User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time.
The year after high school I was working a dead-end job as a receptionist for a company that ground lenses for prescription glasses. I was glad to see the back of everyone from high school: I'd been awkward and gawky and utterly overlooked, and the word frenemy had not yet been coined, or I would have understood why the one girl I thought was on my team consistently ran me down to others. But I was very aware that everyone else had gone off to college, and I could not. No one in my family had ever been and I lacked the cultural capital to understand what I had needed to do to even apply. Or what one
studied at college. But, anyway, New Zealand had no student loans back then, and you had to pay tuition up front. This was financially impossible.
I had already gigantically screwed up one job, and I was low-level incompetent at being a receptionist, spiking to appalling on a regular basis. I had an abusive boyfriend who was faking a back injury from his job as a navy mechanic so he could live on disability. I was in my second flat (share house) and I had 20 cents a day budget for food – one deep-fried potato fritter – supplemented with endless quantities of free alcohol, bought for me by my boyfriend's cronies, who, in retrospect, hoped to get me drunk enough I'd go for a foursome. Needless to say, my body wasn't doing well on this diet, the skin flaking off me as if I were a scrofulus medieval peasant.
I was living in monkey mind, wading through hormones and ignorance, flailing my way from one moment to the next with no thought of tomorrow; unable to imagine that the next day could be any different.
The tobacconist next to my bus stop sold books. I'd just been given the unheard-of sum of $80 by my dying great-aunt, who intended me to buy moisturizer and body scrub so I would stop scaring unprepared members of the public with my sloughing. I bought
Magician, and
Silverthorn, and
A Darkness at Sethanon. Yes, I was medically malnourished and deficient in every vitamin known to humans, but I bought books. And I fell in love with Tomas, and Arutha, and Admiral Trask. I fell in love with Jimmy the Hand. No, I wanted to
be Jimmy the Hand. And I discovered I wanted a purpose, something, anything
more than the shithole my life was.
I ditched the boyfriend (the never-realized foursome retains the faint pastel aura of regret). I took a second job waiting tables six nights a week. I found out what I needed to do to go to college. I applied and was accepted (business management). I saved money. I paid my tuition in cash. I grew up and took responsibility for looking after myself.
Today I found my original copy of
Magician. It's held together with masking tape and hope. Maybe it's true that another story would have started it all even if I'd never found Feist's work, but I'll always remember Magician as the book that saved me.
Rating: really liked it
Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.
I was looking forward to getting back in to fantasy. Lately, it's mostly been literature: classics, contemporary, genreless fiction-nothing particularly fantastical. This excitement was high, fantasy is my bread and butter. It is not the magic, or the made-up nature, nor indeed the plots. It is just everything about fantasy that makes me enjoy it. Usually, no matter what.
Of course, going in to Magician I was filled with a deep sense of anticipation. But I was quickly disappointed. The first 150 pages or so are pure Lord of the Rings and I could not get past that. Beyond, the storyline expanded and went beyond the standard trope of fantasy that was-and sometimes still is-prevalant in high fantasy, but to no avail.
I felt nothing for any character. They all seemed to have one or two traits, and nothing more. Their voices were similar, their ideals and morals seemed interchangeable. They were just characters, not people. I cared for none of them. Not relevant, and possibly petulant, but I hated the name Pug, and his other name, and couldn't seem to get past his stupid names.
Futhermore, I do not think anything particular about the plot. Sometimes standard fantasy, sometimes beyond the norm, often with clichés and often unique and imaginative, but never enough to keep me interested. It just seemed as if things were just happening, as opposed to the characters actually influencing or making the plot happen. It just sort of stumbled along.
And lastly, because I dislike taking any more time than its necessary in talking about a book I have not enjoyed, the writing was vague and mediocre. But standard fantasy, I think. Perhaps when it was first published, at some point in the 80s, it was nice and new and fun back then. But now, it just seems flat and dull.
Blog | Reviews | Instagram | Twitter
Rating: really liked it
Peace and prosperity flourish in the strong Kingdom of the Isles on the world of Midkemia. Upon the death of King Rodric the Third, his son Rodric the Fourth was elected king by the Congress of Lords after Prince Erland of Krondor and Duke Borric of Crydee, both prominent and powerful noblemen of the royal line, pulled out of the succession in favour of their nephew, thus solidifying his claim on the throne. But the young king is set upon a dark path towards the depths of madness, and the stability of the kingdom is threatened both by his own reckless impulses and the machinations of the scheming eastern nobles attempting to control him.
In the city of Crydee in the far west, two young boys are approaching the age of apprenticeship in a certain trade. Tomas is training to one day become a warrior in the Duke’s household guard, while his childhood friend Pug has a destiny greater still. But both of their lives are drastically changed when a strange and alien-looking ship wrecks on the shores of Crydee, carrying mysterious warriors from another world. All passengers are dead before they can be interrogated, and none of the Duke’s many advisors are able to identify the vessel’s origins.
Pug and Tomas are chosen to travel alongside Duke Borric and his son Arutha to the far east of the Kingdom, to warn the king and the nobles of the east of the imminent danger to the kingdom. Their great journey takes them through abandoned dwarven mines, the isle of a black sorcerer and the grand city of Krondor, before they finally reach the capital of Rillanon and the court of the king. And even then, the story has just begun. For when they return to the west after speaking with the King, a
rift between worlds has been torn open, and an invasion has begun…
The story of
Magician is mostly split into three different points of view. The tale of Lyam and Arutha is the tale of the princes. The tale of the two sons of a powerful but relatively minor duke who rise up to become two of the most important military and political leaders of a kingdom in grave peril. Lyam is the elder brother, a kindly and lighthearted man, and honourable to a fault. Arutha, in contrast to Lyam, is the pragmatic, silent and calculating kind of a man who rarely shows his face with a smile, but whose actions are still based on good intentions for the future of the realm.
Tomas’ tale is the tale of the warrior. The tale of a young castle boy who finds a dark and mysterious artifact in the depths of the dwarven mines, an artifact of an evil long forgotten. His life is spent training as a warrior among the dwarves and the elves, eventually becoming something of a legend in the lands of the elder races, for good or ill.
And finally, there is Pug’s tale. The tale of the magician. Pug has spent his childhood dreaming of becoming a warrior like his friend Tomas, but lacks the physical strength and the skill at arms. When the young boys of Crydee line up for the ceremony in which they will be chosen for the different apprenticeships, Pug experiences the worst nightmare that has befallen him so far: he is the only one not chosen by any master. But as he stands alone and in shame in the middle of the great courtyard, a voice suddenly speaks his name. The voice of Kulgan, the Duke’s court magician. And thus Pug’s career in magic begins. A career that will eventually take him through the rift and into the world of the strange invaders.
Besides the protagonists, there are lots of interesting characters in this book. One such is King Rodric, a young man of grand vision whose madness threatens to destroy all. Another is Princess Carline, sister to Lyam and Arutha, whose courage and determination are almost as great as her beauty. Then there is Guy du Bas-Tyra, the greatest general in the kingdom, but a sworn enemy of Crydee and Krondor. And last but not least there is Macros the Black, the ancient and enigmatic magician who inhabits the fabled Sorcerer’s Isle.
The most impressive part about
Magician, is the pure scope of it. It is far from the longest book I have read in number of pages, but it is the magnitude of the story that is particularly impressive. The book spans more than a decade in the history of Midkemia. It tells of bloody wars, journeys to far lands and shady conspiracies. It tells of different cities and lands and continents and even worlds. There are tons of characters with completely different personalities and motivations, and the story, while mostly predictable, is filled with twists and turns and revelations.
Another remarkable thing about this book is that there is no evil. At least not in the normal sense of the word. There are ambitious and cruel characters, but there is no dark lord nor any demons to be found here. To be honest, there is actually not even a proper antagonist. Only a story of different people acting differently for different reasons.
Feist’s writing is pretty great. I would not go so far as to call it remarkable, and this is not the kind of book I will frequently quote in the future, but the overall writing is exactly as good as it needs to be to serve the purpose of the book; which is to be an entertaining and fascinating fantasy novel.
It also needs to be said that there are
strong similarities with Tolkien. Occasionally even stronger than the same similarities found in books like
The Sword of Shannara. The overall plot is quite unique, but certain scenes appear to be taken straight out of
The Lord of the Rings. This did not bother me in any way when reading the book, but I know that a lot of people are bothered by such a thing.
I truly enjoyed reading this book. Had I based my rating solely on the objective quality of books, I would say that this one deserves five stars. My ratings are normally more or less purely subjective, however, and there were a couple of aspects about the book I did not enjoy as much as the others. The main characters, with the exception of Arutha, were rather dull and uninteresting; the switches between different point of view was done rather clumsily at times (though that can be excused as this was the author’s first major fantasy novel), and there were also aspects of the story itself I did not really care much for. Still, I would say that this book deserves a place among the greatest of the works of fantasy, and I really look forward to continuing with the series.
Rating: really liked it
This book is rich with themes. Love, loyalty, duty, and courage, all figure strongly in this amazing tale.Completed a re-read of this marvelous book. It was a joy to be reacquainted with all the original characters. Pug, Tomas, Arutha, Amos, Jimmy the Hand, the family of the Shinzaiwai, Macros and the sacrifices he has to make.
I've recently begun reading the Book of the Fallen by Stephen Erikson (SK), and this book is very similar in themes. Although stylistically different, there is little of the back and forth banter that you can get with SK, the multi-level conflicts between characters of matching powers is common to both. Both writers have enormous and richly detailed worlds which are awesome to behold and seamless in execution.
I rank these two writers at the top of what I've read, and I look forward to reading more books from each author in the near future.
From my original review...
I had the good fortune to discover and read this book in the early '80s when it first came out and I was hooked. If anyone asked me who my favourite author was for the next 30 years I could be relied upon to state "Raymond E. Feist." Whenever I saw a hard cover come out I would buy it - no questions asked.
The adventures of Pug and Tomas and the many assorted characters of this world have been a true fascination for me and I am pleased to say that every second I spent reading these books was time well spent and I would be willing to bet that my view will be the same on my death bed.
Long live heroic, epic fantasy - the truest form of story I have ever come across. When Feist passes on, Tolkien will welcome him into the next world as an equal and the two of them will swap stories over a fine brew and a pipe of the finest of the Shire. 5 'True Epic Fantasy," stars.
Rating: really liked it
Magician was my favourite epic fantasy book for over two decades, and the one I've reread the most until
The Way of Kings came along.
The last time I've read this book (for the third time) was when I first got my Kindle Paperwhite and then proceeded to finish
The Riftwar Cycle (except for the books non-essential to the main storyline). That was a good eight years ago, and I wondered whether it would still hold up well after I've read so much modern fantasy since. I'm pleased to discover that it did. In fact, all my favourite scenes or moments from the book were just as good as I remembered them to be.
Of all the classic, tropish fantasy written in the 80s that I've read, the writing in Riftwar was possibly stylistically closest to modern fantasy's third person limited perspective. This may likely have been the reason it became my favourite as I felt most invested in the characters of this series. I'll forever have a soft spot for Pug and Tomas, whose development started off in a most wholesome manner in
Magician: Apprentice, and really took off in
Magician: Master.
I personally thought that it was a good decision in part of Feist to release both
Apprentice and
Master in a single volume, as the combined format served the story of Pug and Tomas much better. And sure enough, I found myself completely engaged and not wanting to put down the book as I reached the second half even though this was my fourth time reading it. When I came to the end I knew that I'm now in trouble, for my desire to reread the entire
Riftwar Cycle, as well as those books which I've skipped the first time has once again come to the fore.
Admittedly, the quality of this read would realistically warrant a 4 or 4.5-star rating now. But call me a sentimental fool for I'm keeping this book firmly in my favourite shelf, and retaining its 5-star rating for feel-good nostalgic reasons.
Rating: really liked it
Magician and The Riftwar Saga' are among the greatest works of fantasy/science fiction ever.
Yes, I believe Raymond E Feist is just as good as Tolkien!
It is filled with great new ideas, and while he has in his books some of the older concepts from Tolkien and Lewis - eg Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Elvandar and Mc Mordain Cadel, which bear similarities to places and peoples in the older works, he has reworked them with great creativity into something new and exciting. in the some way that Shakespeare's works took concepts from older balladeers and authors.
There are new concepts such as the Valheru (the Dragon Lords) , the Tsurani , the Rift , the Empire of Great Kesh and new types of magic. What emerges is a great and engaging epic that matches up every bit to Lord of the Rings.
Feist's advanced understandings on magic, warcraft, the nature of world and it's peoples, and its internal politics is astounding. It is jam packed with energy and is somewhat faster moving than Tolkien.
I also like Feist's gentler concept of dragons, far more than Tolkien's (the pet firedrake Fantus is just great) I love reading about all the Princes, Dukes, Earls, Squires, Knight-Marshals etc in the Kingdom, as I similarly enjoy the stranger politics of Tsuranuanni (which is based of Japan/Korea as the Kingdom is on Europe/North America)
With it's system of honor and Great Families, the Emperor, the Warlord, the Great Ones, and the different shifting alliances and parties such as the Blue Wheel Party , the War Party , the Party for Progress etc.
I also think the characters are nicely developed. I finished the book wanting more of Thomas, Pug, Carline (one of my favourites), Arutha, Anita, Amos Trask, Gardan etc, which are available in the subsequent Midkemia/Kelewan books. Feist explores (albeit in a tasteful way) love and sensuality more than does Tolkien.
And Feist's worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan are also well developed, you'll really find yourself lost in these intricate lands.
Certainly Magician and it's sequels are immense in scope in creating a vast world of magic,war,adventure,love,hate and political intrigue
Rating: really liked it
I really enjoyed this book! I was captivated and interested from the start which is really important for me. I don't like books that are slow to start and often put them aside after a few chapters if it hasn't grabbed my attention by then.
I didn't notice Feist spend any time at the beginning on world-building, but rather it felt like he let the world of Midkemia spring up around a diverse and interesting cast of characters. I loved all of the main characters and felt them grow and change as time passed, even when months or years passes between two pages.
I'm not a big fan of cliff-hangers so I thought the end of Magician was really well executed. I started the next in the series Silverthorn the same night because I
wanted to know what would happen next, not because I needed to.
In short, there's a good reason why so many people list Raymond E. Feist as one of the best fantasy writers.
Rating: really liked it
4 stars. Look, I want to say, that I loved this book, but I didn’t love it since I had so many problems with it, yet at the same time really loved many elements of the book, so this four star rating makes me fell pretty conflicted about it.
A bit of history between me and this author was that his Serpantwar Saga was one of the first truely epic fantasies that I ever read around a little two years ago? ish? I had, ultimately read other fantasy books, but not a lot of fantasy that would be considered ‘epics’ aside from Lord of the Rings and Earthsea if that is considered epic fantasy. In a way, I almost have to say that it was Serpantwar that propelled me to read more fantasy in a sense, even though by then, fantasy as already my favourite genre. Ultimately, I have read a lot more fantasy since then, and also more better fantasy in my opinion, such as A Game of Thrones or anything by Brandon Sanderson really.
Now Magician, in a way felt to me that it almost felt like then sort of book that tried to combine all the popular elements in fantasy at the time of publication, such as magic, elves, dwarves, dragons, etc. It is evident that there are many aspects influenced by Tolkien’s Middle Earth. There’s nothing wrong with that and I personally am a huge sucker for elves and the like, so I had no real problem with that.
Dare I say it, but it almost felt that too many things were pushed into this one book, and that may seem surprising since it is over 800 pages, but as many people have mentioned, it the book does skip years at a time, which makes it feel more events are occurred than they actually have. He also does this in his later books, such as Talon of a Silver Hawk. It’s a tad bit unusual and does make some parts of the book feel choppy and I feel like we do miss parts of a character. Furthermore, this singular book here as enough events in it to make it into a trilogy and by the end of the book, if all the threads are tied up(which they aren’t), the entire series could have been finished here.
There is a lot of good stuff in here that makes it feel like it is definitely fantasy and there are numerous parts that does make me, a total fantasy nerd feel happy inside. It is very military centred and most of the important characters are all male, which is hugely typical of more traditional fantasy novels.
Something I would like to bring everyone’s attention to is that the romances is this book are utterly garbage. Very rarely to we actually get a scene of interaction between male and female and then they are off proclaiming their love for each other. There are some nice moments, granted, but it still makes it feel weak. Almost everything is based off physical attraction and we straight up have century old Elf Queens needing a lord, which like, just feel so bad. There’s nothing that makes me feel that certain characters do in fact love each other, apart from the fact that every single woman in this book is stunningly beautiful in appearance. I far prefer modern fantasy which features strong female characters that actually have some flaws and are useful to the story other than just as a tool for big powerful dudes to lust over.
Beyond that, the world building and history of everything is done pretty well and I really do like the world of Midkemia, though some things can feel a tad bit standard. However, it does feel pretty realistic and I know many people will disagree with me on this, but I like at how the world does not feel empty but rather is full of all sorts of things. It is clear that the author has planned out things pretty well and it works well. There’s politics, castles, lords and everything else expected in a medieval inspired society. I was a bit nervous at how the Kingdom was maintaining a war for so long, but thankfully it stated that the Kingdom was exhausted by the end of things.
Overall, for it is, and that is, a traditional fantasy book written almost forty years ago, it’s pretty good and I really enjoyed and will be continuing on with the series. In terms of representation and the quality compared to lots of modern fantasy, it falls a bit short. 8/10
Rating: really liked it
The book started off interesting enough, following a kid, Pug, who gets chosen to be a Magician's apprentice. But it's not a real magic book. Barely any magic gets done. Instead it turns into a Lord of the Rings wanna be book. Elves, dragons, and dwarves are all introduced, and all of those story lines basically go no where. There is an adventure and the party is split up. None of those storylines are interesting though. The only person I cared at all about was Pug, and even that enthusiasm waned as the story grew. There's a large cast of 2 dimensional characters with no charisma. And from this large cast, there are 4 women. 4. And all of them are just placeholders for relationships for our heroes. None of them have true roles or personalities of their own. And there is no relationship building. Why should there be? These are not real women. They are just thrown in so our REAL heroes have someone to marry. Ugh. This book might have been something special in the 80s. But in 2019 women are people and this story has been told a million times. Often in better ways.
Rating: really liked it
An absolute joy to read. It may seem too generic, orphan boy makes good, but written in 1982, this was ahead of its time. Brilliant story of magic, treachery to steal the thrones, dwarves, elves, dragons, portals to a strange warlike people similar to feudal Japan, battles, love and heartbreaking loss.....the list could go on. Sweeping nine year story that is just a brilliant tale and totally captivating. Could not have enjoyed this more.
Rating: really liked it
Good story, but filled with fantasy cliches. Feist wrote this back in the early 80's so he should know better - Tolkien, Norton, Moorcock and others tread this ground before.
Admittedly though, it is a hell of a pageturner even though the characters are badly drawn and the narrative is wacky as it speeds through years of development in a single paragraph. The love and romance is painful to read, skip over them.
Considering that Feist stumbled upon a unique and admirable new fantasy conceit in these novels, I am amazed that he couldn't truly extract better characterization and narrative from the two worlds of the Tsurani and Midkemia. A shame, really. I do wish I read this series a few years ago, I would appreciate them much more and rate them higher.
Rating: really liked it
5.5/10
A book of two halves. Whilst meant to be read as one book this was split and published in certain areas as two books. If I could rate the two separately it would be 4 stars to the first part and 1.5 stars to the second part.
The first half is a generic fantasy tale but it’s quite a good read. Feist isn’t a bad writer so whereas what could be seen as generic and bland is spiced up a little with the style of writing. Some of the characters are plain and stereotypical which lets things down but the plot moves fast and over a number of years so plenty is going on to keep your attention.
Then the second half happened and I just wasn’t interested. I had to skim read to get through it. The thought of slogging through it for a couple of weeks didn’t appeal but I’d put in time an effort to read the first part so I wasn’t going to DNF it. I didn’t like how the characters acted and how the narrative changed styles, my interest was at a low. The ending was very sugary too, maybe reading ASOIAF and Abercrombie has made me want all fantasy characters to suffer.
I’m now in two minds whether to read the follow up. Whilst not enjoying this one I have read a trilogy of Feist’s set later on in this world and did enjoy it. The next one may just be more appealing with a different set of characters, I’ll need to do some long hard thinking on that one.
Rating: really liked it
Lord of the Rings written for Middle Schoolers, but with aliens.
I was looking for something easy to pick up and put down, something story driven that wouldn't be too much of a mental commitment; in that way, this book was perfect.
However it felt very... done. I suppose all fantasy books have the misfortune of being compared to Lord of the Rings (the only fantasy series I've ever devoted myself to), and this one is no different. The elves, the dwarves, and goblins. There's a bit of political drama, and magic. But it felt a bit obvious. I didn't feel myself getting lost in the story. The people you wanted to live, all lived. The characters you didn't expect to make it didn't make it. At the end the good guys who make it, all get rich or a nice title. I was able to pick it up, read a chapter or two, forget about it for a while, and when I picked it up again I didn't have to re-read anything to remember what had happened, because it was all pretty predictable.
I picked this book out because it made it onto NPRs best Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. Not really sure what all the hub-bub is about
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars, rounded up. RTC
Rating: really liked it
One of the best novels ever to be released? In a word yes.
Magician remains the greatest stand alone fantasy novel ever to be published despite being a quarter of a century old. Truly epic in scale the novels main focus is the story of Pug, from his humble beginnings as orphaned kitchen boy, to his apprentice and mastery of the magic arts. So far so normal, as far as fantasy novels go. What sets this novel apart is the sheer scale of the thing, it is set over 25 years for a start. Also it is set over two worlds, Midkemia; your typical western medieval based fantasy world, and Kelewan: An eastern based world.
The sheer volume of side stories that enrich the novel and in no way detract from the main stories of the Riftwar and Pug's journey make this work special. Some of them of the top of my head; Tomas' metamorphosis into a dragon lord, the seige of Crydee, the madness of the King, possible civil war approaching, the treachery of Black Guy, martial law in Krondor, Arutha's trip to Krondor, Princess Anita and the Mockers, the romance between Princess Carline and Pug, the romance between Princess Carline and Roland, the romance between Anita and Arutha, the migration north of the Dark Elves, the effect of the invasion on the dwarven peoples, the effect of the invasion on the Elven people, Kesh taking advantage of a weak Kingdom, the great game of the Tsurani, the introduction of cavalry to the Tsurani, the Assemblies politics, the Emperor of Tsurani and his policies, the parentage of Martin and more.
The characters stand out as well. From Macros the Black, surely the most iconic mysterious magician since Merlin. To Father Tully, the priest who teaches Pug to read and write the secondary characters are both memorable and fully fleshed. The plot is also fantastic, although it spans years and multiple worlds it never feels rushed and all of the various side plots add to the main story, the invasion of the Kingdom of the Isles.
Any review should touch on the negatives of a novels as well. Feist is not the best technical writer in the world, his prose can be a little flat and he overuses some words. Frankly however this is one of the best novels ever published, its a pity that Feist has never written another book even half as good.
