The shadow of the Riftwar Saga hangs heavily over this series. I couldn't make any judgement on the series as a whole until I finished Shards of a Broken Crown. But now that I have, there grows in my mind a sneaking suspicion that Feist's ghostwriter had a lot to do with the writing of this final, fourth volume in the saga. I mean, there has to be a reason why the gradient of quality between the Riftwar Saga and this cycle of books is so great.There are three major problems with this book, all of which Feist is completely capable of correcting and avoiding since he has shown himself to be a great writer in his Riftwar Saga. I will get to these issues at the bottom of this review. If you don't want spoilers, click to something else!At the end of the third book, the demon king Jakan was defeated (with no drama or tension) by Pug, Tomas, Miranda and the annoying Nakor. Although that was an abrupt and disappointing ending to an otherwise good fantasy tale, it at least answered the question of who was behind the bad stuff happening in Midkemia. For some reason, Feist decided to extend the story to one more book, which would presumably be a long denoument to the Serpentwar, dealing with the political, military and personal fallout from the destructive path that the demon horde inflicted on the Kingdom of the Isles.Shards of a Broken Crown is a book that foreshadows so much but delivers on very little of that promise. Even the title suggests high political drama, and strong military narrative. It is time for a story on the King of the Isles, the Prince of Krondor, and the devious shenanigans of Rupert Avery, our hero from the second book. But what we get instead is an inconsistent, jumpy narrative from one part of the world to another, without any strong ties until the very end, when all the stories are awkwardly pulled together. Somehow I would not be surprised if Feist did not write this. On the other hand, in the mid-90s when he was cranking out multiple parallel series, it is far more believable that he wrote this last volume far too quickly and rushed to the publisher as soon as he met their minimum words requirement. What other explanation for the odd, rushed ending? What other explanation for the numerous errors in typesetting and basic grammar? This book is poorly edited and badly organized. In short, this whole thing could have been crammed into a single chapter of epilogue at the end of Demon King, which for all its faults, was a much better story than this.The first irritation for me is the constantly mysterious Nakor, who disguises any and every true mystery and pleasure in the book with cryptic phrases and silly smiles. Feist keeps telling us how much Nakor knows, but never gets him to say anything! It is one of the most frustrating things I have ever had to read and it was pretty damn bad in the third volume. In this book I simply skipped the vast majority of pages that had Nakjor's dialogue in it, because it was such a waste of time. Secondly, the hero of Magician, Pug, becomes a caricature of a proper wizard-hero. He is underutilized throughout the entire series (apart from being blown up in the last book in a silly-ass attack) until the very, utter end of this volume, when he literally brings the war to a screeching halt with his magical abilities and vanishes in a cheesy puff of smoke. Feist has concluded his four volume saga with the most contrived and unbelievable deus ex machina of all time, and that includes the one in Beowulf! You can't have regular people fighting for their lives and the ones they love, and go through character journeys, and hundreds of pages of warfare just to have it all wrap up at the snap of a magician's fingers. Sorry but that's cheap. Very poorly done, you lose two stars right there. Thank God I skipped so much of this book. Thirdly and lastly, Feist utterly abandons his characters at every turn. Rupert is given short shrift in this volume. Erik virtually disappears after his usefulness to the narrative runs out. Dash becomes leader of the Mockers (right, sure). Jimmy wanders off somewhere. Throughout this fiasco, major people of the Kingdom are killed in terribly written sequences, only to be forgotten ten pages later. It is a travesty, all of it. Why even write a saga if you aren't going to finish what you started?This is worse than Wheel of Time's famous flameout. At least Jordan was trying for something cohesive at the end of his last book. Feist does not even attempt at an honest conclusion here. He has no intention of doing right by his readers.Don't read this book. It gets a one star, but it ruins the entire series. Save your time.
To all the die-hard fantasy readers out there, if you haven’t already read this book, or this series, you must do so immediately. Right now. Go!Raymond Feist has been on my ‘to read’ list forever, but I never actually got round to reading any of them. When Shards of a Broken Crown dropped onto my desk, I have to admit I was a bit hesitant – I wanted to read the series from the beginning, starting with Magician. However, the likelihood that I would read (I don’t know how many books) within the space of 10 minutes is minimal, so I got started on what I had at hand and hoped I’d be able to keep up with the story line.And all I can say is … Wow. The plot had me hooked from the first chapter. Feist tells an epic tale of the continuous fight for freedom and peace while simultaneously whisking you away from reality and submerging you into a rich and detailed world.Read more here...The Never-Ending Library is run by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd employees about the HarperCollins Publishers Ltd books that we have read and love.
What do You think about Shards Of A Broken Crown (1999)?
A good enough ending to the Serpentwar Saga by Feist. I liked the way things turned out for dash and how the author decided to let a number of the characters to be killed in the last 2 volumes. Some died quite unexpectedly but sometimes it's like that in real life (especially in times of war) so it's not surprising. I don`t want to start comparing Feist's death scenes to those of other authors. It was just good enough for these books. If you read the others just read this one and finish the Saga
—Joro
I felt this book was definitely the weakest one of the serpentwar saga. it seemed that feist was experimenting with the fantasy series structure by devoting a whole book to the denouement. the concept may have been more effective if there were more characters I could connect with in the book. part of that problem was that feist had killed off many of the long time central characters in the previous book. while feist uses the epilogue of the book to pave the way for the cycle going forward in other series, this book felt really forced at times. nakor was the only one I connected with in this book, and saved the book for me. while the overall serpentwar series was decent, the last book was a thud instead of a gripping series finale.
—Joe Cheverie
When I first read this book, years ago, this was my least favorite of this particular quartet. I like the brothers, Jimmy and Dash, but I couldn't really get into "the brothers' tale."Rereading it now, though, I was quite pleased with the story, for the same reason I enjoy Feist's other stories. I liked watching the rebirth of Krondor, like a phoenix from the ashes. I liked watching Jimmy and Dash come into their own, and watching the men from Novindus embrace the concept of a nation.I did find myself wishing that this particular saga was a quintet. I really wanted to know what happens next in Dash's life. The rest of the characters, the rest of their stories will be plain enough, but Dash... his looked interesting.Not that Feist ever has uninteresting stories.
—Em
