Magician is a fantasy novel by American writer Raymond E. Feist. It is the first book of the Riftwar Saga and was published in 1982. It led to many books written by Feist in the world of Midkemia, which was the setting for this book. Originally reduced in size by his editors, it was re-published in 1992 (after the author's fame had grown) in an edition titled "The Author's Preferred Edition" (or "revised edition" in some markets) with much of the deleted text restored.
Suffers from being borrowed from by everyone since
4 stars
Magician is an straightforward fantasy epic. It suffers from being among the templates that all fantasy novels since are borrowing from. But it is pretty well written, the characters are likeable and reasonably well differentiated, and the story is engaging and pacy enough. (There are some parts that drag a little, but compared to some offerings in the genre, this does a good job of keeping things moving along).
Un roman de fantasy qui est pour moi tout ce que je n'aime plus dans la fantasy : des clichés à la minute et un récit qu'on croirait tout droit tiré d'une campagne de jeux de rôles (ce qui est d'ailleurs le cas de ce roman, si j'en crois les rumeurs).
I don't understand why I liked this book so much, never mind at all. I mean, I don't really like books with magic in them (too much the deus ex machina involved). Not really crazy about fantasy books in general, although I seem to read plenty of them. And it's a bit of a coming of age novel too. But it was an quick, easy interesting read and I can't wait to read book 2.
This is the first book in The Riftwar Saga and was Feist's first book, written way back in 1982. He's gone on to write dozens and dozens more books, all pretty well regarded and mostly set in this same world, Midkemia, I think. It follows the story of Pug, a bumbling adolescent who becomes a magician's apprentice and uncovers his own hidden magical talents.
But their world, Midkemia, is suddenly invaded by "aliens" from a …
I don't understand why I liked this book so much, never mind at all. I mean, I don't really like books with magic in them (too much the deus ex machina involved). Not really crazy about fantasy books in general, although I seem to read plenty of them. And it's a bit of a coming of age novel too. But it was an quick, easy interesting read and I can't wait to read book 2.
This is the first book in The Riftwar Saga and was Feist's first book, written way back in 1982. He's gone on to write dozens and dozens more books, all pretty well regarded and mostly set in this same world, Midkemia, I think. It follows the story of Pug, a bumbling adolescent who becomes a magician's apprentice and uncovers his own hidden magical talents.
But their world, Midkemia, is suddenly invaded by "aliens" from a mysterious source, the aforementioned "rifts". This warlike race takes it upon themselves to enslave the entire world of Midkemia, which includes a veritable dictionary of fantasy types - dwarves, elves, gnomes, dark elves, orcs, etc. War rages on for years, until at the end of the book, there is a cessation in the conflict, reading itself for the second book.
Told in a third person view, usually from Pug's perspective, but often changing, sometimes in dizzying fashion. As I said, this is very much a bog standard fantasy world, but it seems fully fleshed out and realized. Luckily for me, magic is kept at a minimum, just showing up enough to be annoying (Oh, I need a fog to keep away the night creatures! Oh, I'm in trouble so let's drown these trolls!). It reminds me of the Game Of Thrones series, which has magic but isn't really the point of it all and is kept mostly at a minimum.
I probably should play the computer game Betrayal At Krondor now that I'm reading this. In some ways, this book is like a game that's pretty easy but that would overstay its welcome if it were any harder. If this tried to be deeper, it would just be annoying, but it is such an easy read, it's easier to forgive it's faults. Can't wait to read the second one, <[b:Magician: Master|13810|Magician Master (The Riftwar Saga, #2)|Raymond E. Feist|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403154040s/13810.jpg|766896] although I guess the two books were combined into one called just Magician. This edition from the library is the "Author's Preferred Edition", so it as a little more exposition, but I didn't find it to be distracting.
