Customer Reviews

Jimmy The Hand: Legends of the Riftwar, Book III

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Not as great as some of Feist's other works but still an interesting read. The price was great for this book so that's a bonus.

This book was a disappointment. I loved the Krondor books but the most recent "Legends" series have been stale at best. This story opens with a young Jimmy and his escapades following the escape of the Princess of Krondor. Absent are many of the great characters that we knew from past books (without even a cameo). Anyway, Jimmy now has a fortune in Gold as his reward for his assistance in the escape given to him by Arutha. This allows Jimmy to essentially buy a solution to every problem that the author can think of. No highly intelligent innovations or unique solutions to problems. Speaking of problems, the main conflicts in the novel end up being simple events. Jimmy's friend gets captured, Jimmy saves her. Jimmy gets kicked out of Krondor and has a boring trip at sea. Jimmy encounters someone whose brother was kidnapped, Jimmy saves them. All flat, no meaningful characters or relationships. Even the introduction of an agent of the death goddess is terrible. While there were some sparks of interest, essentially a character was introduced with no real features or defined skills. This "agent" inexplicably partners up with Jimmy develops an inexplicable bond where they have an understanding that they will cooperate and work together.

Overall, this book actually lessens all previous Krondor books. It's sad.

For those of us who have read many (in my case, likely all) of Raymond Fiest's books a favourite character has to be Jimmy the Hand who is a lovable rascal who ends up doing the right thing despite his handicaps in life.

So it is a treat to have another book on Jimmy which fleshes out a period in his life which has not been previously examined. It's a good book, a pleasant read although not a great novel. It's fun.