Everything is better than Meerkats.
Thanks, both of you!
Halfway through King of Ashes and I'm enjoying it. It feels darker but thinking back at Midkemia/Serpent war/... it probably isn't, maybe he just changed his tone.
I haven't read King of Ashes yet - considered getting it while its cheap on kindle and just feeling a little burnt by how lackadaisical the end of Midkemia was - but I think this could be a bit of both. Yes, Feist had some messed up stuff in the Midkemia cycle that was disguised by a light tone and a lot of barely on camera stuff, but there's not all that much of it. And most of it is in Shadow of a Demon Queen. Most of his dark stuff is traumatic relationships and tbh, I'd love to get a time line of his divorce and his writing-
Hmm. Right, going from Google, Feist divorced in 2000.
Prior to that, the most toxic romantic relationships in Midkemia were all about Roo Avery, the phenomenally greedy workaholic with ego issues who married for money... but that still ended with him being happy with his wife. William had some not-at-all-plot-motivational heartache in those bloody video game boks.
After this... I don't think there's one straight forwards happy romantic relationship introduced until right in the end he goes for the fairytale romances of the Crydee sons as he brings the cycle full close. And he retcons one of the ones he had. Oh no, tell a lie, Caleb has one.
I'm just speculating but it seems to fit that his view of the world changed.