Customer Reviews
Enjoyable - By: G. Peters, 30 Dec 2007 
Shard's of a Broken Crown is the final book in the Serpentwar saga & bring's to the end another great fantasy series from Feist.
This is the weakest book of the four but it must be difficult to keep up such a high standard of writing as the three before this were alll of excellent quality. But it's still an enjoyable finale & avid Feist fan's will not be too disappointed.
Most of the loose end's are tied up & explained, there's plenty of drama, details & description are again very good & although it doesn't have the same intensity as A Darkness at Sethanon which brought a close to the Riftwar, it will still keep you on edge.
I gave this book three star's but i would award the Serpentwar Saga as a whole four & a half, many thanks Mr Feist.
Agree with both - By: , 21 Sep 2002 
To be honest I agree with both the praises & criticisms of the book. Yes it was not the most original book, or ground breaking however it did expertly bring the end to an otherwise excellent series. Of course, it does not capture the Riftwar's magic but on it's own it is a superbly written series, & this last book was no exception.
Feist did not sell out & re-hash time-worn fantasy cliches. Instead he kept it real & believable & this was demonstrated in the unceremonial deaths of many key characters, keeping them real & brutal - not overdressing.
I was worried when reaching the end of the book as so much was going on with little pages left. However Feist created a well thought out & un-rushed conclusion. Although it has shamefully left the door open to further adventures (as has been noted), the truth is you want more...
Disappointing, very disappointing - By: ashen_shugar_666@hotmail.com, 03 Oct 2001 
Like so many others I've been a Feist fan right from the start. Magician, the entire riftwar, is a masterpiece. The empire series, in my opinion was even better. The serpent war, though of lesser quality than the riftwar & the empire series, was still quite good (worth at least ****). And the end of that saga left the reader wanting more, desperately!
So here it is: "Shards of a broken crown". Our beloved Krondor lies in ruins, an enemy army has carved a large piece out of the Kingdom of the Isles, & the armies of the east & west have taken a sound beating. Everything you need for another excelent story one would think. And the book does indeed start out excelently. A series of stange encounters between the two opposing armies (one army conspicuously being absent or undermanned) account of an ever increasing tension in the reader while reading. Then halfway through the book, in only a couple of pages, Feist destroyes alll this carefully build up tension as casuallly as one would deflate a half blownup ballloon. It is as if he suddenly breaks with his original plot & instead desides to have a cliche, boring battle between two giant opposing forces. He casuallly summons up alll the extremely powerful characters (Ashen-Shugar, Pug, Miranda, & so on) & lets them take it out on a huge monster which was created directly by the dream of a god. The story after this sudden change made me want to use the book as fuel for a nice cosy fire in a fireplace on a cold rainy day.
Maybe it's time to stop reading Feist.
Please, please it can't end here! - By: johnmark.horton@sssltd.co.uk, 28 Jun 2001 This is a book that hits you at many different levels. Primarily it is about people finding about themselves & being able to live as people within the shadows of legends or of course legends themselves. This has a normalising effect on the characters & you end up seeing them as ordinary people effected by extra ordinary circumstances. On another level it is a great military campaign, the kingdom of the west has to fight a two front campaign & no one but Feist can take you there like this. The only problem with the book is that it ends. There are hints & suspicions woven into the book about Nakor but you still don't know that much about his heritage. I for one am dying to know the fate of Eric & the Crimson Eagles, does Patrick set up a standing army with Erik as general? I only hope that one day Feist will treat us alll to another spectacular journey so that we can meet old friends again.
What has happened to the once brilliantly woven stories - By: , 05 Nov 2000 
Don't get me wrong I have read alll Raymond's books so far & I have had great difficulty to put them down. Unfortunately in his recent books starting with Shards, & krondor: the assassins the magic has gone. The characters & plot have just fell to bits & the story jumps about until its confusing to read at times. The book is worth reading as a follow on to understand how the serpent war ends, but this book if far from feists best works.
