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A review by angrywombat
Mistress of the Empire by Janny Wurts, Raymond E. Feist
3.0
I liked this book, but while some of it was amazing, other bits just felt superfluous.
The characterisation was amazing, as in the rest of the series, and i really felt for many of the characters - I even could understand the motivations of many of the "villains" of the story, and boy did I love to hate them... the problem was that it felt that the villains were almost recycled from previous stories - I suppose the "traditional vs liberal" conflict was hard-wired into the plot.
So while i was swept up by the characters, I felt let down by the plotting. This book felt more hacked together - too many different story threads that didn't really mesh.
[b:Daughter of the Empire|589979|Daughter of the Empire (The Empire Trilogy, #1)|Raymond E. Feist|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404668411l/589979._SY75_.jpg|2960453] was overall Mara vs Jingu Minnwanabi, with a sub-plot of Mara's marriage to Buntokapi Anasati - all of which was nicely resolved.
[b:Servant of the Empire|13815|Servant of the Empire (The Empire Trilogy, #2)|Raymond E. Feist|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348059422l/13815._SY75_.jpg|1422630] is about Desio/Tasaio Minnwanabi vs Mara, with a sub-plot of the romance of Mara & Kevin.
But this story has way too much going on. First it is Mara/Arakasi vs The Hamoi Tong, Then we get Mara vs Jiro Anasati, then we have Mara vs the Assembly, then we have a weird romance/crisis of faith for Arakasi, and finally a cross country trip to meet Thuril and Cho-ja.. Most of these are only tenuously linked as well... (and this is shorter that the 2nd book Servant)
The ending was also rather dissatisfying.. "yay we won, everyone becomes happy now!" really rang untrue after the preceding 20,000 odd pages telling us that the Tsurannuani Lords never agree on anything and are selfish to a fault... And it completely ignored the whole Cho-ja situation...
Sigh.. Ending are hard, and few series do it well. This was a damn good effort that I enjoyed, but still left me feeling a little dissatisfied.
The characterisation was amazing, as in the rest of the series, and i really felt for many of the characters - I even could understand the motivations of many of the "villains" of the story, and boy did I love to hate them... the problem was that it felt that the villains were almost recycled from previous stories - I suppose the "traditional vs liberal" conflict was hard-wired into the plot.
So while i was swept up by the characters, I felt let down by the plotting. This book felt more hacked together - too many different story threads that didn't really mesh.
[b:Daughter of the Empire|589979|Daughter of the Empire (The Empire Trilogy, #1)|Raymond E. Feist|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404668411l/589979._SY75_.jpg|2960453] was overall Mara vs Jingu Minnwanabi, with a sub-plot of Mara's marriage to Buntokapi Anasati - all of which was nicely resolved.
[b:Servant of the Empire|13815|Servant of the Empire (The Empire Trilogy, #2)|Raymond E. Feist|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348059422l/13815._SY75_.jpg|1422630] is about Desio/Tasaio Minnwanabi vs Mara, with a sub-plot of the romance of Mara & Kevin.
But this story has way too much going on. First it is Mara/Arakasi vs The Hamoi Tong, Then we get Mara vs Jiro Anasati, then we have Mara vs the Assembly, then we have a weird romance/crisis of faith for Arakasi, and finally a cross country trip to meet Thuril and Cho-ja.. Most of these are only tenuously linked as well... (and this is shorter that the 2nd book Servant)
The ending was also rather dissatisfying.. "yay we won, everyone becomes happy now!" really rang untrue after the preceding 20,000 odd pages telling us that the Tsurannuani Lords never agree on anything and are selfish to a fault... And it completely ignored the whole Cho-ja situation...
Sigh.. Ending are hard, and few series do it well. This was a damn good effort that I enjoyed, but still left me feeling a little dissatisfied.