Book Review: A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, #4) by Raymond E. Feist
A Darkness At Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Series: The Riftwar Saga (Book #4 of 4), The Riftwar Cycle (Book #4 of 31)
Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Classic Fantasy
Pages: 401 pages (Kindle edition)
Published: 7th February 1986
A Darkness at Sethanon successfully provided a climactic final few chapters to The Riftwar Saga trilogy, but as an installment, it is also the weakest book of the trilogy.
“Your destiny is now your own to forge as best as you may.”
I finally finished reading The Riftwar Saga for the first time. As a refresher, I have read the absolutely amazing Riftwar: Empire trilogy Raymond E. Feist wrote together with Janny Wurts several years ago. Having read Magician and Silverthorn, and now A Darkness at Sethanon, I am confident in my opinion that the spin-off series is superior. I expected A Darkness at Sethanon, the final book in The Riftwar Saga trilogy by Raymond E. Feist to deliver an explosive and satisfying conclusion to the series. And in some ways, it succeeded. But I would be lying if I said I did not struggle to keep my attention glued to the book during some sections. While A Darkness at Sethanon is still quite a good book in its entirety, it is—unfortunately—my least favorite installment in the trilogy. It took me two weeks to read this book, after all.
“I know you’ll think this odd, but I find it strangely exhilarating not knowing what’s coming next.”
This quote above can be alluded to as the reason why I did not enjoy A Darkness at Sethanon as much as I hoped. A Darkness at Sethanon takes place one year after the end of Silverthorn. Right from the beginning, whether it is from Pug and Tomas or Arutha and Jimmy’s perspective, everything is geared toward finishing what has been established in Silverthorn, the battle against Murmandamus as he gathers the force of Moredhel to find the Lifestone and take over Midkemia. This premise promises an epic conclusion and battles, and A Darkness at Sethanon delivered that. So, what is my issue with the novel? Well, it is something I have had issues with since the beginning of the series. I wanted more of Pug and Tomas. Not Arutha and Jimmy. Even more so in this book. Because I knew with this kind of world-destructive conflict, Pug and Tomas would be invaluable to victory, and they would have to take charge of the battle to win the war. This is not hard to predict. It is formulaic, and it should be that way. They are essentially super-powered godlike beings now. Sometimes, I am okay with having a predictable storyline as the final book. As always, it depends on execution. However, for me, this can only work if we get large segments on Pug and Tomas instead.
“Immortality, power, dominance, all are illusions. Don’t you see? We are simply pawns in a game beyond our understanding.”
In A Darkness at Sethanon, after the first few chapters, we ended up having to read multiple large segments of Jimmy, Arutha, and the other characters rather than Pug and Tomas’s story, which seems to be much more centered on the actual big conflict and the history of the worlds. Again, I get it. In my Silverthorn review, I talked about this as well. It is necessary to show the struggle of Arutha and Jimmy because they are normal human beings doing their best to fight against Murmandamus. It is also why Silverthorn was focused on their development as the main characters. And most readers would be okay with this. However, it is one of my pet peeves when the first book of a series (or two books, depending on which edition of Magician you read) has spent a lot of time developing the main characters and then they’re put on the sideline for the rest of the series instead. Case in point, The Raven’s Shadow trilogy by Anthony Ryan. The first book, Blood Song, spent all the pages on Vaelin al Sorna, and as the series progressed, Vaelin turned progressively into a weak figure that was barely important to the main conflict. With the number of pages spent on Arutha and Jimmy in Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon, I cannot help but feel—with this direction—it would’ve been better for the overall series if Pug and Tomas never became the main character in the first place instead.
“Debts of friendship are not debts.”
Fortunately, everything related to Pug and Tomas was awesome to read. There is so much potential to the multiple worlds and rift concept Feist has established for Midkemia and Kelewan, and it is through their perspective we get to learn about them the most. Although I criticized the abundance of pages spent on Arutha and Jimmy, I must also admit the two big battle sequences in A Darkness at Sethanon were incredible. The battle of Armengar, in particular, did not involve Pug and Tomas at all, and it was well-written and vivid in my mind. It was great to see how Arutha, Jimmy, and their friends do their best to fight Murmandamus and his army. But, of course, the main highlight of the novel is written in the title: A Darkness at Sethanon.
The final battle at Sethanon was epic in scope. As we have learned about the identity of The Enemy, it was rewarding to see everything coming together for the final confrontations in the last chapters. It is understandable how The Riftwar Saga became one of the most important series in the 80s and 90s, even to this day, actually! There were some insane scenes in the last two chapters of A Darkness at Sethanon alone that would undoubtedly assure that.
“One of the problems with being my age is you look at everyone who is younger as children, and when everyone else around you is younger, it means you live in a universe of children. So you tend to scold more than is proper.”
A Darkness at Sethanon ended the series on a satisfying note. I do not regret reading this series. But I am quite shocked that there are still more than twenty books in the universe. Having read Magician without continuing and jumping straight to The Riftwar: Empire trilogy instead back then, I have always been curious about Silverthorn, A Darkness at Sethanon, and how reading them would affect my experience of reading The Riftwar: Empire trilogy again. My verdict? Overall… The Riftwar Saga is a good classic fantasy series. It is worth reading, even if you only want to find out how the series became one of the important classics of the genre. But if you only want to read The Riftwar: Empire trilogy, reading Magician alone would be sufficient for your enjoyment of the spin-off series. As for me, this is where I will part ways with The Riftwar Cycle. Note that I am not counting my future reread of The Riftwar: Empire trilogy in the equation. I will be rereading The Riftwar: Empire trilogy again. Sooner than later. I consider that series one of my top favorite series of all time, and I am excited about the thought of being back with Mara Acoma and her story.
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