Exile's Return: Conclave of Shadows: Book Three

By Raymond E. Feist

Following Talon of the Silver Hawk and King of Foxes, here is the third exciting volume in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy from the acclaimed author “in the forefront of contemporary fantasy adventure” (Library Journal)

Tal Hawkins has succeeded in wreaking revenge on Kaspar, the evil Duke of Olasko. Banished to a distant land, Kaspar begins a journey that will take him halfway around the world. Reduced to the role of farm-hand, then common laborer, the former ruler endures dangers and horrors beyond his imagination as he struggles to return home.

But fate, or some dark agency, has more in store for the man who was once tyrant of Olasko. As he travels, he is chosen to play a part in a much larger drama, a struggle between good and evil ages in the making. Dark powers are again in motion, and Kaspar discovers the herald of a threat not seen across the land since the legendary Riftwar and Serpentwar: A dark empire in a distant realm seeks entrance to Midkemia and Kaspar has unwittingly discovered the key. Now it is up to this unlikely hero to save Midkemia from the threat of unconditional defeat—and utter destruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061742033

Raymond E. Feist

Raymond E. Feist was born and raised in Southern California. He was educated at the University of California, San Diego, where he graduated with honours in Communication Arts. He is the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Riftwar Cycle among other books.

Reviews for Exile's Return

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable novel that sort of finishes in the middle of nowhere.

[johnfair_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After assiduously following the exploits of Talon in th eptrevious two entries in this series, he is rather callously dumped by Feist and we follow the exploits of Kaspar, the former duke of Olasko. Left weaponless and alone on th ewindswept plains of Novindus the former duke has to survive that inhospitable continent's many perils if he is to regain his former throne. But is he the same person as he was before he was deposed? As he makes his way through all that Novindus can throw at him, Kaspar reluctantly comes to the conclusion that he isn't - not just because the evil influence of his court magician has worn off, but because he has genuinely come to see that his previous life wasn't leading him anywhere he really wanted to be. Along with that revelation, Kaspar falls in with a group of other exiles from the Kingdom and it's environs. A trio of traders are all that remain of a larger venture that had attempted to find wealth in this distant land but their discovery of a strange suit of armour was, instead, leading to their deaths. As Kaspar began to understand what they were up against he realised that the.. thing represented a threat to all life on Midkemia and the only ones who could help were the members of the Conclave of Shadows who wanted him dead... By this time I found the series was getting a little too repetitive in many respects and while it was interesting to see Kaspar changing some of that was a bit unlikely in my opinion

[booksfordinner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The redemption of Kaspar!

[neilsantos_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Stupid cover art. Suddenly decided to make this book all about the enemy in the first two books. Ok. Oh, I just figured this out: This ends on a total cliffhanger, "They opened the door, and suddenly..." That's pretty cheesy normally. But I'm officially sick of Ray making his little "trilogies". If it were a trilogy, it would resolve itself at the end of the story. This ends with the rising action, no denoumont. Then he has another "trilogy" that is the sequel triology to this trilogy.RAY! You aren't writing trilogies, you're writing what the writing world refers to as a "series". Get over yourself. I knew it was a mistake to go back to reading a fantasy book. I just hope I am more stubborn a reader than Ray is a bad writer.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The last book in the current trilogy, though really this book is a bridge to the next trilogy in the series. Talon is determined to get revenge for his people on the evil Duke of Olasko, who more and more appears to be controlled or backed up by the same peculiar evil forces that have plagued the Kingdoms for many years. This one takes a bit of a different direction though, as it focuses on what happens after he gets his revenge.

[lithicbee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The third book in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy begins immediately after the ending of King of Foxes, but instead of following Talon as we did in the first two novels, we switch to (former) Duke Kaspar. Kaspar was under the sway of evil magician Leso Varen for the past few years, it turns out, so instead of killing him outright, the Conclave banished him to Novindus, a war-ravaged continent half a world away from his former homeland. His goal at first is to get back and seek revenge against those who wronged him (at least, that is the version of events he tells himself), but he quickly gets drawn into events that tie into the greater fight of good vs. evil.This is another fast-paced adventure and it contains information that kicks the larger story back into high gear.

[oogod · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is the 2rd in the series but really it sets you up for the next series. It was nice to see Pug and Thomas back in action. Can't wait to read the next series.

[reading_fox · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Al though published as the conclusion to the Conclave of Shadows, this isn't - it is very much the beginning of a new story although some of the mortals continue from the previous books, everything else is new. This also contains many spoilers (or references) from the Serpent War miniseries. I suspect that readin gthat first would have been a good idea.Kasper deal's with his exile from his Dukedom, free at last of Loren's magical compulsion he sowly regains his sense of honour and learns what life is like as a peasant. Something he'd never contemplated before. However there should have been made more of the comparison to Talon - he endured 3 years of deprevation wihtout moaning. Kasper starts to feel sorry for himself after only a few months. he is an annoying character although a slight amount of sympathey can be felt. I wasn't so taken with this plot, it is quite far feathed even by Feists usual standards, It appears that bengs form other dimenions not just worlds are once agian poised to overcome Midekemia, Quite why our heors shoudl have been born on such a desirable and luckless world out of the millions in Feists's universe isn't explained. By dint of lucky coincedences only some of which are explained, and some inexplicable magic Kasper gets to meet many of the most powerful people in Midkemia and has another chance at killing Voren. Whether he will remain human at the end is question whose answer you don't really care about.Still told in Feist's light fantay style, this doens't work as well as the previous two volumes, the magnitude of the enemies becoming ever more ludicrous as the coincidences mount which keep them at bay. However as it features Tomas again I'll probably still read the hopefully concluding part of this nominal trilogy.

[homechicken · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I like Raymond Feist’s stuff. I remember reading Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master back in middle school. Those were the only books in the series at the time. I waited for Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon to come out eagerly. I like the world, the stories, and the characters. The only thing I’ve run across that I don’t like is that Feist has been reusing some words next to each other in the same sentence that just grated on me.So far the entire story is about Kaspar, the ex-Duke and his hardships. I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel sorry for him or what, but the story seems headed that way.I just finished this novel, and have dropped its rating by three points. There were numerous typos (Salador was called “Salvador” twice, and once he even failed to spell Pug correctly!), and several broken or run-on sentences that seemed like the author started editing an idea and just forgot about it and left it halfway new and halfway old. I re-read some of these sentences four or five times hoping that I was just not reading it right, but they never made sense. The story was okay, but barely involved the main character (Talon of the Silver Hawk, or Talwin Hawkins) from the previous two books. The series ended wide open and incomplete, so if you want to actually figure out what happens, you need to read the next book (Flight of the Nighthawks).So overall, the ending of the series without wrapping it up, the typos, and the messed-up sentences detracted enough pleasure out of this book to make me lower its rating, even though Feist is one of my favorite authors.

[lorelorn_2007 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Fantasy books are 'supposed' to come in threes, and Fesit obliges with this third book to follow Talon of the Silver Hawk and King of Foxes. The trouble is, this book is not the end of one series, it is the beginning of another. You could call this an attempt at a bridging novel, but as such , it fails. There is little connection to the other two books in the series, other than setting and having the villain of the first two books as the main character in this one.This book follows Duke Kaspar, exiled in a faraway land, as he attempt to work out just what really happened to him, he realised he had fallen under the sway of an evil wizard, and commited acts that were simply insane.Given the title of the book, it will be no surprise to learn that Kaspar does indeed return home, there is little doubt in the book that he will do so. However he, like Talon before him, finds himself working for the Conclave of Shadows, as they try to rid the world of a dangerous magical artefact that Kaspar has come across on his travels. This quest is not resolved, but merely leads into the next book. This is not ending to one series, but rather the start of another. Mislabeled.

[mcewenwl19 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book shortly after finishing the 2nd one of Conclave of Shadows. I began this series without reading any of Raymond Feist's other book. This wasn't really a problem reading the first 2 books in Conclave of Shadows, but I think I would have benefitted from more background with Exile's Return. I was hoping it was the end of this series, but was disappointed. I think I am going to go back and read his Mikdemia books from the beginning before starting Flight of the NightHawks.