Although I was first drawn into Feist's work through the Betrayal at Krondor video game in the mid-90s, I now recognize that the Riftwar Legacy is a very weak series by Feist's normal standards. If you were a fan of the game or if you are just a Riftwar junkie, you will enjoy seeing familiar places and characters. You will not get much in the way of character development or depth, but it's fun. That's about it.

Krondor the Betrayal lacks the quality and epic nature of the Riftwar series itself. Do yourself a favor and read the Magician books, Silverthorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon before you read Krondor the Betrayal. If you fall in love with Midkemia, then consider this book a fun little romp that is worth reading.

Still, it's near bottom of the barrel by Feist's normally high standards. Betrayal is poor, Assassins is slightly less poor, and Tear of the Gods is just awful. Don't judge Feist by this book or this series. He's one of the best fantasy authors out there and he writes better books both before and after this odd period in his work.

First, let me say I am a BIG Feist fan. The riftwar and empire series are among my all-time favorites, and most of his other work is pretty good too, give or take a hiccup here and there.

As far as this one goes though, I not only quit in the middle, which is extremely rare for me, but actually got in my car, drove across town, walked back into the bookstore, and returned it.

I know it was based on the video game, and people have said Feist must have been bored or in a hurry or something, but I don't think he actually wrote it. Seriously, take any paragraph in this book, and compare it to any paragraph in any other Feist book, and ask if they really could have come from the same author.

Pretty sure the publisher or the game people hired a ghost writer, but the least they could have done was hire a decent on who had actually read the previous books.

I've been a long-time fan of Feist's work, and I've recently been
re-reading his books again. About a week ago I finished the towering epic
Serpentwar Saga. Perhaps it is because I go from such a brilliant, well
written saga to this lame excuse for a book that I gave it just two stars.

Contrary to what some believe, the game was not written by Feist - it was
written by Neal Hallford and John Cutter of Dynamix, Inc., based upon
ideas by Feist, turning it into an award-winning, best-selling game.
Feist then took the basic premise of the game and tried to turn it into a
novel.

Tried being the operative word. The first half of the book reads exactly
as it is thinly disguised as - a computer game. Spin-off quests, random
encounters, characters with little depth, and a somewhat ambiguous plot.
The only reason I gave it two stars, and not one, is that it appears
Feist suddenly sat up and thought he'd better do something he is better
known for - writing books. He comes up with a decent seige scene, and
explains a few loose ends.

However, for all that, there are still many questions left open - who is
The Crawler? Or Patrus the magician, for that matter? And what happens to
this potentially powerful new magician Owyn, who we don't see in future
books?

Worse, the main villains are so poorly disguised it's laughable.

Try Magician, or Shadow of a Dark Queen, or the newer Flight of the
Nighthawks. All of these are brilliant. But please, if you are new to
Feist, do yourself a favour and avoid this one. I would hate to see
someone miss the brilliance of Feist based on this mistaken attempt to
turn a game into a book.

I do not recommend this book.

Dark elves and bad men.


Related to a computer game this book said when I read it, can't say how much, though. Those not so nice moredhel are returning, some years later, and the criminal guild has an exceedingly nasty new ruler.

It is up to the usual band of stalwarts, some new characters, and even a dark elf that helps the Kingdom side out to try and do something about it.

Another ok Midkemia adventure, pretty much what you would expect.

Dull and lazily written. Fiest, from what I read, apparently based this book off of missions for a video game that he helped plot. And it shows.