Silverthorn

A year after the events of Magician, the Kingdom of the Isles faces a threat from an ancient enemy, and the heroes of the first book of Feist's Riftwar Saga are once again called to action.

Whereas Magician presents us with a war spanning several years, Silverthorn only covers a short period of time and focuses more closely on individual characters, and how the events of the book affect them. There are also fewer principle characters in this one, resulting in a story that feels much more intimate than the first one, and for me this made this a more enjoyable read.

For the most part the action follows Arutha, Jimmy and Martin (introduced in the first book) as they embark on a quest to find out who's behind a plot to have Arutha assassinated, though there is also a brief inclusion of other characters, most notably Pug. Even more than in the first novel we get a strong sense of the characters here, and while there's still an undeniably epic feel to the story, Feist presents the characters in such a way that it's very easy to become invested in their tale.

All in all I really liked this book, and am glad I made the effort to re-examine the series. Definitely worth a read.