Into A Dark Realm: Book Two Of The Darkwar Saga [Hardcover]

I was a huge fan of Feist for a long time, and the riftwar saga has long been among my favorite series. Fairly formulaic, and nothing incredibly deep, but very entertaining and with good pacing that keeps the pages turning.

I have been disappointed with Feist's recent work, but having been led on by his early works, I keep reading the latest to learn more of Midkemia, and hope to capture some of the magic from the original series. Unfortunately, Into a Dark Realm does not, in my opinion, capture any of that magic.

Feist clearly has good imagination, so I don't know why every series degenerates to the same thing. Group of young boys comes of age and plays large role in major conflict with impact on titanic struggle between forces of good and evil capable of destroying everything. Meanwhile, magicians of incredible power basically are in the dark and can't do too much against opponents who also happen to be incredibly powerful, if a bit insane. All characters are constantly on the verge of titanic danger, but somehow there is never any real tragedy.

This book didn't really change any of that. In fact, I think it was even worse because the plot never really goes anywhere. Some may argue that it is just building for the next book in the series, but this book is so short, it could probably have been combined with the final book to present one decent novel. It wouldn't be hard to call this book being released 'milking' the series, as it doesn't really stand up on its own as a good story.

The book reads well. Feist is good with dialogue, description, and tone, and his style is as good as ever. But for any real meat, this book fails to deliver.

If you are a Midkemia fan who can't get enough, you might want to check this out once the final book is released. A couple stars here, a couple for that one, and together you might get one whole book worth reading. If you are a reader new to Feist, then I urge you to read he earlier work (riftwar saga) instead, and only then consider this book, with the above in mind.

Into a Dark Realm (2007) is the second fantasy novel in the Darkwar Saga series, following Flight of the Nighthawks. In the previous volume, Magnus finds a jar containing the soul of Leso Varen in a Keshian sewer and Pug breaks it before the body possessed by the evil sorcerer. Then Ralan Bek kills the possessed body and Varen's soul flees through a hidden rift into Kelewan, where he possesses another body.

In this novel, Jommy Killaroo, Zane conDoin and his foster brother Tad run down Aziz Suri -- a close contact of the Nighthawks -- in the streets of Durbin. When he falls off a pier, the boys threatened to cut the line holding him from a dangerous fall. Faced with broken bones or drowning, the man tells them where to find Jomo Ketlami.

Conclave troops capture Ketlami and take him back to a warehouse. There they torture him until a mind reader can seize the location of his superior. Then they put Ketlami out of his misery.

Eric von Darkmoor -- Duke of Krondar -- leads the assault on the back entrance to Cavell Keep. Magnus leads the frontal assault on the old fort. Yet Ralan Bek enters the keep alone through the back way to take out the Blackhawk defenders.

In this story, Pug receives a message from his future self that leads him to the Dasati plane. He takes Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek with him. First they go to Delacordia to find a guide to the Dasati worlds.

Jommy, Zane and Tad are enrolled into the Royal University of Roldem. Their first encounter at the school is with three students who try to harass them. Jommy punches out Servan -- the leader -- and then the youngest student -- Grandy -- volunteers to take them to Brother Kynan, the school Reeve.

Miranda monitors the progress of the Kelewan magicians studying the Talnoy. They are trying various wards on the Talnoy and suddenly the thing stops responding. Miranda magically searches the thing and finds no signs of life.

This story also relates the experiences of Valko, a Dasati warrior. Valko announces himself as the son of Aruke and is tested in a battle to the death against another young warrior. When Valko wins, he is accepted as the heir of Aruke and sent off to learn more about ruling.

Pug is afraid of an invasion by millions of Dasati warriors and Deathpriests into the higher plane of Kelewan and Midkemia. Kaspar has been warned of this invasion in a vision from the god Ban-ath and has passed the warning on to Pug. Mow the Oracle of Aal tells Pug that he has been worrying about the wrong God of Evil.

His Darkness is the only official god of the Dasati. Yet this Dark God has not always been the one and only divinity among the Dasati. Pug and others in this tale learn more about the White, both an underground conspiracy and a God of Light.

Recommended for Feist fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of adventure among the planes, exotic magic, and strange relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Okay, okay ... let me explain the title of this review, as well as the 5 stars. I've been a fan of Raymond Feist's work since the day I first picked up Magician years back. I very much enjoy the simple, yet entertaining, dialogue in his books, as well as his ability to generate a lot of mileage out of relatively limited archetypes (like 'the impish wizard', 'the benevolent superhero', etc). I even applaud him for being the first to make a quality translation of his fantasy world to computer game form, with the terrific Betrayal at Krondor. But despite my admiration for him, from time to time his books have a kind of "rushed" feel to them, as if he was just getting a book out the door, rather than telling a story.

I had little hope for this most recent series, as I found the Talon of Silverhawk series a little below average. But I must say, from the time he first introduced the concept of the Dasati, I was intrigued ... and this book really does an excellent job of introducing a completely original "threat to all civilization" in the form of the Dasati - something I didn't think was possible in modern fantasy. His chapters on the Dasati lordlings, and his sections comparing his training to the "training" of Jommy, Zane and Tad are very interesting, and I expect a big payoff in the next book.

All in all, this is a very fast paced, and very interesting, second book. By immersing the reader in the alien culture, and providing an understanding of why the Dasati are so unrelentingly evil, it provides an excellent break from his usual nameless, faceless hordes of evil. All in all, I much prefer Feist's stories when he invests energy and backstory into his antagonists (like Kelewan and the Dasati), as opposed to the faceless / unreasoning hordes of the Sauur or the Demon realm.

Overall, if you've enjoyed Feist's work in the past, this is a worthy - even very worthy - purchase. I can't wait for the conclusion.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 42 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars