Magician

The Magician is an epic fantasy novel about the lives of Pug and those around him, their victories, their defeats, their friendships, oh... and there is magic.

The Bad Stuff: If I said I had just read a book with wizards, dwarves, elves, goblins and a mad king, what would you think of? Well, The Magician is not the title that most people would think of. There are a few similarities to another well read epic fantasy in this book, some over explaining and repetition, with a fair bit of telling in the writing style.

The good stuff: While The Magician bears some similarities to another Tolkien's work, it is an epic tale in its own right. Feist has put an original spin on a plot that has been used before and has some well rounded characters. His world building is done well, creating different races and cultures in worlds far apart. The Magician has everything a great fantasy epic should have: magic, magical weapons and armour, dragons, elves, dwarves and more.

In my opinion, this is a great fantasy novel and is a much loved classic that deserves a space on the shelf of any true fantasy fan. This one gets 4 out of 5 golden bookmarks from me. ( )

(For the series:) Midkemia with Seven Kingdoms and Kesh, Tsurani, rifts Much intrigue, some geopolitics, good character development and world-building. With Vaeloru (powerful masters who enslaved elves), elves of various varieties. ( )

This is the first book in Raymond Feist's huge, mega volume saga set on the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan. As a games designer, Feist is familiar with a fantasy setting and this book, detailing the invasion of Midkemia by the Tsurani of Kelewan is set in a world that would be almost familiar to the average inhabitant of mediaeval Europe, though some of the tactics and weaponry presented here would seem to be more at home a few centuries later - that's Midkemia. Kelewan, The home world of the Tsurani seems more happily based on an idea of Japan of a similar time period, though Kelewan is more of a cypher than Midkemia in this particular book.

Like a lot of fantasy books of this era, we have a young boy who dreams of better things - first a rather improbable (though not improper!) friendship with his lord's daughter then a magician's apprentice, though he's not very good at putting his master's lessons into practice. When an alien ship arrives off the coast of Crydee - Pug's home town, the Duke decides that news of this possible invasion has to get to the King in the far off east. He takes Pug and his friend Tomas along as witnesses but there are aliens in the forests between Crydee and the rest of the Kingdom who decimate the duke's party, chasing them into the deep mines of the dwarves. There, Tomas gets separated from the rest of the party. In this edition we get the full story of what the participants think of as the Rift War - later editions split the story into two sections.

Although not quite as obvious in this book as in others in the series, the fact of Feist's game design background can sometimes have the sound of dice rattling around in the background, and the 'powering up' of the various characters can be seen as the series continues. This reread actually went quite well ( )

For my Year of Nostalgic Rereads, this is another "must". I owned a complete set of Raymond Feist's novels, all but four being first editions, losing them, unfortunately, to smoke damage from a fire. The edition of this book came from Feist's own author's stock, and the inscription reads: For Jim!
Sorry your collection was lost. Hope this helps in getting another one going!
...and signed.

I read this when it was first published and was enthralled from page one. That Feist sustained this start through 29 subsequent books is not surprising. He crafts great stories and tells them well, weaving intrigue and pagentry, breadth and depth, in an epic encounter with superb fiction. I look forward to enjoying the rest of Midkemia again at a leisurely pace, and I look forward to his new series. ( )

Despite trying to enjoy this book more, I just couldn't. I liked aspects, but found myself more enthralled by the Tsurani storyline and people than the major characters.

I first read Feist's Empire Trilogy, which inspired me to read more of his work. I have been unable to enjoy others as much, though.

I understand this is one of his earlier works, but even reading the revised edition didn't do it for me.

There were enjoyable aspects and I find his characters endearing and spark emotion in me, but for me there was simply too much battle and not much of anything else.

I'll still read the next two with hope I'll find them more enjoyable. ( )