It took me a while to get to this book, mostly because I was very disappointed with the last Legends collaboration where the authors (though I suspect Rosenberg mostly) tell the tale of three mercenaries who do very little "mercenarying" and mostly act like licensed detectives in attempting to solve a murder in a blizzard-ridden town.  I found the book to be claustrophobic and the characters unreal and inflexible.  However this book is about Jimmy, one of the most likable and well-defined characters of the Riftwar Saga, so I thought that Feist would not let Jimmy be taken out of context... and I am glad to be right in that assumption.

This book is everything the second one was not.  It has action and adventure, and even some magic, combined with a nice two-part plot that is not burdened by the need to prove the intelligence and wit of its characters.  Instead, it justly describes characters which are either well known, such as Jimmy, or others with whom the reader can easily relate such as Flora, Lorrie and even the Baron.  The story covers two cities: the one well known is Krondor, and the other Land's End. In fact the only problem that I find with the story is its disjointed plotline, which starts in Krondor and ties in the events of Anita's and Arutha's escape described in Magician, with Jimmy' s life in the city.  Though this first part provides an insight into Jimmy's early character as the mischievous thief we all know and love, it does not connect at all with the second part of the story, which focuses on the events in the life of a minor noble and some farmers living around Land's End.  This part of the book has real potential, and the background story is very nicely told. The plot even kept me guessing for a while, which is not really the case with most fantasy novels.  I found the best characters to be the Baron and his wife, who make quite the tragic pair and add dramatic substance to the story.  Jimmy finds himself embroiled in the middle of the provincial conflict and does his typical best to contribute to the conclusion of the story.  All in all, I find this to be a worthy addition to the world of Midkemia. In fact, I hope Feist and Stirling get together again in the future; I sense there is some good chemistry in their work.
It took me a while to get to this book, mostly because I was very disappointed with the last Legends collaboration where the authors (though I suspect Rosenberg mostly) tell the tale of three mercenaries who do very little "mercenarying" and mostly act like licensed detectives in attempting to solve a murder in a blizzard-ridden town. I found the book to be claustrophobic and the characters unreal and inflexible. However this book is about Jimmy, one of the most likable and well-defined characters of the Riftwar Saga, so I thought that Feist would not let Jimmy be taken out of context... and I am glad to be right in that assumption. This book is everything the second one was not. It has action and adventure, and even some magic, combined with a nice two-part plot that is not burdened by the need to prove the intelligence and wit of its characters. Instead, it justly describes characters which are either well known, such as Jimmy, or others with whom the reader can easily relate such as Flora, Lorrie and even the Baron. The story covers two cities: the one well known is Krondor, and the other Land's End. In fact the only problem that I find with the story is its disjointed plotline, which starts in Krondor and ties in the events of Anita's and Arutha's escape described in Magician, with Jimmy' s life in the city. Though this first part provides an insight into Jimmy's early character as the mischievous thief we all know and love, it does not connect at all with the second part of the story, which focuses on the events in the life of a minor noble and some farmers living around Land's End. This part of the book has real potential, and the background story is very nicely told. The plot even kept me guessing for a while, which is not really the case with most fantasy novels. I found the best characters to be the Baron and his wife, who make quite the tragic pair and add dramatic substance to the story. Jimmy finds himself embroiled in the middle of the provincial conflict and does his typical best to contribute to the conclusion of the story. All in all, I find this to be a worthy addition to the world of Midkemia. In fact, I hope Feist and Stirling get together again in the future; I sense there is some good chemistry in their work.