This book is always in top 100 lists. I had a vague feeling I had read it before, but I thought I'd take it on anyway. I bought the 10th anniversary "author's preferred edition", in which Feist has taken the unusual step of adding back in all the words he was told to cut by the original editor. Turns out I had read it before, but I barely remembered anything - not because it was boring, I just read it a long time ago.
It is a great story, and the addition of another world (two maps!) does wonders to change what would otherwise have been fairly formulaic fantasy: magic, dwarves, elves, goblins etc. Having said that, there are still some times I thought I was reading Lord of the Rings (mines of Moria anyone?):
There is one mine that passes completely under the mountains, coming out on the other side of the range, only a day's march from the road to Bordon. It will take two days to pass through, and there may be dangers.
I liked that Pug really sucks at being a magician at first, thus avoiding being a Mary Sue like Kvothe, although his name is almost as bad. Similarly I enjoyed Tomas' struggle with the armour that gives him amazing powers but is also dangerous. The explanation of magic by Feist pales in comparison to that in The Name of The Wind.
The idea of two human-like races happening to chance across each other in the vastness of the universe at a similar medieval stage of development is completely implausible, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good story. I also think that such powerful magicians (and particularly the Warlords' pet magicians) would have come up with better weapons than swords, and have better transport for troops than moving forces by foot.
At 681 tiny-font pages it is definitely epic, but I think Feist mostly gets the tempo right. The beginning is fairly slow, but once the invasion starts it is pretty relentless. Potentially boring sequences such as travelling over the same ground are skipped, although the time jumps are occasionally a bit heavy handed. It is obvious that the book was written to stand alone, and Feist confirms in the foreword that the original editor wasn't keen on a sequel. I think I would have preferred to have more loose ends to motivate reading the next in the series.
4.5 stars
