This one was a little uneven for me. The story focuses on a variety of characters instead of focusing primarily on one. I enjoyed the ensemble feel and I was interested in all the characters, but some sections were more interesting to read than others. It wasn’t always the same characters I was the most interested in; sometimes I was bored and interested by different sections about the same sets of characters. I did really like how some major plot threads were resolved or at least significantly advanced, not just from this subseries but from the larger story. War has come to Midkemia once again. The armies of Novindus and the Emerald Queen have reached the shores of the Kingdom of the Isles, and not everyone will get out of this war alive.

And Roo's odd segue to go and deal with Sylvia and Duncan - to utter miscreants from RoaMP - is so weird. It's almost jabbed in amongst the rest of the narrative as an afterthought. "Oh, I'd better deal with those people..." Instead of having their fall be the result of some crescendo of intrigue and subterfuge, Roo just stumbles upon them while he's trying to flee the fallen Krondor. It's almost absurd, and certainly is very far away from the satisfied feeling one should get when horrid characters like Sylvia and her father get their comeuppance. Deeply and incredibly entrenched with emotion and reality, despite set in a high epic fantasy world, the Serpentwar Saga, and by extension the Riftwar Cycle, continues to entrap me. Body and soul.

Rage of a Demon King is the third out of four books in Raymond E. Feist’s Serpentwar Saga, one of the subseries in the much larger Riftwar Cycle. De karakter van Erik maakte een flinke groei door. Ru, tja... ben niet zo'n erge fan van zijn karakter, maar eindelijk kwam hij achter het bedrog van Sylvia. Ook de 'romantiek' in de boeken hoeft van mij niet zo. Gelukkig waren er de invasie en veldslagen, die mij beter lagen. Kon ze ook goed voor ogen zien. Rage of a Demon King is a fantasy novel by American writer Raymond E. Feist, the third book in his Serpentwar Saga and the eleventh book of his Riftwar cycle. It was published in 1997 in the United States by Avon Books and the United Kingdom by HarperCollins. At the opening of the novel Erik Von Darkmoor is helping to train soldiers for The Kingdom's armies while Rupert, at the height of his trading success, is coerced into financing the war. Meanwhile the forces of the Emerald Queen are approaching Krondor, and it is discovered her target is the "Lifestone", the legendary device discovered by Pug and his cohorts in A Darkness at Sethanon. Obvious flaws were the demise of James and Pug's children. The only point I could see in it was the melodrama, which I dislike in any book. And of course the demon boss battle. Really? All it took was a bit of sea water? That could have been done so much sooner – plot hole alert! I can never decide if I like this book more or less than the second one in the series. One thing that has always impressed me about Feist is how he doesn't mind killing off main characters, or places, even before the end. It's hard to have read the Midkemia books from the beginning, and watch as the characters you've come to know and understand, disappear from the stories for forever. Of the places that you can envision in your minds eye... Part of me wishes that Arutha had still been alive for the war, because a small part of me thinks his wiley mind could have saved what even Duke James and Calis and Erik couldn't But part of me is glad that Arutha was long dead, because I don't know that he would have taken the loss of life and land the Kingdom faced any better than James did.

Annoying that Miranda decides she regrets not having children "the fist time round". I could go on a rant about how people who choose not to have children are depicted in fiction. I'm not going to do so. This is just another example, and it's just another example of Feist's tendency to have his female characters' primary purpose to be love interests and baby factories. The magical reset button on the age of Pug and Miranda. Feist just can't let go of his main characters.The Emerald Queen's army is almost upon Midkemia and the army is staging. Erik Von Darkmoor is sergeant-major of the King's armies and Rupert is almost single-handedly financing the war. The Emerald Queen and her army are making for the Lifestone, a magical source of power capable of destroying worlds. Vast preparations are being made in Krondor, the anticipated point of invasion by the Emerald Queen's army, and all of Midkemia's allies - as well as some enemies - are being called upon to help.