Jimmy and the Crawler

A great little side story

I had hoped with the return to his classic characters, Feist may have provided the same cheap thrills he did with the first trilogy of his egregiously long Riftwar Cycle. However, all this book has to offer is flat prose, one dimensional characters and a total lack of creativity. This cash-grab novella does nothing to tie up the plot threads that were left dangling over a decade ago, and the ending serves only to make vague allusions to whatever 'big bad' Feist will half-heartedly throw at us in the final Midkemia novel. The plot plods along with James and the narrator providing dull exposition in place of action or characterization. It feels like badly written Magician fan-fic. A growing concern I've had with Feist for some time now is how casually misogynistic his works are; women are either servile or duplicitous, and always ALWAYS, no matter how minor, sexually objectified. I constantly had the disquieting feeling that the author was ogling his own paper-thin female creations, describing every curve (or flaw) in detail. More than disappointing, this novella was completely devoid of potential or promise in the first place.

Unfortunately this novella wasn't one of Feist's best works. Although it wasn't horrible, it lacked depth and flair. I've thoroughly enjoyed Feist's work over the years, but this novella lacked "it".