Feist Changed My Life

 Magician Book Review

SYNOPSIS

Raymond E. Feist's classic fantasy epic, Magician, has enchanted readers for over twenty years. It is the first book of his internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed Riftwar series.

At Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician – and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever.

Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm the land. Pug is swept up into the conflict but for him and his warrior friend, Tomas, an odyssey into the unknown has only just begun.

Tomas will inherit a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization. Pug’s destiny is to lead him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to the mastery of the unimaginable powers of a strange new magic.

REVIEW

Okay so most fiction fantasy readers, and lovers of epic fantasy especially, are going to be familiar with Raymond E. Feist. More specifically, his best-selling, critically acclaimed trilogy the Riftwar Saga. Magician literally has it all.

Boasting perhaps the most impressive ability to combine everything into the one series Feist gives you elves, dwarves, dark elves called the Dark Brotherhood, or Moredhel, goblins, aliens, zombies, dragons, space travel, terrifying wraiths (yes I did almost need to change my pants), thieves, a mad king and of course magicians. Now, I know what you're thinking - "sounds like overkill", "Having that much could never work", "sounds too complicated" - and ordinarily I would be right there with you. But Feist's ability to incorporate so much with balance and logical storytelling leaves you unable to put the books down.

All three books are unique and beautifully written for their own purpose. Today we're going to focus on Magician, the first of the series. Magician follows a few different characters, the main one being an orphan boy named Pug (yes, like the dog) who ends up becoming one of the most interesting characters I've ever come across, with his best friend Tomas being the other most interesting characters ever written when he becomes merged with an ancient race of dragon riders after a dragon gifts him ancient armour... It. Is. Awesome.

The premise of this first book is that the medieval-type world we start off in is being invaded by an alien race, causing all of the different races, such as elves, dwarves and humans to work together in order to defend their home. But, the mass frustration that comes from politics and the need to set aside differences for the common good gets in the way.

Now, I think that my standard for a good story has really stemmed from reading authors like Feist, Tolkien and Eddings, because I now feel like a story is missing crucial realism and story value when it has no political side of things incorporated - especially when it involves a full scale war and for some reason everyone just does what the protagonist says without any recognition to how their political system works... let's not name anyone here - my point is, the struggles formulated in this book are realistic to what would happen in that exact circumstance.

I can't find many (if any!) plot holes. All of the characters serve a purpose, no one feels like a filler character, or the 'designated eye candy'. Everything in the series is so well thought out that it makes you feel like Feist is one of the magicians who travels to multiple worlds and saw this world first-hand (Don't even get me started on the 30 odd books in the overall series that Feist has written that are all equally as in-depth and... well, incredible).

These books inspired me to become a writer and kept me company on many a sick day from school *cough* "I'm sick" *cough*, they are unlike anything else I've ever read or anything I am likely to read in the future. But who knows maybe someone will surprise me with something as equally world-changing!

In conclusion, go read the damn book if you have even the slightest interest in fantasy. You will not regret it, and if you do... tough break YA BASIC... jokes. Is it a joke? We'll never know.

Rating - 5/5 stars

Author: Raymond E. Feist

Publisher - Harper Voyager

ISBN - 978 0 586 21783 2