The King's Buccaneer

This was a good fantasy in the Riftwar series. I liked how the characters Nicholas, Harry, Brisa and Anthony became more confident and sure of themselves. I also liked how they and their friends faced the many challenges in their path.

Hmm... I have mixed feelings about this book. Taken alone, the plot is ok - although it sometimes feel like a teenage boy's kind of story, where the guys get to save the girls, and while the girls are the intelligent and strong kind, they still need boys to rescue them. It starts off well, and in Feist's great style of character development. Unfortunately, a third into the book, and things start to get very cliched - including the almost classical bad-but-not-evil pirate archetype. Still, there are still parts that are golden, the action is good, and the pacing of the story is still excellent. Taken in the context of the Riftwar Saga, with incredibly powerful characters like Pug and Tomas, their absence felt very shabbily explained away, and the whole plot, from start to finish felt a little like a rehash of A Darkness at Sethanon - the overall events took the same path. All in all, it's an ok read if you want to fill in the gaps of Midkemia's history, but if you're expecting Feist to be in form, then you'll be disappointed.