CHAPTERS LEFT.

FOUR CHAPTERS. The book goes from murder, to introduction of suspects and motives, to solved, to twist, to done in FOUR CHAPTERS. It makes the first 250 pages obsolete and makes me wonder why I followed three mercenaries as they navigate local politics and customs.

The last book, Jimmy the Hand, is indicative of another troubling Feist trend. Jimmy the Hand is an A+ character throughout the first half of the series, and whenever these trilogies faltered, Feist just trots out his old beloved faithful.

This horse, however, is bone-tired and unwell.

The spark of Jimmy the Hand, a street urchin that rises to the highest ranks of royalty due to his wits and spirit, just doesn’t hit the same on the 10th or 11th time. The well has run dry Feist, and I’m hoping there is some new blood on the way.

[CONCLUSION]

If worse comes to worst, I can trade one good book for two bad until I limp across the finish line for the entire Riftwar Cycle Series. Only eleven books left to go!

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