Talon of the Silver Hawk (Conclave of Shadows, #1) (2024)

Heroes Journey. Traditional.

That being said, I honestly had a good time following this future era, post-Krondor war building of a hero. Young/old Pug is here, briefly, but for the most part, this is not of magic, but the crafting of one quick boy into a hell of a weapon.

Simple premise, really, and one we've all seen, but I really enjoyed the journey. The last of his tribe, he's taken in by the Conclave of Shadows, full of magicians and spies, trained and inducted in their order, and is sent out into the world to infiltrate and get everyone ready for the evil that spreads through the land.

This is Feist at his most crafty. The story might be old but it is still very entertaining. Lots of sword-play, some intrigue, and even more REVENGE. :) In other words, all the things we usually turn to when it comes to old-style fantasy. I've read much worse and only a few that do this better. But all-in-all? I can definitely recommend this for sheer entertainment value if not world-building, epic-building, or mind-blowing reveals.

This is the Raymond E. Feist that I like, the author who narrates an epic story without hurrying, taking his time to put us in the right mood. This is certainly true at the beginning of the story where we meet a young man, a member of a tribe with a distinct culture, who, in the midst of a maturation ritual, is confronted with tragic events and thus devotes his life to revenge. To reach that point, however, he has to go through many stages and meet people who will make him a powerful and brilliant warrior. In this making most of the book is devoted to describing it in a very good way, although in some cases he goes very fast. With this we arrive at an action-packed finale, in a field, that is, where the writer is at his best. Of course there are some exaggerations, but if you not make a fuss about them you will enjoy some very dramatic moments.

In other words, this trilogy begins with an interesting and delightful book. I have some objections to the excesses of the plot and to some points where the author could give more details, which would of course make the book bigger but would be - at least for me - even more interesting. Positive, however, is the one piece of politics that is at the core of this story that seems to be more grounded and not based so much on magic. With this the second part seems to me that it will be just as interesting, so I will begin to read it immediately.

Αυτός είναι ο Raymond E. Feist που μου αρέσει, ο συγγραφέας που αφηγείται μία επική ιστορία χωρίς να βιάζεται, παίρνοντας το χρόνο του για να μας βάλει στην κατάλληλη διάθεση. Αυτό σίγουρα ισχύει στην αρχή της ιστορίας όπου συναντάμε έναν νεαρό άντρα, μέλος μιας φυλής με ξεχωριστή κουλτούρα, που στη μέση μιας τελετουργίας ενηλικίωσης έρχεται αντιμέτωπος με τραγικά γεγονότα και έτσι αφιερώνει τη ζωή του στην εκδίκηση. Για να φτάσει, όμως, σε αυτό το σημείο πρέπει να περάσει από πολλά στάδια και να συναντήσει ανθρώπους που θα τον διαμορφώσουν σε έναν πανίσχυρο και ευφυέστατο πολεμιστή. Σε αυτή του τη διαμόρφωση αφιερώνεται το μεγαλύτερο μέρος του βιβλίου, περιγράφοντας την με έναν πολύ καλό τρόπο, αν και σε κάποιες περιπτώσεις προχωράει πολύ γρήγορα. Με αυτά φτάνουμε σε ένα φινάλε γεμάτο δράση, σε έναν τομέα, δηλαδή, όπου ο συγγραφέας είναι στα καλύτερά του. Βέβαια υπάρχουν κάποιες υπερβολές αλλά αν τις προσπεράσεις θα απολαύσεις μερικές πολύ δραματικές στιγμές.

Με άλλα λόγια καλά ξεκινάει αυτή η τριλογία, με ένα ενδιαφέρον και ευχάριστο βιβλίο. Έχω βέβαια κάποιες ενστάσεις για τις υπερβολές της πλοκής και για κάποια σημεία όπου ο συγγραφέας θα μπορούσε να δώσει περισσότερες λεπτομέρειες, που θα έκαναν, φυσικά, το βιβλίο μεγαλύτερο αλλά θα είχε - τουλάχιστον για εμένα - ακόμα μεγαλύτερο ενδιαφέρον. Στα θετικά πάντως είναι και η μία δόση πολιτικής που βρίσκεται στον πυρήνα αυτής της ιστορίας που φαίνεται να είναι περισσότερο προσγειωμένη και να μη βασίζεται τόσο στη μαγεία. Με αυτά το δεύτερο μέρος μου φαίνεται ότι θα είναι εξίσου ενδιαφέρον, για αυτό θα ξεκινήσω να το διαβάζω άμεσα.

I hedged between 3-4 stars for this book and it could easily been a 4.

First, I typically like stories, like here, where you have a youngling driven to accomplish some great deed whether driven by revenge, noble ideals, pursuit of power, etc. Here we deal with revenge on a grand scale (main character Talon's family and country are murdered). I like watching the development of the character as the mature both in age and abilities. Talon is adopted by members of the powerful Conclave of Shadows and taught swordplay, reading/writing, introduced to the life of nobility, politics, etc. The abandoned orphan turned into a deadly tool.

Why 3 stars and why not 5 stars if I had rated it 4 stars? As much as I appreciated watching Talon tempered into a dangerous weapon, I never really felt that I got to learn much about Talon so as to like him all that much. There was a lack of personal interaction between Talon and others. Members of the Conclave would pop-in and out of his life, teach him various skills and provide him with fake personas, but there was only superficial interaction between the characters. I don't mind tagging along on a solo mission, but if I am, I want to know and like the person a little bit.

In a book like The Lies of Lock Lamora, similar in the sense you have younglings taught and developed into more than they were, you had characters that were funny, clever, likeable/not likeable and really got to know them as they undertook their training to accomplish some great deed/mission. The conversations and interactions with themselves and others really developed the characters. Here, the character Talon, other than a plan and desire for revenge, doesn't offer much as a character (nor do the other characters in the Conclave of Shadows) for me to really root for or against him.

I liked the book (reading the second book to close out the storyline), but would have liked to have learned more about Talon and the others along the way. I would characterize it as a very good story/with good world building populated by average characters.

The story of a young boy, who when the story begins, is going through his test to enter adulthood and have his "Naming" ceremony upon his return. While he is away from his village, an attack by a Duke of the Kingdom results in his village being burned and all the occupants slain. He returns during the end of the pillage, and is wounded and assumed dead by the enemy. Men passing through the village find him and take him to be tended to. Who/what these men are builds through-out the story as Talon is healed and than taken into their group and trained to become a fighter for their cause. The years move by quickly in this tale and by the end of the story Talon has become a force to be reckoned with. The memories of his slain family and friends never leave him and his desire for revenge and justice for them become his main priority.

This is the first of a series that is set years beyond the Rift War and set in a part of the Kingdom that has only been skimmed over. I enjoyed learning more about the people and the places in this setting. The world that Feist has created and the magic system in place are both some of the best in Epic Fantasy.

The last series I read of Feists really was disappointing. In his defense he was experiencing the loss of his marriage and he had co-authors for that series to help him through. Anyway, with this new series he seems to have over come the trauma and is back!

So I was a bit disappointed in this book. It was VERY slow starting. Now, this is somewhat to be expected with the first book in a trilogy, but by VERY slow… I mean a good 85% of the book was all character development. Not even exciting character development. Nope, the protagonist was getting trained, getting laid, and having pretty much no adventures along the way. And in all of that character development, the author never managed to make me identify with or really like his protagonist. I don’t DISLIKE him, but the whole character archetype just seemed a bit contrived and one dimensional to me (think SUPER assassin, ninja, philosopher, duelist - RaaRR!). The last few chapters were definitely good, and I have hope that the next few books will be pretty action packed. All that time spent in training has made the main character into one bad-ass force to be reckoned with, and he’s hell bent on a path towards revenge and intrigue. So I have high hopes for the next two books and will hopefully be posting glowing reviews here soon.

Talon of the Silver Hawk is the first book in Conclave of Shadows, yet another subseries in the very long Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E. Feist. After the previous 7 books which had returned to some earlier time periods in the series, this book resumes our forward chronological progress and is set about 30 years after the Serpentwar Saga.

This was a solid, entertaining read. It mostly focused on brand new characters and less familiar settings. I really liked the characters, including the main character, Talon. Talon was maybe a bit too talented with too many different types of skills to be completely believable, but I enjoyed him and his story anyway. This book didn’t hold anything groundbreaking or unusual for epic fantasy, and in fact it depended on several tried and true tropes, but Feist writes them well and I never lost interest.

I had been hoping to see some follow-up with Jimmy the Hand’s grandsons, Jimmy and Dash, but the 30-year jump in the time frame means we skipped over the events I’d been interested in seeing at the end of the Serpentwar Saga. The characters were briefly mentioned, but not seen. I don’t know if we’ll get to see more of them in later books, but I get the impression from the subseries titles of the remaining books that we probably won’t go back in time to fill in any of that 30-year gap unless there are some flashbacks. In any case, I also look forward to seeing what happens next with the characters introduced in this book.

Posto sam resio da procitam celog Fajsta, to jest tacnije ceo "Riftwar Cycle" evo zapocinjem i ovu 2023. godinu njegovom knjigom. Kao i predhodne uz Fajsta cu verovatno dosta citati i Warhammer knjige. Gde nestadose serijali od 3 knjige :D :D :D

No!, usresredimo se na ovu knjigu koja je jedna tanka cetvorka. Moglo je biti bolje da Fajst nije preletao preko nekih njenih delova. Najbolji primer njegovog dobrog pisanja je definitivno "The Empire" Trilogija, uz naravno ono sto ga je proslavilo - Carobnjak, Srebrni Trn i Tama iznad Setanona. Ova knjiga, i ova trilogija, za sada ne ulivaju poverenje to jest ne mirisu mi na nesto cemu bi se vratio kao sto je to slucaj sa iznad navedenim delima. Medjutim radnja u ovom grandioznom serijalu nastavlja da tece i ako nista barem cete se upoznati sa sirom slikom, biti korak blize finalnim serijalima i konacnom raspletu sudbine carobnjaka Paga - Milambara i svih ostalih likova koji cine ovaj svet toliko zanimljivim i dragim. Ja licno jedva cekam da vidim sta ce se desiti sa Plavim Jahacem Nekorom :D

I wanted to like this book. Earlier this year I picked up Magician by Feist and did really enjoy reading it. This one though…

There is no characterization. Every person in this story is exactly the same, apart from their name and set of skills. The one can hunt, the other is good with a sword and then there is one that can cook. That’s it. None of them have personality whatsoever. Our main character, having lived till his 16th in a group of people with a very different culture should therefore be different, one would think. One thing Talon constantly keeps bringing up is that with his people your parents choose your wife, and you stay with her the rest of your life. Okay. Talon sleeps with the first girl he sees on the first day he enters the his new life…. That’s quite direct for someone whose partner should be chosen by his father. They are together for a year or so and he wants to marry her. But then she disappears, for no apparent reason. She just disappears into thin air. Within half an hour of finding that out, Talon is sleeping with another girl. Only to have the next unbelievably beautiful lady cross his path within the next 30 pages, of whom Talon is determined to ‘get much more than a kiss on the cheek’. And not 100 pages later he has developed himself into a true womanizer.

Caleb had forced him one night to accompany him through the city, drinking at inn after inn until at last they had arrived at a particularly well-regarded brothel. … After that, there had followed liaisons with serving girls, merchants’ daughters, and the occasional daughter of the minor nobility. More than one young woman had accused him of having no heart, for he would never speak to them of love. Desire and the pleasure of the body, yes, and his directness and bold approach had won more than one young flower of Roldem who had been determined to resist the notorious young man from the west. His bed was empty only when he wanted it to be.

So never mind those 16 years of upbringing with a different culture, he is just the same as all the other man, if not worse.

Because of the lack of characterization, you never feel for the people in this story, not even Talon. You like none of them. I even became to dislike Talon throughout the story more and more. He is fine with the fact that no one ever tells him of the plans they have of his future, he just lets it all happen. He is fine with everything, hasn’t got a single opinion for himself, as long as he eventually can take his revenge. And then there is the way he sleeps around and how he treats women

When it came to women, he found them a means to an end, either to satisfy his lust, to gain him social access, or merely providing diversion. … she would have washed every inch of his body, but his mind was on other things besides playing with a bath-girl, and he ought to keep his mind focused on Melinda, who would be more than eager to meet his need for passion after supper.

Maybe it is just me, but I can’t sympathize with a guy who thinks woman are only good to have sex with.

Speaking of the woman. There are 3 female characters who have more than 1 line of text, and their only role is to sleep with every single man who is somewhat their age. They and the minor female characters are all gorgeous, with big tit*, a tiny waist and swaying hips. Apart from the cook’s wife of course. All the women do is clean, simple cooking, and please man. Sigh…

Then there is the story itself, which is incredibly slow. Apart from getting laid Talon is being trained to do some proper ass kicking. This training is done by several people, among whom a great magician who can’t do simple maths.

Should I give you grains of sand, one each second, in one minute you would have sixty in your hand. It would take more than thirteen days for me to hand you a million grains of sand, if I continued at one a second without stopping.

Now Mr Feist, lets grab our pocket calculator. Like you said, there are sixty seconds in a minute. There are also 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. So there are 60 x 60 x 24 = 86.400 seconds in a day. Now let us divide a million by 86.400. How many do you get. Not more than thirteen right? More like eleven and a half. True, this is a little thing and you can’t criticize a whole book on it. But, it’s a little thing. It’s not rocket science… it is basic maths. It is so easy to just do it right. This is just letting your genius character do maths but being to lazy yourself to do the calculations.

I was very close to giving up on this book several times, only to continue because of a friend’s encouragement. He promised things would get better. And they did. After struggling through 80% of the story, things finally start to happen. There are interesting politics and exciting battle scenes. The last few chapters set up a good premise for the rest of the trilogy. I am not sure yet if I will continue with the other books though…

Raymond E. Feist is een fantasie auteur uit zuid Californië, wonende in San Diego. Aan de universiteit studeerde hij communicatie wetenschappen. Zijn grootste bekendheid verwierf hij met zijn boeken over Midkemia en Kelewan. Een reeks die maar liefst meer dan dertig boeken telt. In deze reeks gebeurde het meermaals dat hij samenwerkte met een andere auteur. Denk daarbij aan Janny Wurts, Joel Rosenberg en William Forstchen of Steve Stirling.

Het boek Klauw Van De Zilverhavik is een boek uit zijn Midkemia/Kelewan reeks. Het is het eerste boek van Het Conclaaf Der Schaduwen.
Verhaal.
Terwijl Kiëlianapuna tijdens zijn initiatierite zit te wachten tot hij zijn naam te weten komt als volwassene worden in zijn dorp al zijn verwanten afgeslacht. Terwijl hij van zijn berg stormt om hen te helpen land er een zeldzame zilverhavik op zijn schouder met een mysterieuze boodschap.
Wanneer hij bij zijn dorp aankomt, kan hij nog net zien wie de aanvallers zijn maar dan wordt hij neergeschoten en voor dood achtergelaten. Hij wordt meegenomen door twee onbekenden die hem verzorgen en naar een plaats brengen waar hij opgeleid kan worden om zijn doel te bereiken: Wraak. Hij herinnert zich nog goed de woorden van de zilverhavik. “Stijg op en wees een klauw voor je volk”. Vanaf dat moment wist hij dat zijn naam Klauw zou zijn.
Mijn gedacht
In dit boek doet Feist wat hij al in verschillende andere boeken gedaan heeft. Hij creëert een personage die niets heeft of alles verloren heeft en vormt hem/haar naar een persoon van aanzien naarmate het boek vordert.
Dit zorgt er wel voor dat er een band gevormd wordt tussen lezer en hoofdpersonage. Maar eigenlijk zijn al zijn personages wel goed vormgegeven. Zij die magie bedrijven zijn goed uiteengezet zonder dat de magie er echt vanaf spat. Ideaal dus voor mensen die fantasie willen leren kennen zonder dat ze direct omvergegooid worden door een overvloed aan magie.
Het verhaal leest zeer vlot. Een goeie stijl van omschrijven. Na het lezen zie je als het ware de personages tot leven komen in de beschreven omgeving eens je de ogen sluit.
De spanning is altijd wel voldoende aanwezig om te willen verder lezen. Er gebeurt altijd ergens wel iets dat dan door een twist in het verhaal terug een andere kant opgestuurd word.
Het einde
Wat er in het slot gebeurt, dat wist je al vanaf het begin dat het er zat aan te komen. Wat dan misschien als minpuntje kan gezien worden is dat de gezochte wraak misschien wat te gemakkelijk ging. Maar dit is nog niet het einde want her en der zit wel een hint verborgen voor het volgende deel van deze reeks rond het conclaaf der schaduwen.
Conclusie
Een zeer vlot en mooi geschreven, nieuw deel, uit Feist zijn Midkemia/Kelewan reeks. Goed omschreven personages, mooi vormgegeven wereld en een verhaal met genoeg spanning om te willen blijven lezen. Genoeg twisten om het interessant te houden met een geloofwaardig verhaal. Feist is een auteur die je meeneemt in een fantasiewereld zonder dat de magie je direct rond de oren vliegt.

I was a fan of 'Magician' in my teens and subsequently read the remainder of 'The Riftwar Saga', but I eventually lost interest somewhere near the end of 'The Serpent War Saga' and thus ended my Feist frenzy. I don't recall exactly why I stopped reading these fantasy novels, but I think it was a combination of Fantasy fatigue combined with the ever-evolving complexity of the series, especially the political aspects which generally bore me. It simply all got too elaborate and complicated for my tastes. I prefer a more focused and simple tale, which brings us to this book.

I'd read somewhere (possibly here) that you can skip 'Talon of the Silverhawk' and go straight to 'King of Foxes' which is apparently much better. I'm a completest and could never consider such a radical move as starting at part 2 in a trilogy, so I slogged through 'Talon' and I can see why people say to skip it. Though I would never advise to do so. In a way 'Talon' is an extremely long prologue to what I assume will be the 'meat' of the story in the two sequels. But calling it an extended prologue is selling short this rather appealing origin story.

'Talon' feels like Feist made a decision to go back to the basics with a focused and simple tale of vengeance which is an approach I appreciate after the complexity of 'The Serpent War Saga' wore me down. 'Talon' feels like a medley of all of Feist's favourite themes and scenes (and places) that he's been writing all along, but it's all put together in such a nice, comforting package that I forgave the slight deja-vu feeling I had throughout.

So if you like your fantasy stripped back, without too much political complexity or too many characters clouding the story I would recommend this book. Just go in knowing that it's hardly going to challenge the staples of the genre, and it's an origin story, with -I assume- stronger material to come in the sequels.

Speravo in qualcosa di meglio.

Si tratta di un fantasy d’impostazione classica: un ragazzo venuto dal nulla, unico sopravvissuto al massacro del suo villaggio, si addestra per vendicarsi.

Non ho nulla contro i fantasy classici. Anzi, ho scelto questo libro anche perchè avevo voglia di un fantasy classico. Ma troppe cose non mi sono piaciute.

Partiamo dal protagonista, il Gary Stue più Gary Stue di tutti. Lui sa fare tutto. Non solo impara facilmente qualsiasi cosa ma diventa presto il MIGLIORE. Il migliore spadaccino. Il miglior cuoco. Il miglior pittore. Suona divinamente millecinquecento strumenti musicali. A letto è un fenomeno, lo desiderano tutte (Sul fronte donne tornerò dopo). Non mi piacciono questi protagonisti, che sembrano non avere mai una difficoltà, nessun ostacolo li fa vacillare. Artiglio/Talon poteva essere un bel personaggio, ma non è per nulla caratterizzato, nè sono riuscita a provare empatia per lui e la sua missione... anzi, la maggior parte del tempo l’ho detestato. È un peccato perchè la sua origine orosina (popolo chiaramente ispirato ai Nativi Americani) poteva offrire tanti spunti. Invece perde fin da subito la sua cultura, per cui non c’è differenza tra lui e tutti gli altri personaggi.

I personaggi femminili: avrei volentieri fatto a meno di queste 3 (sì solo 3) ragazze dalla personalità intercambiabile. Il loro unico ruolo nella trama è andare a letto con Talon. Letteralmente è l’unica cosa che fanno. In più l’approccio con lui è lo stesso ripetuto 3 volte. Pessima rappresentazione.

Il Worldbuilding non è originale, è il classico Medioevo europeo alternativo. Sarebbe stato molto più interessante il popolo orisino, perchè avremmo potuto vedere finalmente qualcosa di diverso. Inoltre qualche descrizione in più mi avrebbe permesso di immaginare qualche città o palazzo.

Leggerò anche il secondo perchè spero in un miglioramento.

Really 2 1/2 stars. Granted, I read this way too soon after the Kingkiller books which set a crazy high standard...but this book really under delivered.

It started off promising. None of the poetry of Rothfuss, but definitely some interesting concepts. Talon's culture, a pretty obvious analogue to Native American culture, sets up an interesting character and premise. A revenge story? I'm in. Even when Talon starts to become "trained" with logic games etc. etc., I was still pretty interested. I liked the tension between Talon's assimilating "education" and his devotion to his native culture/identity. Feist hints at larger political games-I'm still on board- presents some intriguing secondary characters-still with it-and then he introduces the magic-and I am disappointed.

It is magic staff kind of magic, instant teleportation and all that jazz, and there's an all-powerful magician and some kind of secret, insidious, growing oppositional power and it is boring. The pacing of the story slows way down(the beginning is also kind of slow, but I attributed it to exposition, turns out this entire book is exposition) and there are temporal jumps and hops and an effort to reveal more of some kind of web of power or political chess game or whatever. And it is boring! Even the fencing battles feel clunky and slow as opposed to the sitting-on-the-edge of your seat feeling in both Kingkiller and Alera and Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards (seriously, if you haven't read Rothfuss', Butcher's, or Lynch's books, you need to stop what you're doing and go read them).

Ultimately, it's just run of the mill. I think I'll take a look at the second installment of this series to see if it gets any more exciting or different, but I think I'd only recommend this if you haven't read fantasy for a while and are really just jonesing for a fix. But it's like skunk weed. You read it just to get a little taste, but it doesn't really take you anywhere.

Returning to Raymond E. Feist's lengthy Riftwar Cycle is like coming back to an old stomping ground: I know what to expect, it's comfortable, and not much has changed.

Talon, the titular protagonist is, depending on how you count them, Feist's third or fourth protagonist who shares some commonalities. He, like Pug, Eric, and to some extent Roo (all from previous books): is a young man who comes from humble origins, is mentored by powerful and skillful men due to a tragic event that brought him to them, is an especially apt student at what they teach, and finds himself playing a central role against an evil, world-threatening conspiracy.

I actually liked this book a lot, but I'm sorry to say that Feist is coming across as a bit one-note to me. I don't really mind, but it's definitely jumping out at me with this book.

So, the story: Talon is a young man of the mountain Orosini tribe, which is attacked and slaughtered by a mystery army while Talon is away from the village on his name-day ritual. He returns and fights some of the soldiers before being struck and left for dead. A passerby happens to find him and and nurses him back to health. Said passerby happens to be a colleague of Pug, the most powerful magician in the realm. Talon is brought into the Conclave of Shadows, an organization devoted to fighting a mysterious evil that's spanned centuries.

I liked it! I do wish there could be a bit more variance in structure in this series, but I'll continue reading nonetheless.

By this point I don't really have anything new to say about Feist's books. Decent epic fantasy, this one about turning a first level character into a higher level character, so a bit slow at first. The writing seems a notch up from pervious books with fewer of Feist's writing tics, and a bit more variation in the prose. One of the things I find peculiar, or maybe jarring is the better word, is the prevalence of the characters in Feist's world to visit prostitues, and use the word "whor*" regularly. I know that to add "realism" to fantasy worlds, this has been common throughout the history of D&D and fantasy, but given the gaming background that Feist acknowledges, I couldn't help but contrast this with the characters in my own campaigns both ones I've run, and played in, in which we pretty much don't engage in that aspect of the storytelling at all, whether by tacit agreement, or just understanding that it is not an important aspect of the role playing for us. For this book, I don't think that aspect really adds any meat to the characters and could be left out, but obviously others might disagree. In any case, it wasn't eggregious enough to reduce my enjoyment overall of this straghtforward RPG-based fantasy tale.

3.5 stars.

This is a good 3.5. Will definitely check out the next one in the series and more of Feist's work. A gripping escapist adventure.

Recommended to me Dave as "possibly the best Feist ever". Starts out with a tribal kid out on his day of naming, basically where he becomes a man. He thinks about all his loving family members, great life growing up, and he's up on a mountain all alone. By page 3, I knew his village was going to be wiped out by murdering, cruel thugs of some kind, and hey! page 8 he sees smoke and circling carrion birds in the distance. Of course, you don't read Feist if you want an original Fantasy story, and his tendency to use and re-use and re-re-re-reuse is a bit of a plus. It's usually the narrative where he excels. Anyway, the kid gets left for dead by the thugs and gets picked up and cared for and taught many many things (he's good at everything, like most orphans in Midkemia) and joins the good guys, but there's 300 pages of ALMOST NOTHING HAPPENING. But then, he saves another tribe from a similar fate as his and tracks down and kills one of the leader thugs, but that guy's leader is still left and so the stage is set for book #2. Boring book, but sigh, I feel like I gotta complete the series now.

DNF at 45%. Just impossible to get through. Incredibly dull.

Een jongen wordt, tijdens zijn naamgevings rite, getroffen door het noodlot. Zijn hele stam is uitgemoord, en zelf overleeft hij het... ternauwernood. Zijn eer verlangt een bloedwraak. Voor het zover is, moet hij eerst nog veel ontwikkelingen en jaren van trainingen doorstaan. Hij ontmoet vele mensen, die hem helpen om een krachtige strijder te worden. Meerdere malen kruipt hij door de oog van de naald

Dit was weer eens een Feist zoals ik die graag lees. Een verhaal dat zich rustig opbouwt om de lezer in de goede stemming te krijgen. De personages komen echt genoeg over. Weinig fantasy echter, daarom geen 5 sterren.
De ontwikkeling van de personage 'Klauw ' is goed. De jongen leert lezen/schrijven, zwaardvechten etc., en wordt opgenomen in 'het conclaaf der schaduwen'. Jammer alleen dat 'Klauw' in alles zo heel erg goed is. Het zou wat realistischer zijn geweest als hij in sommige dingen wat minder goed was, maar dan hadden Puc, Robert, Magnus en Nakur hem waarschijnlijk niet op zijn missie gestuurd.

Oh wow, I had long drives the last 2 days ,I started and finished the audio on this, I like it.. not great but I do love this world
I give this new cast of characters
3.5 ⭐️’s

As an establishing book for a trilogy I couldn't help but feel a little short changed by the end.
For those who enjoy reading fantasy novels, you may become a little irritated by the protagonist's long list of convenient talents:
- Fluent in six (or more?) languages
- Amazing eyesight
- Philosophical mind
- Painter
- Wine appreciator
- Military strategist
- Lean, fit body
- Culinary chef
- Super swordsman
- Impeccable manners (yes, in my world this is a super power)
- Sexy-as lady-killer
- Fashionable

Not too bad for a a Mountain Boy - particularly as he achieved all the above within seven short years.

As much as I liked Talon and believed his oath to his deceased family, I found his "talents" prevented me from immersing myself into the story. He was just a little too perfect.

Some of my favourite characters were those who recognised, or were brought down by, their own flaws. It'd send the heart racing as you'd flip page after page to see whether the character got away unscathed.

This time, I was unsurprised by Talon's conquests. He's a one-person army.

Given any challenge, I'm sure Talon would find a way to rise above:
- Whipper-snipper had it? No fear, Talon's razor sharp sword and brilliant eyesite will have your paths looking immaculate
- Is your baby crying constantly? Talon will use one of his dozen languages to soothe Jnr to slumber
- Ironing getting out of hand? Talon can press a complete shirt and pant set in under 5 seconds
- Need to impress friends for a get-together at your home? Talon will pose as your roomie, paint an outdoor mural, cook a decadent three-course meal from whatever is in your fridge, guide the group through a wine-tasting course before styling your friends and finishing with a philosophical discussion on warfare.

This man could be the new Oprah.

I am dearly hopeful the second book will pick up pace.

Note - First book in Conclave of Shadows, a 3 book series.[return][return]Talon returns to his home after completing his manhood ritual, to find his family and all of the Orosini mountain tribe, the only people he s ever known, being attacked by ruthless mercenaries. He tries to help them, but is knocked unconscious and left for dead. He is saved by a mysterious man named Robert and put to work in a tavern that Robert is staying at. This however is just a test, and once he is considered worthy, he begins his training. The training lasts several years, before his allowed to to swear allegiance to the Conclave of Shadows& [return][return]This is Raymond E. Feist at his best, or certainly damn close to it. It s book one in a series, and as such lacks the overall complexity and scope of his first book Magician, but then it is only introducing the characters and the story. It s so much better than many of Feist s recent books, marking a return to the form of the Riftwar and Serpentwar saga. When reading this book, I felt transported into the world, living each moment within the pages of the book. It is a feeling that has been all too rare of late. Highly recommended.

Well Feist is back! After the last trilogy (not essential) I was worried about if I could continue reading this. It made me worried because I have put a lot of time into getting to this point, but Feist is back! This story centers around a new character Talon. Feist does a great job developing him and covering a lot of his life and growing in one book while moving the story along. We also get to see new parts of the kingdom and the islands, the change of scenery is nice! Of course in true Feist fashion there are battle scenes (which I love) and he does them well! The ending of the book sort of hints at what will be happening in the next book and it has me excited to see how it pans out!

A story told without nuance. The first words that come to mind: base, vapid, surface-level. There is nothing here of note and truthfully I am left wondering what it is I am missing. Feist writes almost as if he it is his goal to dampen any potentially interesting plot points with cringe-inducing dialogue. The plot is driven forward entirely by continuously fortuitous happenstance. Our "protagonist" is so unlikeable that it defies reason that this book has any level of popularity amongst fantasy readers.

Please, also be forewarned, EVERY female character is treated as an object to be conquered or gawked at. Any mention of a woman is punctuated with descriptions of hips and smalls of backs and breasts. Talon of the Silver Hawk is likely best used as a cautionary tale for would-be fantasy authors for exactly what not to do if you are endeavoring to write something interesting or remotely worthwhile. I hated this book in the extreme, save your time and money.

Läsning 2: Jag håller med tidigare skrivna tankar, med tillägg av likheter med kallakrigsdraman.

Läsning 1: En boktyp som är ovanlig i fantasy-scifi idag, nämligen den om träningen av en hemlig agent eller kurir eller diplomat (jag kan se huvudpersonen utvecklas i samtliga dessa riktningar). Boken är ett möte mellan Kim och den Siste Mohikanen; huvudpersonen, en ung stammedlem under vuxenblivanderitualen ser sitt folk massakrerat, men överlever. Han tränas till att bli agent genom massiva investeringar, och hämnas i slu*tet av boken sitt folks slu*t genom att ta död på det legoknektskompani som utförde dådet - genom att skapa sitt eget. Det är en bra bok, med tillräckligt många förvecklingar för att ha lite variation, men utan något vidare karaktärsdjup. Jag uppskattar den och skulle rekommendera den inom sin genre.

Okay so I read this book probably 16 years ago, but I loved it even more than I remember. This was written way before Sarah J Maas, Throne of Glass, but it definitely has a Throne of Glass feel, the whole best sword fighter in the world type of thing. Love the new Characters, Love Pug and Mirandas kids.

This is such a fresh read, I am so happy Raymond E Feist stayed in Midkemia because it is a recipe that works but I am so happy there are fresh new Characters and Talon is definitely a big favourite of mine!!!

New series has quite good start with fresh characters and location. Very good adventure story with fantasy spliced into it. Main hero is very likable character and it is easy to imagine all the trouble he gets into and out again :)

Beautiful writing as always. However, it feels like this is a throw on, an addition to a series that was done but didn't stop there. If that makes any sense.

Magician was my first paranormal fantasy read. I fell in love instantly and the rest as they say is history. I have each and every book in this series and they are so old the pages are yellow but that doesn't stop me from re reading them all the time.

Raymond E Feist is an author like no other.

Do yourself a favour and get stuck into this series now. You will love Pug and his journey through life and the many other characters in spin off books.

An enjoyable fantasy book with an engaging, clearly multi-book story arc. The main character seems a little overpowered (naturally good at basically everything he tries with apparently very little effort), but not in a terribly annoying way (and there are hints that it may have some sort of magical or destiny-related reason, not just a random happenstance).

I don't know that there's much that differentiates it from other books with good worldbuilding and engaging storytelling, but I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the series. Also, "Talon of the Silver Hawk" is a pretty cool name.

Quite excellent. Engaging, likeable characters and a decent amount of swordfights, magic and war. This is the first of a trilogy. Its not quite as good as Robin Hobb but could definitely be for fans of her work, and for fans of Abercrombie. I'm keen to read the other two books.