1995 English
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Surviving the wrath of the fearsome Sauur—a hideous race of invading serpents—noble Erik and cunning Roo have delivered a timely warning to the rulers of the Midkemian Empire, and are now free to pursue their separate destinies. Erik chooses the army—and the continuing war against Midkemia's dread enemies. Roo lusts for wealth and power—rising high and fast in theworld of trade. But with luxury comes carelessness and a vulnerability to the desires of the flesh. And a beautiful seductress with her ruthless machinations threatens to destroy everything Roo has built and become—summoning catastrophe into his future . . . and terror into his world.
A usual problem with sequels?that they don't measure up to the original?applies to this follow-up to Shadow of a Dark Queen, which also suffers from unexpectedly stodgy prose and a paucity of action. Focusing on Rupert Avery's rise to power and influence in the mercantile class of the City of Krondor, the narrative follows "Roo" as he forms a business alliance with a merchant, Helmut Grindle, whose daughter, Karli, he marries for a multitude of reasons, none of which is love. Roo begins an affair of sorts with the nasty and calculating Sylvia Easterbrook but also manages to have two children with Karli. Meanwhile, his friend and compatriot Erik von Darkmoor travels back down to the land of Novindus to battle the Pantathians (the serpents referred to in the subtitle). Throughout, the pacing is slow and the characters less than persuasive. While Feist sows enough interesting seeds here to redeem this series in its next (and final) installment, this volume is up to neither snuff nor par.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"Feist's new saga has a freshness of vision." -- --Publishers Weekly
"Has a natural talent for keeping the reader turning pages." -- --Chicago Sun-Times