I'd say they're about... middlish. I grew up completely loving them (thanks to this game), but with more time and distance, the new ones especially can't really hold my interest for long, and even the old ones seem more like run-of-the-mill standard fantasy fare with a few interesting, but often strongly underdeveloped ideas. The first several books in the cycle are probably the most enjoyable of the lot: Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon are excellent fantasy, drama and adventure stories and probably the best to complement the game's lore if you're looking for more context for what's happening there. I would also recommend some of the co-written books, most notably Honored Enemy and The Empire Series.

The novelisation of BaK is especially dodgy. There are parts I love, and a few parts that work quite well despite being outright inventions compared to the game, but the general tone of it is very different; you can really tell that the books and the game were written by different people (Feist for the books vs. Neal Hallford, with Feist's blessing, for the actual story of the game) and it shows. There is an obvious sense of some creative differences in certain scenes, and it's awkward and conspicuous when it happens. Betrayal at Krondor is largely the story of Gorath and the moredhel told through Owyn's eyes, but Feist is not particularly interested in either of them, especially when his own favourites, James and Pug, are right there to take over the focus. Thus, even if in the game you get this sense of a grand scale of the events and how the adventure will have momentous consequences for the world, in the books it's largely relegated to 'yet another crazy adventure Jimmy the Hand lived through'; Gorath has no legacy to speak of, nothing changes politically for the moredhel (the most recent books finally picked up those threads, but not in any way that mattered), and Owyn basically drops of the face of the planet. Some of this was probably unavoidable due to continuity issues (by the time BaK was released, Feist had already published books set decades after, and was soon to publish some more), but it's still jarring. So it's disappointing if you got into the books because you got interested in the world due to the game.

After that, the books get extremely repetitive: there's a point where the narrative just becomes riddled with "the new threat is now [insert even MORE dangerous interplanetary/interdimensional conquering race]" style upped stakes, character death fake-outs, and inabilities to write more than a few cardboard types of characters (this manifests most strongly in Feist's inability to let go of the Jimmy the Hand character archetype). Despite growing up as a big fan (in the 'fanatic' sense of the word) of the books, I couldn't bring myself to finish the series. Maybe someday I will, but eh.

In short: They're not *bad*, but the plot of The Betrayal doesn't mesh with them well at all, in content or even in style, and the entire cycle is probably not worth your time.

For any readers coming across this thread and reading the old posts... I will note that I only read those first three books (Magician is often split into two books though). So I can't comment on the rest. And I basically agree with Hekateras' assessment that they are "more like run-of-the-mill standard fantasy fare with a few interesting, but often strongly underdeveloped ideas." The main draw for me is the connection to the game, which takes place after those three books. Without the game to play I would have been much less interested in the series, but playing the game after reading them was really interesting. So I still recommend checking them out if you want to play the game, or if you already have and you want some background.

I read the books in my middle teen years (because of the game) and like liked them well enough back then but they're a bit 'Young Adult' and if you've read series like hte Wheel of Time or a Song of Ice and Fire, you might be disappointed.