In the latest novel of the Riftwar cycle, the world of Midkemia is once again threatened by the evil forces of the Void, and a diverse group of magicians and soldiers must put on their best 'sword and sorcery' to survive. Readers of the series will be very familiar with this scenario, and with some of the characters. The book is a direct sequel of the Firemane trilogy - which I haven't read as it had been described as standalone and not related to the Riftwar cycle, which we were told had ended with 'Magician's End'. Whilst I'm glad to get more novels in that epic series, it's definitely best to have read the Firemane trilogy and ideally the Chaoswar saga as well.

Not having read the Firemane novels, I was unfamiliar with many of the major characters, and felt I was constantly missing vital information. Feist is good at getting a reader to invest in his characters, but as many had already been established in other novels, I didn't feel I got to know them as I would have otherwise. The action is split across two worlds - Midkemia, home of many of the Riftwar cycle books; and Garn, the setting of the Firemane series. On Garn, a newly minted kingdom is fighting a powerful, evil group of religious fanatics. On Midkemia, a young magician called Hatu is visiting the Sorceror's Isle via a rift from Garn, accompanied by his wife - a trained assassin and pirate - and dodgy friend, Donte. Donte strikes out alone to set up a gang of thieves in the port city of Port Vykor. Hatu and the other magicians are soon drawn into a battle between good and evil, when they realise a strange 'city' of statues on Garn is in fact a sinister weapon.

Feist's writing is always easy to read and flows well. Although his books are long, they bowl along at a good pace with plenty of action, and he writes action better than any other fantasy author. I knew the magician characters from previous books, and enjoyed getting to see the next stage of their adventures, and had I read the Firemane books first I'd probably have felt similarly about the other characters. I did quickly get to like Donte and invested in the story of him establishing a criminal crew, which felt original and a bit different. I found it less easy to get interested in characters I didn't know marching about to have various horrible swordfights on Garn. Fighting battles and resisting the evil of the Void are not exactly fresh concepts and no matter how well he does them, the fact remains that he's done them a lot of times already.

If you are a fan of Feist and the 'sword and sorcery' genre in general, this novel delivers the things you would expect and is fun to read. As mentioned, to get the most out of it it's essential to have read certain other novels first. If you're new to Riftwar, the place to start is right back with the original novel, 'Magician' and its sequels 'Silverthorn' and 'A Darkness at Sethanon'. They are very fine novels that take a lot of beating. This one isn't in the same league, but if you like Feist, you'll surely enjoy it.