Riftwar cycle moves further with a new trilogy and Raymond E. Feist is not alone this time Janny Wurts gets a chance to weave some patterns of her own here. These stories of the Riftwar cycle has a pattern that excites the listener in the beginning as a lot of things just emerge on the scene after which the author deal with all of them individually. War makes the Tsuranuanni Empire crumple at the hands of the enemy, not only from the outside but the empire faces enemies from the inside too.
As both forces attack from all sides the kingdom has no option except to surrender at the hands of the enemy. Here Mara emerges on the scene and though she is young but she just cannot go on the back foot when her kingdom needs her. Not only she is a warrior but she is also a clever planner who can give the reply to the enemy in the same coin. Instead of relying on the army that is full of corrupt leaders Mara establishes contacts with the rebels and she join hands with the dangerous Cho-ja for her mission.
Another noteworthy thing at this point is that a female narrator Tania Rodrigues is selected for the narration which proves the importance of Mara’s role in the story. While in Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master there was always a male narrator in action. The biggest step that Mara takes in the story is marrying in the enemy’s house. In this way she gets the chance to face the devil at its den and the enemy cannot harm her in the least.
It’s a bit ironic that ONCE AGAIN I must thank my friends at Tokybook! You see somehow I missed this excellent series (yet I read Mr. Feist’s Riftwar series many years ago and loved it. In any case I had just listened to the audiobook version on YouTube and found this parallel series there and typical to You Tube it ended there. Because Tokybook is my absolute favorite site I know their large portfolio well. I also try not to over visit or revisit the large list of books more than bimonthly. Now I’d been nosing around the lesser sites looking for the sequel series to EMPIRE as I enjoyed this series. I was looking for PRINCE OF THE BLOOD that is the next book after EMPIRE’s three books. I couldn’t find it even in print. I resigned myself to give up and a week later (today) I thought why not see if there is anything new at Tokybook! Imagine how hard I am laughing with delight as I scrolled down and saw Tokybook has coaxed Mr. Feist to join their venerable stable of authors!!!! I am a happy camper!!
EMPIRE is a compelling story that is a wee bit more challenging to follow than Riftwar. Certainly it can be read as a stand alone series, yet it fits nicely into the strategic writing Mr. Feist is lauded for. He really is the master of making each series stand alone, yet they all tie into a pretty bow we realize as we delve deeper in other series. I chose here to place my comment because I just finished this series last weekend. Rock on Team Toky!
Many thanks, we will try our best ♥♥♥