Since the fight between Kirito and Heathcliff didn't end anticlimactically, the city of Collinia didn't devolve into chaos, meaning there was no bandits nor was there a player called "The King of Ashes" in original series. The first volume in legendary master and New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist’s epic heroic fantasy series, The Firemane Saga—an electrifying tale of two young men whose choices will determine a world’s destiny. As a minor aside, as well, the book is littered with printing errors (I assume they are not grammatical errors because nobody can so regularly misspell “but” as “hut”) which, for me at least, were continually irritating – an unfortunate analogy of a book that seems not to have received the attention to detail necessary. Other characters are important and I will mention only a few. Each character is in a different setting but as the story progresses you can see that their paths are destined to meet. And that should be very interesting.

Then it's 17 years later and the baby has grown up to be a spy for a hidden island of Coaltachin. We learn the story of Hatu, the baby who survived and how he doesn't know anything about his identity and is looking for answers whilst completing his training. Simultaneously, we get the story of Declan, the smith who was an orphan and was raised by a legendary smith. We learn of their present stories and their abilities to do more than what seems at first. Hatu finishes his training and goes for his first mission and Declan loses his only home to the raiders from sandura. Hatu learns somethings that were only known to be myths and Declan leaves his only home to survive and he ends up at Marquensas, Barony of Daylon who sent Hatu to train at Coaltachin. There are also some chapters from other characters' POVs, one of the Baron Daylon and the other Hava, friend of Hatu who is also a spy. Hatu has another friend Donte who gets lost at sea on one of the missions.Having read the far majority of all of Feist's works before now, and even doing so recently, I was pretty astounded to learn that he had a NEW fantasy series. One that requires no previous knowledge or the need to rely on vast previous worldbuilding. In fact, I found that Feist could be downright frank in his writing style, cutting straight to the matter while leaving no room for subtlety. Everything is spelled out for the reader when it comes to his characters’ thoughts and motivations, and there is little finesse or attempt to show instead rather than tell. To be fair, this isn’t always bad; the writing is reminiscent of what I would call a classic or old-school style, in that it is very straightforward and easy to read. However, at times it made his characters feel flat and difficult to connect with, a prime example being Hatu when he was just becoming aware of his attraction to Hava. Their ensuing romance, if you could even call it that, felt awkward and forced, for you had the author laying out Hatu’s feelings with all the emotion of a dry clinical report. There’s a strong sense of “what you see is what you get” when it comes to the characters, placing them behind a layer of detachment which made it hard to feel invested in them. As a Free Lord, Baron Daylon Dumarch owes allegiance to no king. When an abandoned infant is found hidden in Daylon’s pavilion, he realizes that the child must be the missing heir of the slain Steveren. The boy is valuable—and vulnerable. A cunning and patient man, Daylon decides to keep the baby’s existence secret, and sends him to be raised on the Island of Coaltachin, home of the so-called Kingdom of Night, where the powerful and lethal Nocusara, the “Hidden Warriors,” legendary assassins and spies, are trained. Raymond Feist is, of course, well known for his lengthy Riftwar Cycle involving many inter-related trilogies, duologies, etc. and totaling nearly 30 books. He is known for telling his stories through his characters and this book continues that tradition. While this entire book serves as the setup for the real meat of what is to come, we do get to know the major characters very well and more importantly, really come to care for them and what the future may hold for them. The world building is so well done that I didn’t even realize how much I was learning about how it was all coming together. The prose is very down-to-earth and easily readable (once again, not like so many of today’s gritty fantasy that tries to be “literary” at the expense of good old fashioned story-telling). There is magic in this world and exotic creatures but these are only briefly touched on in this first volume…teased really.

The world-building of King of Ashes is thoughtful, expansive, and detailed. A well thought out world is Feist's wheelhouse. Although his stories tend to be character-based, Feist gives a perfect amount of detail to his worlds so that the reader can get a clear picture in their head. Any missing information can be filled in by imagination. The characters are highly detailed, and the dialog does not ever have a forced or static feel to it—the bane of many fantasy books. Feist's characters tend to speak like humans and have human reactions. Honestly, Raymond Feist is a master at this kind of fantasy. You would think that a lost child destined to save the world, might be a little tropey. In any other hands, it probably would be. But this is Feist, and he could write a phone book and have it be engaging. It starts off towards the end of a war where one kingdom was taken over by the other four kingdoms and their line is perished or so everyone thought. A baby survives who is the heir of the fallen kingdom, Ithrace and the baby is sent away by a baron to a secret place where the baby is to be trained and taken care of.

Raymond E. Feist Reading Order – By Series

Previously Garn consisted of five kingdoms, each as strong and noble as the next. Until the day Lodavico, King of Sandura, betrayed the great kingdom of Ithrace and murdered its king Steveren and all the flame haired Firemanes, heirs to Ithrace’s throne. Satisfied with his conquest, Lodavico and the three other remaining realms engage in a semi-peaceful treaty, leaving the fallen kingdom in disrepair, its people losing all but a tiny spark of hope. There was a rumour of a baby who was smuggled out, the last remaining Firemane, heir to all its power should he come of age and reclaim his rightful place. So he had betrayed a man he loved like a brother to spare his people future ravages. As the priests of the One God would say, Daylon had made his pact with the Dark One; he had sold his soul.” The first book of the series, King of Ashes, details the fall of the Ithrace kingdom through great treachery. For more than a century, the five nations worked in partnership with each other to build a world of great prosperity. This is especially true of the Ithrace kingdom. They are known for the beauty of the land and a love of the arts and wealth that far exceeds the other four kingdoms. It indeed was a magnificent kingdom of milk and honey. The King of Ashes begins with a prologue after the great betrayal, and Ithrace is burning to the ground. The King of Ithrace, Steveren Langene, and his entire family are brought onto a stage and unceremoniously had their throats cut. The aim was to destroy every Firemane member and eradicate the family line. The first volume in legendary master and New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist’s epic heroic fantasy series, The Firemane Saga – an electrifying tale of two young men whose choices will determine a world’s destiny. On the downside, the pacing is uneven. Some scenes feel rushed, while others are overlong, with lots of telling and navel-gazing. Other elements are repetitive. A reader could almost make a drinking game out of one particular chapter, in which we’re told again and again that despite Declan’s feelings for his love interest, he just couldn’t bring himself to make a move. There’s also a lot of setup in this book, but no big payoff at the end. Feist sets up the pieces on the board, but the game really hasn’t begun yet.