Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having re-read the first four books in the Riftwar series, I'm FINALLY going to continue on with the full series in the order recommended.

I'll admit I was a bit skeptical about the collaboration because I was already a fan of Feist and simply wanted all the cool craziness and awesome ideas breaching time and space and two universes in his epic fantasy setup. :)

Moving on... this isn't that. It IS set on the world where Pug learned his mastery of magic, but beyond that and the focus on Korean-ish politics and The Game between houses, there's not any magic to speak of.

Mara is our focus, inheriting and learning to defend her house and its lands after her father dies. From start to finish, it's all about playing The Game. Survival by way of alliances, treachery, honor, and politics.

For what it is, namely a fantasy showcasing the rise of a single woman in an alien empire, letting us grow with her in the process, how she gains alliances, gains and loses a husband, and survives debts, and the matter of a blood feud. Pretty cool, all told, but I should mention one thing...

Even tho this came out many years ago, there have been MANY authors to follow in this particular footstep, and I'm pretty sure that this duo was not the first. If I had to rate some scenes between, say, Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight books and this, I would have to point to Sanderson... BUT, some awesome scenes first showed up in Daughter of the Empire. Just saying.

I may not love this nearly as much as I enjoyed the first four books, but I definitely enjoyed myself reading this. Mara is a strong female character dominating a tale back when it was still a rarity. :)

I'll be devouring two more of these in the trilogy in a few days. :)

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