King of Foxes
Book Two of Conclave of Shadows
Raymond E Feist
HarperCollins
Trade paperback, R159.95
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson, 28 September 2004
Talon was the sole survivor of the massacre that wiped out the Orosini
tribe, and he was determined to avenge his family's slaying.
Taken in by the Conclave, a group of white magicians, he has become Talwin,
a young nobleman and a master swordsman. He has killed two of the
men responsible for the massacre, but now he has taken service with Duke
Kasper of Olasko, the very man responsible for the massacre, in order to get
close to him and to learn why he is using the black and very powerful magician
Leso Varen. Once he has done this ,he can then kill the Duke.
But as usual in stories like this things go very wrong and he is imprisoned
for life on an island called the Fortress of Despair, and with his sword
hand cut off.
Feist's writing ability has improved over the years since he first wrote
Magician and Silverthorn,
not that he was ever a poor writer, and he has the ability to take a
fairly average and ordinary, and at times disjointed, story and keep the
reader's interest to the end.
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