Leuke karakters, vooral Ru en Eric, maar de plot is echt minder dan die van de Keizerrijkserie en die van De Oorlog van de grote Scheuring. Het is me allemaal net te toevallig en sommige zaken zijn echt ongeloofwaardig. (Hoewel ik niet echt een voorbeeld kan noemen. Het is meer een algemeen gevoel) Maar ik heb wel erg van de boeken genoten. Het blijft heerlijk leesbare fantasy. En ik haat Sylvia. Wat een bitch. ( )

This is the second part of the Serpentwar Saga. I enjoyed the first - Shadow of a Dark Queen - getting to know the world and its various sentient species. I also became invested in the main characters of Erik snd Roo.
In this second instalment, the action is largely divided between attempts to disrupt a planned invasion which involves Erik, and Roo trying to realise his goal of getting rich - hence the title: Rise of a Merchant Prince.
I have read quite a lot of fantasy and enjoyed this slightly different emphasis, having business rather than battle play a major role both in the world and the plot.
A good read if you like this sort of thing…. and I do! ( )

This book continues the story established in "Shadow of a Dark Queen," but really takes it to another level. It's still nothing profound, but the structure and characterization both get a lot deeper. The key difference is that instead of telling a straightforward fantasy adventure story as in the first book, Feist's main story is about commerce: a greedy, morally questionable fellow doing what it takes to get filthy rich. In the background, the warriors and wizards of the prior volume continue their struggle against an advancing dark army.

Adding the viewpoint of Roo to the existing ones of Erik and Miranda helps a lot, in part because Roo's a much more interesting character. Erik's ultimately pretty boring and conventional, and Miranda is largely a cypher, but Roo is deeply flawed. He's ultimately on the side of the heroes, but Feist doesn't shy away from playing up his callousness, greed, short-sightedness and lust. That plus the novelty of the mercantile plot sets this above the rest of the series. ( )

This book took an annoying side character and made you understand how truly horrible snd despicable he is without any lasting consequences for the character and with the teensiest of character growth. Which is annoying because the set up is good, I'm all for a low stakes fantasy novel and dislikable main characters but not like this. You don't have to read this book to continue on with the series, and I absolutely recomend that you don't. ( )

Oddly enough, I had a lot more fun with this than I expected I'd have with a title with MERCHANT and PRINCE in it.

As a matter of fact, I pretty much loved every part of Avery and his rise to grand wealth from practically nothing. All the bit parts from characters we've seen and loved before were just icing. Avery, on the other hand, was the real star. I think I liked this better than the first book in the Serpentwar Saga. By a lot.

HOWEVER, I do have one gripe that has a lot more to do with my personal preferences more than anything else.

Why do we need MCs who are unable to keep their pens in their pockets? I was pretty thrilled by his marriage and the news of his kid. I would SOOOO have preferred it if the man just stayed loyal. It really killed much of my enjoyment. I would have given a full five stars for his clever exploits. This other stuff just left a bad taste in my mouth. A different kind of Achilles heel would have been just about perfect.

Oh, well. Win some, lose some. I'm just happy that the rest of the novel was fun. :) ( )