Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist is the third book in the Riftwar Saga and together with A Darkness at Sethanon forms a kind of duology within the series. This first part tells the story of Prince Arutha’s search for the magical silverthorn plant to cure his beloved Anita from magical poisoning and of the growing threat of Murmandamus,I consider Feist to be one of the master storytellers of his generation. Let me tell you a story to prove it. I studied language and literature at university and after four years of deep literary analysis sucking all the enjoyment out of reading I refused to read anything more complex than a Cosmopolitan for many, many years after graduation. Not until, that is, a colleague loaned me Feist’s Shadow of a Dark Queen, the first in his Serpentwar saga. I completely DEVOURED it and the rest of the series. I was immediately drawn into Feist’s world of Midkemia and it reignited my love of reading that I’d all but forgotten. When I bought my first Kindle and made the switch to ebooks, a book by Feist was also the first book I bought to ease my transition to the new format.So, onto Silverthorn.What I likedWorldbuilding. Feist has been writing in his world of Midkemia for over 30 years and knows it inside out. Each of the nations in his world has its own distinct character, flora and fauna and customs. The world feels real. The magic system is what Brandon Sanderson would call a soft magic system in that it’s not always fully explained to the reader. Feist is good at avoid using magic to create a deus ex machina which can be a strong temptation of a less well defined magic system.Characters. The characters, too, feel real. While Arutha is the hero of Silverthorn and displays many heroic qualities he can be a really moody son of a gun which keeps him real. The young Jimmy the Hand too, could be annoying, but his occasional moments of real vulnerability keep him endearing to the reader. Admittedly, in Silverthorn his female characters aren’t my favourite. Carline comes across as shrewish and Anita is your stereotypical damsel in distress. We don’t have a kickass Brienne of Tarth or Egwene al Vere. Still, Silverthorn is one of Feist’s earlier works, and his female characters are better written later on.Pacing. Feist knows how keep a story moving along at a brisk pace and to keep narrative tension. In Feist’s books there is always something going on; always an obstacle to overcome or an enemy about to try to kill our protagonists. The humour. I adore Feist’s writing still with its not infrequent humour. it is a rather dry, understated humour which is often expressed in quips by the characters and really appeals to my British sense of humour.What I didn’t likeNot available in ebook format. Here I have to have a rant. It seems that the publisher for the English version of Raymond E. Feist’s Silverthorn in North America doesn’t have the rights to produce an ebook version. The only ebook version available to us Canadians is the French version. I see that the UK publishers to have an ebook version available, but can we Canadians buy it? Nope. We can easily buy hard copy books from Amazon.co.uk, but not ebooks. Grrrr. I look forward to the day when digital rights are less restrictive. I started reading Silverthorn in French as ebook, but in the end I found I was missing too much of Feist’s nuance and humour so switched to the paperback version. (Note, the links above are to the French ebooks.)Few female characters. See above.All in all I loved Silverthorn and gave it four stars out of five.
While Feist's stories are entertaining, the thing that really irritates me about his writing style is the constant set of improbable coincidences that allow a random nobody to come into power and glory without any reversals whatsoever. In the last two books, it was Pug, which was at least somewhat interesting, but in this book he tries to do it again with Jimmy/James in a way that just stretches plausibility one too many times. Compared to the Magician book(s), the story also feels rushed, as though Feist is trying too hard to compress as much as occurred in that opus into a book half the size. Also, Arutha is a terrible leader: he's the ruler of half a kingdom and has open positions that require competent people, so instead of having an impartial selection process he just randomly makes all of his friends nobility just because? And no one seems to mind? If this were reality, that sort of behavior would cause all sorts of resentments and problems among those with actual qualifications to run the kingdom who were passed over in favor of Arutha's buddies time and time again, solely because they shared some grand adventure together. In this respect, Midkemia more resembles "Oregon with some castles and elves" than it does a fully developed world of its own, though I've a feeling that if the internal combustion engine existed in Feist's world even Midkemians would be legally able to pump their own gas. I realize that nitpicking fantasy is ridiculous on its face, but seeing as how the less socially apt in my generation (myself included) grew up with this kind of "the hero is always important and will always succeed no matter what the ridiculous odds" kind of writing ended up being screwed for years when we got to the real world because, getting this message from our media in concert with our politically correct education system meant that we internalized that message and believed it. In that respect, this sort of writing is part of the problem and just makes me wish George RR Martin would hurry up and write The Winds of Winter so I can read a fantasy novel with characters whose actions and motivations are actually complex and plausible.
Do You like book Silverthorn (1986)?
Rating: 3.5/5 Apprentice will always be my favorite Riftwar book, although I still have one more to read in this saga. However, this book still held my interest and was a fun read. I love these characters and the world Feist created. Just like the previous two books, the story is fairly simple, but I don't mind this because Feist is so great at what he does. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I LOVE the way Feist writes. He doesn't spend four pages about what someone is eating and I really do appreciate that in fantasy author. Okay, so on to the story. At first, I was a little disappointed that this book focused on Arutha instead of Pug and Tomas. They show up later in the story and Pug is a crucial part of it (yay!). But I'm glad this story focused on Arutha and his mates. Jimmy the Hand comes back and he is probably my favorite character besides Pug. He is slowly moving in to the #1 spot though. For most of the book, Arutha and his travelers are on a quest to save Princess Anita from dying. They must find the rare Silverthorn plant in order to save her. This leads them across Midkemia confronting new enemies. For about 3/4 of the book I was all in. I love Arutha and I enjoyed following him throughout Midkemia. We got to see new and familiar places and meet new people. Towards the end I was a little fatigued and ready for it to end, but the only major complaint I have is that there is still a lack of great female characters. Anita is just a major plot device and Queen Aglaranna basically just sits on her throne and has a baby. I hope in the next book this will change. I was very happy we got to see a new part of Kelewan and the ending with Pug made me want to jump right into the next book! Ultimately, Silverthorn is a great addition to the Riftwar Saga, but it still doesn't hold up to the first book. That's okay though, because the first book is one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time.
—Brittany
There are so many high points to this novel that I don’t even know where I should start. The author provides an absolutely amazing story that just keeps getting better as you read it. The determination of the heroes coupled with their increased desperation to find a cure is expertly written and you can really feel the tension mounting throughout the novel. There was also more action in this novel than in the previous Magician novels. The duel between Baru and Murad was amazingly choreographed and I found myself upset by the attack on Baru by the renegade moredhel. Another scene the really stuck out while I was reading was when the heroes made it to Moraelin. I found myself envisioning a bleak cold lake that can only be described as desolate. Overall this novel is a fast easy read that really makes you feel as if you are an integral part of the story. After reading Silverthorn I could not help but feel that the novel Magician is nothing but a warmup to the actual storyline that starts in Silverthorn.[http://www.thefantasyreview.com/2007/...]
—Jeremy Brown
An excellent book in the series, although like the first two (which were originally one book & then published in the US as 2 paperbacks) this book reads as half of one. There is far too much left hanging, so plan on having A Darkness at Sethanon at hand when you finish.The main characters shift & a new star is introduced, but story is better for it, IMO. The heroes of the previous books are around, but they're wrapped up in other matters. This allows the world to expand in a more believable fashion & gives it a fresher perspective. This probably isn't really a 4 star book, but at least a 3.5, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I'm reading this in the Fantasy Book Club Series Group this time,http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
—Jim
