'Magician' by Feist

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Ubiquitous
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'Magician' by Feist

Post by Ubiquitous »

I am 100 pages into the book and I think it is great. However I have heard that it is part of a series, can somebody please tell me what the other books are called and what order I should read the books in?

Please, no spoilers.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Serafina »

Wikipedia is your friend

"Magician" is part of the "Riftwar"-Saga - the following books are called "Silverthorn" and "A Darkness at Sethanon".
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Lord Relvenous »

Very, very good series, IMO. While there are some flaws with the writing, I find the story and the characters compelling and heartily suggest you check out the other books.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Guardsman Bass »

I don't mind it (even though it uses some of the common tropes in high fantasy), and I liked the main character. My main complaint (and this is from reading the Empire Trilogy before reading Feist's book - they're in the same universe) is that I think they wasted some opportunities to show the scale of the warfare going in the story between Spoiler
Midkemia and Kelewan. Mara's lover - the general guy - hinted at some of it, like when the Midkemians demanded an enormous payment as part of a possible truce, and in response to the outrage from the Shogun-like figure in Kelewan, he pointed out that it was only one years' worth of military expenses on the Midkemian side.
That said, it's probably been 3-4 years since I read Magician, so I've probably forgotten a lot.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Vympel »

I loved Magician and its sequels. Last fantasy books I've read, actually (a few years ago).

And moved to Fantasy where this belongs.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by mr friendly guy »

After the Riftwar saga there are other books set in the same world, that is prince of the blood and another one whose name eludes me. He then went on to the Serpent war saga, some other war saga and also the Krondor books.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Stofsk »

I got Magician because Vympel okayed it. (that's a lie, I was going to get it anyway, but I just wanted to include Vympel in my decision)

I've started reading it, but haven't gotten far yet.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Connor MacLeod »

The one thing to remember when reading Feist is that its not high fantasy. Don't expect anything great from a literary perspective. But its good reading. AND (important for me) you won't (at least as far as the serpentwar saga.. I stopped reading his stuff after that and havent picked it up again yet) he doesnt try to use the fantasy platform (that I recall) to play out his agenda or get bogged down in endless minutae about subplots and characters the way some authors do.

As I said, if you go in there moderate expectations you probably won't have a problem with him.

My favorite novels of the series always involved Jimmy the Hand. He was my favorite character.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Crown »

His Empire series with Wurts are hands down some of the best fantasy work of our that era. Get this; the lead character is a heroin who isn't portrayed as a dude with a vagina! Shock horror, I know.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Guardsman Bass »

His Empire series with Wurts are hands down some of the best fantasy work of our that era. Get this; the lead character is a heroin who isn't portrayed as a dude with a vagina! Shock horror, I know.
His Empire series with Wurts are hands down some of the best fantasy work of our that era. Get this; the lead character is a heroin who isn't portrayed as a dude with a vagina! Shock horror, I know.
You think so? The first book was pretty good, although I wouldn't put it up there with GRRM or Bakker. But each succeeding book in the trilogy honestly just got worse - the second book had some good parts along with a lot of "meh", but the third book was terrible; I gave up about 100 pages into it.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by dworkin »

Connor MacLeod wrote:The one thing to remember when reading Feist is that its not high fantasy.
Huh? We are talking about Magician here right?

Colour me boggled. For years it was my yardstick for high fantasy.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Jade Falcon »

The books in order....

Magician (there are a number of editions, in the USA it was at first split into two books called Magician:Apprentice and Magician:Master, there was the combined edition and later on a reprint with additional material).
Silverthorn
A Darkness at Sethanon

In that Wiki list I've read up to Rides a Dread Legion, but some of his later stuff hasn't been up to much in my opinion, I posted recently about Rides a Dread Legion. I have read Honoured Enemy which isn't bad in the Legends of the Riftwar series but not Murder in LaMut or Jimmy the Hand.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Lord Relvenous »

A Darkness at Sethanon gives the saga a very satisfying end. Unless you are completely enraptured with the world and can stand books not quite up to the quality of the first 3/4 (depending on edition), I would suggest not reading past it.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Imperial Overlord »

Lord Relvenous wrote:A Darkness at Sethanon gives the saga a very satisfying end. Unless you are completely enraptured with the world and can stand books not quite up to the quality of the first 3/4 (depending on edition), I would suggest not reading past it.
Agreed. The drop in quality after Sethanon is noticeable and the characters in general are a lot less likable.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Jade Falcon »

Depending on how you get on though, the Empire series might be worth a look. I liked the Serpentwar saga as well because I liked some of the characters that were introduced, but after that it definitely takes a nosedive. Prince of the Blood I've read once and never read again, Kings Bucanneer wasn't bad but was nothing special. The trilogy with Krondor:The Betrayal, Krondor:The Assasins and Krondor Tear of the Gods can be missed out. Krondor:The Betrayal has the storyline of the old Betrayal at Krondor PC game, Tear of the Gods has the storyline of the Krondor the Return game.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Ubiquitous »

Serafina wrote:Wikipedia is your friend

"Magician" is part of the "Riftwar"-Saga - the following books are called "Silverthorn" and "A Darkness at Sethanon".
Thanks. For the record I didn't want to trust in a search engine/wiki in case it revealed any spoilers. I haven't even read past your post in the thread but I will revist when I finish the book.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Bilbo »

The biggest problem I have found with later books is he has retconned changed so many things. Tomas has grown or shrunk in power for no real reason. Pug is even more obvious in this. Feist basically made him into this uber epic mage then seemed to have realized that this means very few threats are real threats since Pug could basically wipe them away. So at times Pug loses powers with no explanation or mention. The most obvious being his ability to teleport.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

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IMHO he has made Pug one of the more unlikeable 'up his own arse' characters who seems to have a superiority complex. I prefer characters like Jimmy the Hand or Erik Von Darkmoor. Even Kaspar of Olasko was more interesting.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Bilbo »

Jade Falcon wrote:IMHO he has made Pug one of the more unlikeable 'up his own arse' characters who seems to have a superiority complex. I prefer characters like Jimmy the Hand or Erik Von Darkmoor. Even Kaspar of Olasko was more interesting.

I found his wife far more annoying. Jimmy got old as he suddenly could do anything. Then you had Tal Hawkins come along and become to next uber wonder boy, though he did not stick around for long.

One thing that annoyed me was how he just forgot things. The Queen took over Novidius and it was the perfect chance to mentioned the TigerMen again. Any mention at all? Nope, not a one. Its like he forgot he ever created them.

My favorite character was Caleb the "normal" son who was good at what he did but not the walking wankfest.
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Re: 'Magician' by Feist

Post by Jade Falcon »

Bilbo wrote:[I found his wife far more annoying. Jimmy got old as he suddenly could do anything. Then you had Tal Hawkins come along and become to next uber wonder boy, though he did not stick around for long.
I assume you mean Miranda rather than Katala, if so I heartily agree.
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The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
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