Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist - Book Review
August 11th, 2008
There are only a handful of great epic fantasy series out there and this is the first book of one of them. The series is called the Riftwar Saga and the major theme of it is unique in that magicians can open rifts between worlds. Of course, through these rifts an invading army can pass. And this is where this book begins with the opening of a rift and an army invading the world of Midkemia where our main characters Pug and Tomas live.
The book is simply well written and story driven. In no time you will be feeling the story and wanting to see how it develops. I say if you give this book 30 pages you will be hooked. Feist just knows how to write fantasy in an intelligent and interesting way.
About the Magic: The title of the book (Magician: Apprentice) is almost a warning bell for me because I have read too much fantasy where magicians and wizards cast all kinds of fireballs, spells, and what not - and it tends to be an easy way for the writer to get out of a tough plot point - just create a new spell that gets you out of a jam! Not so in this book; the magic is subdued and makes a lot of sense. Just a job well done in this regard.
Reverence to Dwarves and Elves: This book predates the Lord of the Rings movies so these races of creatures weren’t the household names they are today. Feist presents them to us they way they should be presented; as mysterious and wondrous creatures to be admired. He very clearly expresses this awe and you feel it.
About the Story: Just a darn good story and in no time at all you are going to be engrossed in the story and the characters. What more can you ask for? This is not your typical pulp fiction. It is well written and very satisfying. I don’t want to tell you much more but there is adventure, traveling, magic, introspection, questions, battles, and even a castle siege.
Only really half a book: This book is actually only half of what Feist wrote for his first book. It was a big book so the publisher broke it up into two halves. The first half is Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga)
About the Riftwar Cycle:
The Riftwar Cycle is a series of books that revolve around the battle between Midkemia and Kelewan. These are the two worlds where the rift has been opened. And the books take place on both worlds with a variety of characters and stories. Magician: Apprentice is the first book of a series called the Riftwar Saga After apprentice comes Master then Silverthorn and finallly a darkness at Sethanon.
If you are looking for a big story to sink your teeth into this is perfect. Well written and lots of the books are already out so you don’t have to wait for the next one. And there are more coming. Book 3 of his Darkwar Saga is scheduled for release in March 2009 and book 1 of his new series (the DemonWar Saga) is scheduled for release later in 2009.If you like fantasy books I have a website devoted to them: The Fantasy Guide
This book is available on Amazon.com: Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga)
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