Jimmy the Hand

Legends of the Riftwar, Book 3

De: Raymond E. Feist, S.M. Stirling

Narrado por: Matt Bates

Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the city. Though gifted beyond his peers, Jimmy is merely a pickpocket with potential - until he aids Prince Arutha in the rescue of Princess Anita from Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra and runs afoul of "Black Guy's" secret police. Facing a choice between disappearing on his own or in a weighted barrel at the bottom of Krondor's harbor, Jimmy chooses the former.

Forced to flee the only home he's ever known, Jimmy finds himself among the unsuspecting rural villagers of Land's End, where he hopes to prosper with his talents for con and thievery. But Land's End is home to many who tread the crooked path - and to a dark, dangerous presence even the local smugglers don't recognize. And suddenly Jimmy's youthful bravado and courage are leading him into the maw of chaos...and, quite possibly, to his doom.

©2009 Raymond E. Feist and S.M. Stirling (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Read in CRONILOGICAL order.

I stumbled upon this series when I read the Empress of the Empire trilogy that is part of this 31 book series. I then compounded the problem by using the publication date order. These can be read out of order because this ingenious author has the ability to not slip any serious plot lines. However, I still found myself asking What happened to so and so, and how did this character become this Lord? I'm on track now and thoroughly enjoying this series! This story about Jimmy The Hand is good, and I am so happy I did not skip it. But note this is more like a character fill in, with profoundly moving moments. My husband thought I'd lost my mind when I would suddenly burst out laughing while listening. I have to say I think this is the best narrator of all the books. Each character has their own voice, and I felt like I was listening to a movie. Once I finish this long series, I will read everything I can find by this author!

I just love it

I love all of the (31?) books in this series! Jimmy is really one of my favorite characters! I was so happy when I found out this hit audible! I've already read it a couple times myself, but now I'm listening all the way through the series again on my long drives and it's just wonderful!

Great book

Loved it. Another perfect book. All of REF books are amazing and this one just proves it

Another exciting Jimmy caper

An insular Jimmy life experience capturing all the adventure and excitement that make he a central character.

The Hand

it's a great backstory about one of the most interesting characters of this world. and it was very well narrated; you can recognize the characters by only the change in voice tone

Raymond E.Feist did it again

I love every book I've read by this author. This one is no exception! You get an even better feel for the city of Krondor and more appreciation of one the best characters to come out of the rift war sage!

Excellent World Building

Great characters, great world building and an easy pace. This book and all the books I have read so far from Raymond E. Feist, are a pleasure to read and he is a master storyteller and character writer.

Rollicking good fun

I find these stories good fun, mostly satisfying, not gruesome or overly graphic, and with interesting characters, fun scenarios, and satisfying endings. This story was my favorite so far, and will be relistening to it because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Contrived plot with solid characters

This book covers the life of Jimmy the Hand during the middle of the Rift War, starting with the escape of Arutha and Anita from Krondor. After various hijinks in Krondor, Jimmy has to leave the city and heads south to Lands End where he stumbles into other people's problems.

The character work is quite good, as usual for this series, but the plotting is weak. There is a great deal of stumbling about that results in everyone showing up at the location of the climax at almost the same time. In this case, "everyone" is at least seven viewpoint characters who do not coordinate that meeting. In fact, most of the story consists of various characters combining and separating in various combinations and without obvious reason.

This book is a collaboration between two authors whose work I quite like. But in some cases of collaboration within an existing series, the guest author works very hard to avoid any interference with the main storyline, and that seems to me to be the case here. We get new characters that have no existence before or after this book, main-series characters that are not affected in any lasting way, and a contrived plot.

All that said, the character work does a great deal to carry the story and it has many small vignettes that are fun to read. But in spite of starring one of my favorite fantasy characters, this is not a strong entry in the Rift War Cycle.