Rage of a Demon King: Book Three of the Serpentwar Saga: 3 - Softcover

Feist, Raymond E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380720884 ISBN 13: 9780380720880

Publisher: Avon Books, 2010

Synopsis

Erik von Darkmoor has trained well and fought valiantly in the service of the Prince - and has risen up through the ranks to become a respected leader of men. Though still young in years, both he and boyhood friend Rupert "Roo" Avery - one of Krondor's preeminent merchants and one of the Kingdom's richest men - have been aged by experience. And each has an essential role to play in the cataclysm that is to come - as has every warrior, tradesperson, thief, spellweaver, spy, royal, and subject alike who stands to lose far more than life alone to the invading forces of darkness. For a demon king has escaped a world already devoured to feed on one consumed by chaos and war. A foul and terrifying thing, a nightmare creature of dark and murderous nature, it seeks to own and corrupt the very source of life itself. And soon more of its dread kind will follow - unless the most powerful sorcerers in the embattled realm can close forever a demon-spilling rift...and unlock a mystery far more dangerous and profound than anything ever known before.

About this title

Review:

"A fine yarn...vivid...suspenseful...the action is nonstop."--"Booklist"An epic reading experience."--"San Diego Union-Tribune

From the Author:

When did you start writing?
If you mean when did I seriously start writing, that was in 1977, the year I graduated from University. I really got serious a year later which was when I took a rough coming-of-age story and started turning into Magician, my first published novel.

Where do you write?
I have a home office.

What are the pros and cons of being a writer?
The same as with any self-employment: you’re your own boss, you set your own schedule, you determine the quality of the product, etc. The downside is you have no corporate safety net, no unemployment insurance, no health care benefits, no retirement plan, so you bear responsibility for all of those things. It is not a job for the timid.

What writers have inspired you?
Too long a list to cover them all. Anything good, in one fashion or another influences. There are some very obvious names, to begin with: Shakespeare, Marlow, Dickens, the Russians, Twain, Melville, and some slightly less obvious, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander Dumas, Anthony Hope, and the other "boy’s adventure" authors. Also, historical authors like Mary Renault, Rosemary Suttcliff, and Thomas Costain. And the pulp authors: Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Ridder Haggard, A. Merrrit, and among fantasy writers, Fritz Lieber. Toss in as diverse a range of writers as Zane Grey and Louis L’amour in westerns to Dashel Hammett , Raymond Chandler, and John D. McDonald in mystery, to comedic writers like Max Schulman and Dan Jenkins. I could keep going, but that’s the tip of the iceberg.

How important is a sense of place in your writing?
Tough question to answer in brief; every element in a fantasy has to “make sense” to the reader. You can not condescend to your art because it’s “make believe,” so even though the place in which I set my work is a fantasy world, it has to feel “real” structurally, else the reader will ultimately be unhappy.

Do you spend a lot of time researching your novels?
Only enough to convince the reader the characters know what they’re doing. I don’t have to be the expert; I just need to be persuasive.

Do your characters ever surprise you?
All the time. In fact, as I get older, more and more often. I suspect this is a function of my subconscious coming up with better story notions than I had originally planned.

How much of your life and the people around you do you put into your books?
In specific, none of it; in general, all of it. The old saw is that writers write what they know. It’s like what actors call “sense memory.” You have to sell emotion and there has to be a foundation of validity or it will not work. How did it feel when you saw your book in print for the first time? A little disbelieving, and very pleased.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing now?
Probably looking for a job, given this economy. My last one was in the health field as an administrator.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0380720884
• ISBN 13: 9780380720880
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 588