Dr Nic

I just finished reading a book.

If you’ve read Magician, by Raymond E Feist, and any of the sequels then you need to read Wrath of a Mad God which has just come out. I know as well as you do that Ray’s work hasn’t been fantastic over the last decade or so. In fact, I stopped reading his books altogether. This is noteworthy since he was the only novelist for whom I used buy each and every book he wrote, in hard cover so I could have the entire collection site nicely on my shelf. I even saw him speak in public once.

Then his books became soft like a wet tissue, and I stopped giving him my money. But I just read his latest book over Easter, and now you must read it too.

Similarly if the Catholic church releases the 3rd volume of their “Bible: The Testaments” trilogy, you’d probably grab a copy just to see how the story ends, even if you didn’t really follow the first 2 books.

With “Wrath of a Mad God,” Raymond E Feist has rewarded each any every loyal reader of his multitude of books with a final “this is how it ends” book. I’m prepared to believe that this is Ray’s final book. He might write more because his publisher gives him money to do it, but really this book ties together 20+ books about the fabulous characters from Midkemia. More importantly, this book answers questions.

Who is Nakor?

Who was Macros?

The downside of this book is that its the 3rd book of a trilogy. Over the last few weeks I bought + read them all, so I can’t say whether you can just read this latest one on its own and get full value.

Also, I’m not saying this is the best book you’ll ever read.

But, if you’re like me - yearning for the majestic wars, battles between armies from different planets, interfering Gods, and the superhumans at the center of it all, then its worth taking the final journey: read all three books (starting with Flight of the Night Hawks and Into a Dark Realm).

Need a final excuse to read these books and return to the bosom of all the wonders of Feist’s earlier works?

When I saw Feist speak in public a decade ago, I distinctly remember one thing. He said the problem with having a superhuman like Pug or Tomas is that you constantly need to distract them throughout the whole book so that the other characters have something to do. So Pug hasn’t really done any amazingly jaw dropping since he said “Tremble and despair for I am Power!” in the first book. I think this last book contains another jaw dropping moment worth the price of admission. Unfortunately he is on his own when he does it, so there is no snappy one-line quote to go with it. This is just an example of my final excuse for you to read these books and thus have closure of Raymond E Feist’s world of Midkemia:

The last book is all about Pug. A happy place to finish, just as it was a happy place to start.