Raymond E. Feist

From what I have seen and read, there are quite some Feist fans here. This topic is made for anything related to Feist. His best novels, storylines, cons and pros and you name it.

In my opinion, Magician is still his best book, followed by Mistress of the Empire, in the Empire trilogy.

My 5 most favorite charachters in random order;

Pug,
James,
Arutha,
Lujan,
Erik.

What I have read so far;

Riftwar Saga,
Empire Trilogy,
Krondor's Sons,
Serpent War Saga,
Riftwar Legacy (Krondor stories) -- now reading the third book.

I have read all books - currently reading: Into a Dark Realm

I like
Riftwar Sage
Empire Saga
Serpent War Saga
Conclave of Shadows & Darkwar Saga
Krondor's Sons
Legends of the Riftwar: Honoured Enemy
Legends of the Riftwar: Murder in LaMut

Not so good:
Riftwar Legacy
Legends of the Riftwar: Jimmy the Hand

The computer game: Betrayal at Krondor http://www.abandonia.com/games/208/download/BetrayalatKrondor.htm
is one off my all time favorites, Return to Krondor is good, too.

Yep, all of the above. I've probably read Magician more than any other novel!!

I think Betrayal at Krondor was one of my first RPG's.

Corwin said:

Yep, all of the above. I've probably read Magician more than any other novel!!

Click to expand...

Magician, oh yes. Two books if I recall correctly. Or two in one, don't remember, there was a special edition though. I love how magic is described, explained and used in this saga, especially in Magician of course. Later in the Serpentwar Saga I liked the defensive magic that was used by the uh.. ant people? Anyway, the magic in general just felt "real" and tangible.

I read a trilogy about Drizzt Do'Urden once and magic in it wasn't so good. To me, magic in D&D in general isn't very magical anyway, they have all those spells with names and such, but there's no real depth in it. So many spells that have specific purposes but nothing else really. Magic missiles for instance. That's so cold.. no depth in the magic... Ok, maybe I'm spoiled by D&D CRPGs.

But anyway, another series with good magic was The Wheel of Time. Reminded me a lot of Raymond Feists books in that magic was explained very well and played a major role in the story.

Book 11 of WoT is my next read, but that's for a different thread!!

As Arhu said, the magic in Feist his books is very deeply explained, and very detailed. It's not like people run around throwing fireballs at eachother while screaming "Fire Nova", or anything near that. As you can also read when Pug destroys the arena in Tsuranuani, he morely controls the weather, instead of really using magic. The magic used in Feist is more some sort of manipulation of mana then something like WoW. As described in the first book of the Riftwar Legacy, when Gorath goes to the other world to look for Pug, the magic there has been stored into magic stones. From that I conclude that magicians in Midkemia do not "have" magic in them, but merely have to ability to use and control the magic surrounding them and everything else in the world.

My "stars":

Nakor
Jimmy "The Hand"
Arutha
Pug
Talon

As Nakor would say: "There is no magic".

Totally forgot that sentence heh. But I must say, his "tricks" looks a lot like magic, and so does Pug's

I read one of the series - Serpentwar Saga. It had its good parts, and at the time I had not read that much fantasy anyway, so I liked it. As far as characters go, I liked Miranda and the guy with the oranges ...

That guy is Nakor!! Read the entire series, it's worth the time spent!!

And do start at the beginning.

Indeed, start at the beginning. I read Serpentwar first too, shame on me, and thus didn't understand any of the backgrounds of the characters. The books seemed somewhat unfinished to me at that time. But when I read all the series before the Serpentwar, and then read it again, the books were so much more complete, and every piece of the puzzel fit.

I probably will, though with the writing this guy does, it is a bit confusing ...

I read Magician in the mid 90ies, but didn't find the others in Swedish back then (wasn't too good at English back then). In 2002 I found Betrayal at Krondor, which went straight to my list of all time favorites, and following that I went and found the whole Riftwar Saga in English. The two Magician books (Apprentice and Master) were still pretty good, but it felt like it derailed when they all got practically godlike powers - I prefer slightly more down to earth stories.

Godly powers is a bit... exaggerated? I can understand what you are thinking by only reading the Riftwar Saga. But later on -- Spoiler ahead -- in the Riftwar Legacies, the first book, you can see that Pug isn't all that "godly", seeing the battles he fights with magic. He is just rather strong, and what he did in Magician is just controlling the elements. Maybe strong, but I think there were more black robes who were able to do that. Or at least something as powerful as that -- in the third book of the Empire trilogy, you can see how strong they are.

bump --

sorry for double post, but there is just something I have to mention.

I am currently reading Clonclave of the Shadows, second book now. Something really strange caught my eye during the two books. First of all; the description of the trilogy mentions that it takes place approx. 30 years after the Serpentwar books. Now, here comes the strange part.

-- Spoiler ahead --

Roo is dead, as you can ready in book one. Claw reads one of his book, and the story mentions that Roo died. Strange, as according to the description of the book it had to be that he died at the age of around 50. Well, he could be killed or something. So I didn't bother about it too much -- though I loved him.

Later on, in book two, when he meets Erik -- well, meeting, he sees him in the same room as the King -- and the story describes that Erik is around the age of 80... wtf? Ok, let's plus the ages. Book one of the Serpentwar begins when Erik is fifteen. The saga ends with him being somewhere around twentytwo. 22 + 30 = 52... not 80. Also, Duke James is described as a somewhat "older" man, but not old. As he is still in good shape. In my last research Erik and James didn't differ that much in age.
His rank also seems rather strange to me, since in the Serpentwar he said he wanted to stay Captain of the eagles.

This kinda annoys me, since I loved Erik, and I think he was one of the best characters troughout the series. Seeing him at that age, and knowing that he won't play any big parts in the books anymore -- well maybe he does, don't know atm --.

Yes, I too found a few age discrepancies, but perhaps it's all part of the famous 'willing suspension of disbelief'!!