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Raymond E. Feist

Hi all, just finish Exiles Return, totally loved it. Feist was back on track with this one, after King of Foxes being well, crap :)

Talon was ok, Have avoided most of the Krondor & Legends series
But have to be controversial in that i think that the Serpentwar Saga is as good as or if not better than the Magician et al :eek:

Just About to start on Night Hawks now Might get some sleep????
 
I recently started reading Magician. Popped into the library in my lunch break last weekend and saw it there, remembered a few recommendations and picked it up.

I'm getting through it at a steady rate which is usually a sign I'm enjoying a book, and I am quite happy with it. It's shaping up to be quite large scale, or 'epic' as I like to classify it, which I like in books like these. I've not read a huge range of fantasy but even I can see a few holes. The characters are a little weak, and there are hundreds of them! Surprisingly I'm not having any trouble remember who everyone is for once, but I don't feel I know a whole lot about any of them.
Also some things I find a little too... easy. Like Pug being allowed on the journey to Krondor first was a little "oh, I never expected that!" but the excuse for Tomas going too was very very weak.
Despite the few holes, I am thoroughly enjoying it and am not going to sit here and pick at all the flaws because on the whole I find it reads quite easy, yet it long/epic enough to get engrossed it and has a charm to it I'm enjoying a lot.

Will probably check out some of his newer works if I stay pleased with this.
 
turk182 said:
But have to be controversial in that i think that the Serpentwar Saga is as good as or if not better than the Magician et al :eek:


I enjoyed the Serpent War saga. I also enjoyed the Empire series as well. I haven't read any of the newer ones, after the Serpent War Saga, but intend to at some point.

I have been thinking about this topic, especially the bits concerning lack of character development. I guess the whole thing is that Feist is not really writing a story about particular characters in The Rift War Saga. He is writing about Krondor and the events that took place there. In doing that, of course there are characters involved, but they are not the centre of the story. I have friends who have not liked the way he jumps several years or the way he just says, so and so died. But the point is that he is telling a story about a particular place during a particular time. As the time and place changes, so do the characters and those who may have been important at one point are no longer important.
 
Hmmm you make a good point, but then he should seriously consider not calling anyone a protagonist, and he should consider not including the beginnings of a character development and leave it unfinished, which was what bothered me the most.

We have two boys and their really close friendship, and Pug's weird uncontrollable powers. This smells of protagonist and character focus, hence my disappointment when it turned out to be a 'hoax'. We hear only briefly about Arutha since it's all told from Pug's point of view (seeing as he's the main char) but suddenly everything revolves around Arutha, who he is and what decisions he might make, it's very very backwards to me.

Good book, good story, it's not that. Calling anyone protagonists here is simply falsely advertising it. Sadly the first few chapters with Pug and Tomas was part of the advertising. Had it only been the blurb on the back I could have accepted with it - it's often the authors don't write that themselves anyway, but it's as if he started the book meaning to write about Pug, then changed his mind and decided to include Tomas as a main char as well, then he realised that the focus of two young boys was entirely useless if he wanted to tell a good and realistic story about a war of this scale so he had to include that minstrel (what was his name again?) even after the boys had grown older, then he seemed to realise that those special characters he'd meant to be his mains were too special and thus too far from the centre of things, so he needed to focus more on the normal people dealing with the politics and all, hence Arutha came in. Basically it seems to me that he changed his disposition while writing the book.
 
Jemima Aslana said:
[snipped] but it's as if he started the book meaning to write about Pug, then changed his mind and decided to include Tomas as a main char as well, then he realised that the focus of two young boys was entirely useless if he wanted to tell a good and realistic story about a war of this scale so he had to include that minstrel (what was his name again?) even after the boys had grown older, then he seemed to realise that those special characters he'd meant to be his mains were too special and thus too far from the centre of things, so he needed to focus more on the normal people dealing with the politics and all, hence Arutha came in. Basically it seems to me that he changed his disposition while writing the book.
My thoughts exactly. I suppose I don't like that in a writer - someone who doesn't have the whole picture yet when he writes.

Although some of my favourite writers professed to write like this. Ah well, as long as the novel doesn't read like he changed his mind half way through the story. :)

ds
 
Oh I know all too well the process of just starting a story to see where it might lead. This has led me to interesting places I would never have planend on going otherwise, it has also led me to leave a story unfinished because it simply didn't go anywhere, or character development acted up or clashed.

The overall story in Magician has not changed, no, but Feist started out by making it personal and then somehow developed greater and greater amibitions for the saga, which meant a need for a change in focus. He should've backtracked and changed something, though it's difficult to say what exactly that would be. But something should've been changed at the beginning so as to not lead the reader to believe Pug was the one we'd be following closely and get to know, because that was a bit of a disappointment.
 
It has been many years since I actually read Magician, so my memory of details is a little fuzzy. But Pug and Thomas are important. You are right, the focus does move from them a little in Magician. I don't want to say too much because I know you haven't read Silverthorn or a Darkness at Sethanon yet. But it was very necessary for Feist to introduce us to both Pug and Thomas. They do play major roles in the story, as a whole, but they play a role that is different to the other characters. LOL, I am having trouble explaining this without giving away any spoilers. If you decide to continue on with the series, you will see what I mean. Silverthorn is not as good as Magician in my opinion, but it is necessary. A Darkness at Sethanon is excellent.
 
Feist is really figuring out how to write at this stage. When he wrote Magician IIRC he was in college and just wanted to see if he could do it. He's learning, getting his footing, so to speak. His characterizations are weak, his concentration is more on the history/epic.

The next 2 books are not as good as Magician but he is learning lessons. But the SerpentWar saga (especially the Rise of a Merchant Prince) and the Janny Wurts co-authored Empire books are some of my favorite books - very strong characterization. And the latest trilogy wasn't half bad either.
 
I am very accepting of the fact that Feist cannot be expected to have written a brilliant book as his first work, the thing is I've heard Magician recommended as the best work of fantasy fiction EVAR! And while it is indeed an impressive feat for a first time author, it is by no means as brilliant, ground-breaking and sensational as I was led to believe by quite a few fantasy reading friends of mine.

But judging from all the comments here I see I shall have to read the rest of his books - or at least some of them - just to give him a fair chance at redeeming himself :)
 
I remember years ago a friend gave me the first four Feist books. This was in the 80's. I still have them, the old cover with Kulgan in a yellew robe and Pug busting through the door to tell him and the invasion.

They sat there for years, I always had something else to read. Well, one day in the book store I saw how many book Feist had published and remembered that I had four of his books. I finally pulled them down and read them. All the way through, never putting them down, then I continued on with the others.

I didn't like Pug at first, what a little pussy, I thought. Well,when he went through the rift he got a lot more interesting. Now I look for Pug in all the books, along with Nakor.

One of my favorites though is his work with Wurts on the Empries Triology. That was very good, I loved those.
 
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