Launching into another epic series, TALON OF THE SILVER HAWK
marks the beginning of Raymond E. Feist's latest Midkemia
series, Conclave of Shadows. Other Midekemia series include
the Serpentwar series, and the Krondor books. Before going
to far into this review, you should be warned that this
reviewer has not read these other series.
TALON OF THE SILVER HAWK relates the story of a young man
named...er...Talon of the Silver Hawk...who is the sole
survivor of the slaughter of his tribe by the forces of
evil. Rescued by a secret society of good, the Conclave of
Shadows, he is trained to serve as a spy and given the
opportunity to avenge his people. The focus of the book is
Talon, which helps a lot if you aren't familiar with the
other Midkemia books - the established characters and
stories serve as a backdrop to the main storyline.
Feist's writing is quite sparse. His descriptions are
minimal and leave much to the imagination of the reader. His
focus is to tell a story, not to write intricate prose. It
makes for an entertaining read, but it almost goes by too
fast. Some elements of the story feel undeveloped, abandoned
for the sake of progressing the plot. Huge swathes of time
are jumped over so that Feist can get onto the next
interesting bit of the story. For such a potentially dark
story of genocide and revenge, it doesn't bog down in the
internal psychology of the main character. This makes a nice
change of pace after some of the more dense pscho-drama
fantasy novels out there (Wurts, Jordan, etc.).
In short, Talon is an interesting yarn set in an established
fantasy world. It's a light read, a great escape that
doesn't take itself too seriously.
Evil has come to a distant land high among the snow-capped
mountains of Midkemia, as an exterminating army wearing the
colors of the Duke of Olasko razes village after village,
slaughtering men, women, and children without mercy. And
when the carnage is done, only one survivor remains: a young
boy named Kieli. A youth no longer, there is now but one
road for him to travel: the path of vengeance. And he will
not be alone. Under the tutelage of the rescuers who
discovered him, Kieli will be molded into a sure and
pitiless weapon. And he will accept the destiny that has
been chosen for him ... as Talon of the Silver Hawk.
But the prey he so earnestly stalks is hunting him as well.
And Talon must swear allegiance to a shadowy cause that
already binds his mysterious benefactors -- or his mission,
his honor, and his life will be lost forever.
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