Raymond Feist -- Exile's Return -- Review

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Exile's Return by Raymond Feist **** 1/2
Third Volume of The Conclave of Shadows
Rating: Excellent (four 1/2 out of five stars)

Exile's Return is the third, and supposedly final installment of Raymond Feist’s recent trilogy, The Conclave of Shadows. The first two books had a central character, Talon of the Silverhawk, or Tal for short. The series was thus far a deepening tale of intrigue and revenge. The plot of the story takes on a fairly complex situation for its main character, who wishes to avenge himself upon Kaspar, the Duke of Olasko, for the genocide of his people. As the first two books drew to a rapid conclusion it was becoming clear that Tal was in danger of losing his soul to the devil to attain his revenge. Tal was quickly becoming the thing which he hated the most, namely a creature much like Kaspar. And one was beginning to wonder just how far Tal would go to exact his revenge on the Duke. I don’t wish to give away too much of the story of the first two books, but I will tell you that Exile’s Return opens with Kaspar on another continent, Novindus, far from the events of the first two books. Yet, after finishing this fast moving novel I had a nagging question: When is a sequel not really a sequel? I would guess when the story has almost nothing to do with the preceding stories, and the main character of the preceding one is not really a part of the story, except for in an almost coincidental manner. But that is not really such a bad thing, as Exile's Return is undoubtedly the best installemnt of the series thus far.

Exile's opens with the fate of Kaspar, and strangely, the former villain becomes the protagonist of Exile's Return, with the character of Tal making but a few cameo appearances in the later stages of the book. Of course the first thing in Kaspar’s thoughts is to take back his Duchy from Tal, and secondly, to exact his own revenge on him. But the story takes a few twists and turns, and before long it becomes a tale of redemption and penance for Kaspar, which, by-the-way, and in my humble opinion, is nicely carried off. To some it may appear implausible that the former evil villain can attain redemption in the span of this short novel, but we discover that his former court wizard was the one who was overseeing and influencing Kaspar’s wicked behavior. When all else fails blame it on the evil wizard, it would seem. For the individual reader, a large part of the success of the story will depend upon how much he or she is willing to buy into this situation. I was willing to accept this plotline mostly on the strength of Kaspar, who is such a great charater. And while many of the characters in all three books of the Conclave of Shadows lack any real depth, there are a precious few, including the Duke, who are very well-crafted.

But none of this is really the main crux of the storyline in Exile's Return. Instead, fate casts Kaspar into contact with a cursed set of armor, which he is forced to almost literally carry across half of a continent. Along the way he discovers that dangerous rifts are opening up into the world of Medkemia and in order to discover what, and who, are behind the sinister events, and the meaning of the cursed armor, Kaspar must seek out the advice of the gods of his world. In this respect, the story is quite interesting. And we discover that all of this may be a prelude to another rift war. We also discover that the Nighthawks, a counter-organization to the Conclave of Shadows, is involved in the events of the coming war. Thus, setting the stage for the next series of books from Feist, The Darkwar Saga, and appropriately the next volume titled, The Flight of the Nighthawks, Book One of the Darkwar Saga, is due out in the next month or two. This series is really showing a lot of promise, and is recommended.

[ April 03, 2006, 05:03: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

I too enjoyed this book, but I have always been a fan of Feist.

I also enjoyed how he took a despicable character (although he was under the influence of mage) and turned him into a character that I actually grew fond of.

My only complaint is I believe they are using the old high school trick of making the margins wider, the print bigger, and making sure to end a chapter within the first third of a page to make the book appear larger. At least that was my impression of the hardcover book. You do not get the same number of words for your dollar as you do from a Jordan or a Martin.

 

Exile's Return is the best book in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy. However, IMHO, it is also the worst serie REF has written.

But the stage for the Darkwar Saga looks good. I still have not read the first book, as I am waiting for the mass market paperback edition.

Edit: Oops, I forgot about the Riftwar Legacy serie, which is the worst so far (this might change if REF ever writes the last two books that were originally planned). The Conclave of Shadows would be the next to worst then.

[ April 04, 2006, 20:58: Message edited by: Erod ]