Raymond E. Feist is simply one of the best authors writing today, I heartly recomend anything he has pened, no exceptions.

This read more like a book 1 or 2 of a series than a final book. Why not make this book the beginning of the Darkwar trilogy? I realized by the middle of the book that there was no way of any sort of conclusion to this "evil" that was uncovered. Towards the end of it, they didn't really even know what was going on. The book ends with a whimper trying to hook you into reading the next series. This book was a real disappointment plot wise when compared to the first two books.

This being said, the redemption of Kaspar was quite interesting. It might have been more interesting to play more on the internal battle of the realization of his life of iniquity versus who he was before his being coopted into evil plans. Focusing more on the conflict between his thirst for revenge and having to rely on the target of his revenge to solve his dilemma (which barely is addressed).

Overall is was a decent read but not up to the level of past Feist books.

While the series lacks some of the depth of the original series set in Krondor, it carries Feist's distinctive writing flavor. It continues the series spanning saga, the never ending battle between good and evil, and revisits some of our favorite characters from the original (Pug, Thomas) etc.

Reading this book jogged my interest in the Feist saga enough to prompt me purchasing the 2nd in the saga (which I had missed), and the trilogy that would immediately follow this book in the over all timeline.

If you like Feist, I'd recommend it.

"Book 3" is a glaring misnomer of Exile's Return. "Beginning of a new set" would be more appropriate. Billed as the conclusion of Conclave of Shadows it is terribly disappointing. Not only does it almost completely abandon the main characters of the first two books excepting the former Duke, it makes the least likable character it does retain the focus of the book. Perhaps if the Duke hadn't been such a black and white bad guy in the preceding books it might have been easier to believe his rehabilitation. Without any hint of conscience or conflict in him before, his complete change of heart is improbable at minimum. The conclusion is not only no conclusion at all, but the lead-in to it is too poorly developed to leave you any desire to find out what comes next, in other words, to pursue an actual conclusion to the story.

That said, his writing style is very readable and the pace was right. If you approach this book as a standalone, you might well enjoy it. My disappointment and frustration at the inaccurate description of what I should expect left too strong a taint for me to enjoy Exile's Return at all.

I love the Midkemia books, and always look forward to reading more stories by Raymond Feist. I didn't enjoy this trilogy as much as many of his others though. I don't know if it's because the storyline seemed a bit stale, or maybe I just needed to take a break from the series for a while.

It was nice to have the continuation of the story of Midkemia though, and I wouldn't want the stories to stop... keep 'em coming!