Maybe I'm being too harsh and I should give this book two stars, but two stars means that "it was ok" and this book was not ok. This book was awful. Shadow of a Dark Queen was a very mid book. It had potential. If the following books in the series were steps up then this had a chance to be a very solid series. But this was nowhere near a step up. This was a massive step down. When I heard that this book was going to be Roo's story I was so excited because the only two characters who I really liked from book one were Roo and Miranda so there was no way a book about Roo could be bad right? WRONG. I literally could not give a crap about Roo's business ventures. It was boring as crap. And then Feist decided to go ahead and ruin Roo as a character by making him a heartless cheater who doesn't love his children? He's not even a character like Jezal where it's like he's technically a bad guy, but I still enjoy watching him. Roo was just awful. I cannot believe how bad things were. And then just to make matters worse Miranda is a cheater too? Two of the only times we saw her in this book was when she slept with Pug and then when she slept with Calis. This was almost worse than the Roo situation though because it was just never addressed. It was like the Miranda with Pug and the Miranda with Calis were two separate people because the book never bothered to say anything or give any explanation or excuse for how Miranda was acting.

I really wanted to continue with this series. A four book epic within a series containing thirty books. Like that sounds amazing, but it just isn't. I can't continue on with a series that is so perverted with such misogynistic characters who seem to only care about money and sleeping with hot women. I can't continue on with a series where two of the only like three female characters are both sleeping with multiple men and tricking the men into thinking that they're their only lover. I had such high expectations for the Riftwar Cycle, but I have been completely let down and have next to no motivation to read the third book in this quartet.

Pretty good! A 3.5 overall. Weaker than the first in the series, but by no means a poor book. I devoured it in less than a day.

Feist's issues with pacing are still present in this book - a major issue with the first - but significantly less so.

The plot felt underwhelming, focusing on a gradual build-up. This didn't feel like a fantasy story, more the first half of a bildungsroman, but I believe it set groundwork which will carry through to the rest of the series, and without this book a piece would be missing. I wish this story had been a b-plot to another story though, or even several. This book's b-plot was by far more exciting and I'd prefer it to have been the main storyline.

As in the first book, the major strength of this writing is in the characters. Roo got a lot of flesh to his character, and it was very intelligently done. I can't say I like him, but I can say he's a complex and well-created character. They all are, in some way, and this is where Feist's true strength lies.

Another of his strengths, world building, was less evident here. However, this didn't feel like a slip, more of a narrative choice - the narrator of most of the novel isn't really interested.

A *lot* of gratuitous sex, but thankfully nothing obscene.

I'll also point out that mine is a twelfth printing and was filled with typographical mistakes, wrong words, punctuation errors - things an editor or proofreader should have picked up, or that should have been ironed out within the first five printings at least. I kept a pencil behind my ear to mark them all.

So, overall, a good book, and I intend to continue reading this series. Should you pick it up? If you like fantasy, yes.

a bit of a side story that only seems to advance the story line a bit, but maybe I'll see how it fits in better after reading the next book.... This book focused on my least favourite character from the last book (Roo)and his advance as a merchant. There were fun parts of the book, but not the usual adventure of the other books in the series.

This is book 2 of the Serpentwar Saga, which itself is a series in the epic Riftwar Cycle, which I discussed a little in yesterday's post.

We follow Rupert "Roo" Avery, predominantly, one of the characters from the previous book, as he seeks to become the richest man in the Kingdom. As a result, this becomes a book that focuses on commerce more than action (though it does have some great action sequences).

I didn't expect to enjoy pages and pages of characters trying to get the upper hand on trade deals, but I did. Feist wrote some incredible intrigue into Roo's get-rich-schemes, with opposition attempting to ruin him and others preferring to see him skewered.

Roo was also written as a flawed character. He has a great mind for trade but struggles in other areas. As a husband he is inattentive, as a friend he is somewhat selfish, but he somehow remains likeable, and I felt he showed some good development as the story came to a close.

Other characters were great, too. It was a treat to meet characters like Duke James - formerly Jimmy the Hand - again. We also got to follow Erik, protagonist of the previous book, as he dealt with the consequences of their previous quest. What worked so well in this book is that we didn't ignore events on Novindus; we got to see the story progressing there as well as Roo's commercial ambitions.

Feist delivers solid world-building, engaging characters, and tense encounters. The pacing is fantastic, and Feist doesn't hang around in a limited time frame; sometimes months have passed between scenes or chapters, but it never feels like we've missed anything.

I am biased, as Feist is one of my absolute favourites. I used to struggle with the length of his chapters, but after reading the Witcher books they didn't feel so bad after all. My only complaint was that some things towards the end felt like they were wrapped up a little too conveniently, but there were some major implications set up that make me look forward to the next book in the series.

Mismatched stories.

Starts out slow for me, coming off the previous book that was even slower. This one did pick up the pace and interest toward the end. The jumping around did bring me out of the story a bit, and it felt very abrupt to me. I will continue this series and see how things come together. It seems that is how these books are, can drag and sometimes I don't see the point until he brings it all around together to make sense. This does end on somewhat a cliffhanger so there were many things left unsatisfied that I hope will have a worthwhile conclusion in the next couple books.