Sean Gursky reviewed Magician by Raymond E. Feist (Riftwar, parts 1 & 2)
Review of 'Magician' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
...remember, I did what I did because it was my fate.
There is a lot of time, and story covered in this novel. I may appreciate the speed at which the story was told when I read more in the series, but I felt that the booked could have easily slowed down, expanded on years of plot, made this one story more rich in detail and still have been entertaining. But the Riftwar Cycle does cover many trilogies so perhaps Feist wanted to move along with the story.
I also found that the book had an identity crisis. Typical fantasy tropes aside in the first third of the book I felt I was reading a love letter to Tolkien because of so many similarities to Fellowship of the Ring. Then a navy sequence was added, and political intrigue was layered on top. I found that the additional elements didn't add …
...remember, I did what I did because it was my fate.
There is a lot of time, and story covered in this novel. I may appreciate the speed at which the story was told when I read more in the series, but I felt that the booked could have easily slowed down, expanded on years of plot, made this one story more rich in detail and still have been entertaining. But the Riftwar Cycle does cover many trilogies so perhaps Feist wanted to move along with the story.
I also found that the book had an identity crisis. Typical fantasy tropes aside in the first third of the book I felt I was reading a love letter to Tolkien because of so many similarities to Fellowship of the Ring. Then a navy sequence was added, and political intrigue was layered on top. I found that the additional elements didn't add to the story and what started off as a strong read lost steam halfway through and to the end. I can forgive this because the story was written in 1982 and this may have been what paved the way for other authors to cover those elements, but with a better delivery.
The multiple worlds connected by the Rift, the battle tactics of Midkemia and Kelewan and how the Tsurani approached war was great. Seeing the story from both sides of the rift was perfect and I would have enjoyed reading more of the grind that the war was. It would skip from the siege at Cydree to several years later and you were only offered a glimpse of what happened.
I enjoyed the idea of the book enough to continue with this story so I will move on to Magician: Master next and consider if my reading ends with the remaining Saga or if I continue on to the entire Cycle.
