Magician: Master, By Raymond E. Feist

The war between the people of Midkemia and the Tsurani has been stretching on for over six long years. There have been many casualties on both sides, but the truth is that the Tsurani have more resources and are slowly winning the war. But the Midkemians will not give up without a fight. One man well known for his battle prowess is Tomas, Pug’s old friend. For when he first donned the enchanted armor the dragon gave him, he started transforming into something the world had not seen since the Chaos Wars. A deadly force unfettered by anything except for Tomas’ own humanity and the strivings of those around him. The Valheru were terrible and without mercy: to unleash one once again on the world would be to cause its utter destruction. But for now the evil sleeps restlessly, allowing Tomas to protect that which he cares about. But Tomas is not the only one trying to protect the world; even though Pug has long since been captured by the Tsurani he has not forgotten his home, nor his wish to help end the war. For although he has been a slave for six long years, hiding his magical abilities, the truth will out and soon he must train to control his magic, for the fate of two worlds rests on his abilities.

I love melodramatic summaries. I can’t seem to escape them. So I give in to the inevitable and embrace the horrific corniness of it all. After all, this is fantasy, and that is why I read it.

Tomas was certainly an interesting character in the last book, just starting to come into the dragon’s gift. But I couldn’t really say anything about him, as he didn’t pertain to the plot much in the last book. But he certainly comes out in spades in this one, and I think manages to be more interesting than Pug sometimes. Probably because he’s got more issues and dark personalities are always more intriguing. And the fact that Pug doesn’t seem to do much in this book, other than show us some interesting things about Kelewan, explode things with his magic, and give speeches. Not too many speeches, but he seems to do more talking than anything. He’s changed a lot from the impetuous keep boy, but Tomas has certainly turned out more interesting.

There were some definitely cool scenes to read. The history of Kelewan was very good and very interesting to see take place. The Straits of Darkness was definitely fun, as was finding out about the trio of brothers. Common device with the whole unknown parentage thing, but done well in regards to the end, although ‘civil war!’ was overdone a bit in my opinion. Every three pages near the end was saying, ‘if we do this, civil war will happen!’ A bit much. And Feist continued in his tradition of making the beginning of each chapter a blank statement, but it annoyed me less this time around. Hopefully he’ll grow out of it in time.

All in all a very satisfactory read, with good characters, interesting plot, and magics diverse. I’ll give good marks to it and to Feist for coming up with this world.