Exile's Return (Conclave of Shadows, Book 3)

March 7, 2005
Despite some slow patches and stilted dialogue, the third book in bestseller Feist's Conclave of Shadows fantasy series is a better read than its two predecessors (2003's Talon of the Silver Hawk
and 2004's King of Foxes
), thanks to its focus on the most interesting character in the saga to date, Kaspar, the deposed duke of Olasko. Having been banished to the far continent of Novindus by the victorious Tal Hawkins at the end of King of Foxes
, Kaspar struggles to return to Olasko and reclaim his kingdom. But when Kaspar stumbles across a pan-dimensional relic, his desperate fight to survive soon becomes something much more. In Kaspar, the author has created another complicated and compelling protagonist, and the promised return to prominence of longtime favorite characters Nakor and Pug will have Feist fans eagerly awaiting the next installment. Agent, Jonathan Matson.

December 1, 2004
The tyrannous Kaspar, Duke of Olasko, has been banished from Midkemia-but he might be able to get even.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2004
The third volume of Conclave of Shadows shifts focus from Tal Hawkins, who has overcome Kaspar, duke of Olasko, and wrought quite thorough vengeance upon him. But the ex-tyrant of Olasko is a survivor, though he first appears to have no other virtues. He makes shift as a farmhand, then as a common laborer, and while looking at the world from underneath, detects a good many things not visible from higher quarters. One, or maybe several, of these is a menace compounded out of dark magic of a sort thought buried too far in Midkemia's past to be threatening. Feeling loyalty to Midkemia, or at least to the portion of humanity living there, Kaspar uses his hard-bought knowledge to begin fighting the menace. The complexity of characterization here may surprise some, though not those who have followed Feist's work over the years and seen steady, across-the-board improvement in it. A must, of course, for rapt readers of " Talon of the Silver Hawk" (2003) and" King of Foxes "[BKL Ja 1 & 15 04].(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)