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Raymond E. Feist’s The Riftwar Saga


AncalagonTheBlack

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5 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Didn't he also get into a bit of an argument with Steve Abrams over the whole thing? I might be totally making that up but I seem to remember reading it somewhere.

Not that I recall. They collaborated on the (godawful) companion book a few years ago, so it must have been either since then or they patched things up.

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42 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Not that I recall. They collaborated on the (godawful) companion book a few years ago, so it must have been either since then or they patched things up.

Is that the big brown one that's the Feist version of the big white World of the Wheel of Time? Hardcover? About 100 or so pages? With maps and the like? 

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On 10/5/2018 at 1:07 AM, IlyaP said:

Is that the big brown one that's the Feist version of the big white World of the Wheel of Time? Hardcover? About 100 or so pages? With maps and the like? 

Yes. Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug or something. It's awful. The art is mostly digitally-reproduced photographs and the cartography is shocking.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/26/2018 at 1:02 AM, ljkeane said:

A bit of an aside but am I the only one who doesn't really care about books being made into tv series/films? I've already read the books, if I liked them they're almost always superior to the on screen version and if I didn't why would I want to watch a tv series about them?

 

On 9/26/2018 at 7:27 AM, williamjm said:

The Empire trilogy might make the most interesting adaptation.

The Empire trilogy is the one I'd get quite excited for an adaptation of. As others have said much of the appeal of the Riftwar has been diminished by the change in the fantasy 'meta' over the decades since then, although Magician itself is still quite enjoyable I don't think it lends itself to adaptation as The Empire series would. The latter would actually hit quite a similar note to the good aspects of the GoT show in terms of being a more adult story, while Kelewan is a much more alien setting and seeing the Cho Ja (its been years, is it 2 words or 1?) realised would be fantastic. The night before the 'election' in the middle book in particular could be a really tense episode of television. I've talked myself into this, I really want an adaptation of that now.

On 9/27/2018 at 4:24 AM, Werthead said:

Yup. Magician is good (overcoming the relative lack of writing polish with a huge amount of infectious enthusiasm), The Empire Trilogy is excellent (although the best thing Feist has written or co-written, it's not the best thing Wurts has written; The Master of Whitestorm, at least, is stronger) and the stand-alone novel Honoured Enemy is great, although that was actually written by William Forstchen with Feist getting a story credit.

Bolded - yeah that's a great self contained shorter story, and another example of being ahead of the industry trends. I really enjoyed her Wars of Light and Shadow books when I was younger, but they're another one that got dragged out longer than they should have and I stopped reading. There's another trilogy I'm blanking on the name of that's much shorter that was also pretty enjoyable - I looked it up and apparently it was her first work and all she'd done prior to The Empire trilogy, The Cycle of Fire.

To OPs original question - agreed with the others, Magician and The Empire trilogy are absolutely worth reading, the rest of the trilogy and the 2 follow up books are also worthwhile if you really enjoyed Magician.

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1 hour ago, karaddin said:

... it was her first work and all she'd done prior to The Empire trilogy, The Cycle of Fire.

After reading the Empire Trilogy, I went looking for and read the Cycle of Fire books by Janny Wurts.  My impressions of that set of books was much less positive, so much so that it was hard for my callow, youthful self to believe that this was one of the same authors of the Empire Trilogy.  They had nice cover art, though.

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Just now, Wilbur said:

After reading the Empire Trilogy, I went looking for and read the Cycle of Fire books by Janny Wurts.  My impressions of that set of books was much less positive, so much so that it was hard for my callow, youthful self to believe that this was one of the same authors of the Empire Trilogy.  They had nice cover art, though.

I was pretty easy to please as a kid lol, the nostalgia glasses may be making that seem better in hindsight.

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16 hours ago, karaddin said:

The Empire trilogy is the one I'd get quite excited for an adaptation of. As others have said much of the appeal of the Riftwar has been diminished by the change in the fantasy 'meta' over the decades since then, although Magician itself is still quite enjoyable I don't think it lends itself to adaptation as The Empire series would. The latter would actually hit quite a similar note to the good aspects of the GoT show in terms of being a more adult story, while Kelewan is a much more alien setting and seeing the Cho Ja (its been years, is it 2 words or 1?) realised would be fantastic. The night before the 'election' in the middle book in particular could be a really tense episode of television. I've talked myself into this, I really want an adaptation of that now.

The run-up to the election is perhaps the closest it gets to ASOIAF, it was one of the highlights of the series. The earlier scene in the arena (which we see from Pug's perspective in Magician) could be spectacular as well.

I think the Cho-ja were hyphenated and they could be another interesting aspect, something that would distinguish it from GoT.

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7 hours ago, williamjm said:

The run-up to the election is perhaps the closest it gets to ASOIAF, it was one of the highlights of the series. The earlier scene in the arena (which we see from Pug's perspective in Magician) could be spectacular as well.

I think the Cho-ja were hyphenated and they could be another interesting aspect, something that would distinguish it from GoT.

The arena is absolutely a stand out, getting the see it from the perspective of onlookers completely reframed that encounter and left me far more in awe of Pug than anything from his own perspective

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  • 3 weeks later...

Magician is interesting is that while it turns quite a few little bits and pieces on it's head (Pug's ancestry doesen't matter, the princess marries someone else, etc.) the fantasy meta has moved so far away it's not like most people would even notice :p 

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On 9/25/2018 at 10:02 AM, ljkeane said:

I'd agree with what both Derfel and Wilbur said. You could easily read Magician as a standalone work if you want but the Empire series is really good.

A bit of an aside but am I the only one who doesn't really care about books being made into tv series/films? I've already read the books, if I liked them they're almost always superior to the on screen version and if I didn't why would I want to watch a tv series about them?

I've read quite a bit of fantasy but haven't read ASOIAF or LOTR but Game of Thrones and The Lord of The Rings filmed are both better than anything I've ever read fantasy wise.  I've read Wheel of Time, The Black Company (Not all the way), First Law Trilogy, started Malazan, and tried numerous others and while fantasy is my favorite thing to read if it's adapted well I like it more as a visual medium.  Perhaps my imagination isn't as good as yours.

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Haven't read the whole thread, but I remember loving Magician a couple of decades ago.

But it and the rest of the Riftwar Saga felt too juvenile for me when reading them some years ago.

So IMO good entry level Fantasy, but would probably be rather boring if you have read lots of fantasy before.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/25/2018 at 2:27 PM, williamjm said:

...The only one of the later books that I thought was any good was Honored Enemy, which was  co-written by William Fortschen (who probably wrote most of it), I thought it was a good piece of military fantasy about a small squad of soldiers in hostile territory...

Based on your recommendation, I found a copy of Honored Enemy in audiobook format, and I have been listening to it out on my bike.  Your opinion was totally supported by my experience, and I found it to be very enjoyable.  Thank you!

The audio book actually came as a group of three books:  Honored Enemy, Murder in LaMut, and Jimmy the Hand, all read by Peter Joyce.  When Honored Enemy finished, I was miles out in the desert, and so I got about an hour into Murder in LaMut before getting back home.  I have been enjoying that book since then as well, despite the terrible joke of the name of one of the main characters.  Whatever editor let that one through either had a black sense of humor or no education in classical Scots ballads, as it is a major spoiler otherwise.

Anyways, thank you - I would never have delved into the deeps of the post-Empire books without the heads up.

 

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59 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Based on your recommendation, I found a copy of Honored Enemy in audiobook format, and I have been listening to it out on my bike.  Your opinion was totally supported by my experience, and I found it to be very enjoyable.  Thank you!

The audio book actually came as a group of three books:  Honored Enemy, Murder in LaMut, and Jimmy the Hand, all read by Peter Joyce.  When Honored Enemy finished, I was miles out in the desert, and so I got about an hour into Murder in LaMut before getting back home.  I have been enjoying that book since then as well, despite the terrible joke of the name of one of the main characters.  Whatever editor let that one through either had a black sense of humor or no education in classical Scots ballads, as it is a major spoiler otherwise.

Anyways, thank you - I would never have delved into the deeps of the post-Empire books without the heads up.

I'm glad you liked it :)

I did read Murder in LaMut as well, I seem to remember enjoying it although it hasn't really left a big impression.

I never read Jimmy The Hand, but I seem to remember there were complaints that it contradicted some of the things the early Riftwar books had told us about Jimmy's backstory.

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3 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Based on your recommendation, I found a copy of Honored Enemy in audiobook format, and I have been listening to it out on my bike.  Your opinion was totally supported by my experience, and I found it to be very enjoyable.  Thank you!

The audio book actually came as a group of three books:  Honored Enemy, Murder in LaMut, and Jimmy the Hand, all read by Peter Joyce.  When Honored Enemy finished, I was miles out in the desert, and so I got about an hour into Murder in LaMut before getting back home.  I have been enjoying that book since then as well, despite the terrible joke of the name of one of the main characters.  Whatever editor let that one through either had a black sense of humor or no education in classical Scots ballads, as it is a major spoiler otherwise.

Anyways, thank you - I would never have delved into the deeps of the post-Empire books without the heads up.

 

Worth noting that Raymond E. Feist didn't write a single word of those books: he came up with a one-line idea and approved them, but it was the individual authors (William Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg and S.M. Stirling) who wrote the actual text.

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16 hours ago, Werthead said:

Worth noting that Raymond E. Feist didn't write a single word of those books: he came up with a one-line idea and approved them, but it was the individual authors (William Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg and S.M. Stirling) who wrote the actual text.

I guess that makes Mikemia-Kelewan a shared universe sort of book setting?  Which is perfectly fine, it is just sad that Feist had so many bad experiences in life that kept him from writing the things he wanted to write, or rather, forced him to write stuff he wasn't very interested in.

So this morning's ride found me completing Murder in LaMut by Joel Rosenberg (thank you, Wert), and it was perfectly fine as a murder mystery set in Midkemia.  Sort of a larger English Country House murder mystery, as written to feature characters from a Glen Cook novel.  Easy to read, reasonable characterization, good plot, one terrible joke name, would recommend to anyone wanting some light reading in the genre.

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On 11/6/2018 at 10:57 AM, mactwist2 said:

I've read quite a bit of fantasy but haven't read ASOIAF or LOTR but Game of Thrones and The Lord of The Rings filmed are both better than anything I've ever read fantasy wise.  I've read Wheel of Time, The Black Company (Not all the way), First Law Trilogy, started Malazan, and tried numerous others and while fantasy is my favorite thing to read if it's adapted well I like it more as a visual medium.  Perhaps my imagination isn't as good as yours.

Don’t get me started on the huge problems with the LOTR film trilogy.  I own all the extended editions but man they had problems.

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4 hours ago, Wilbur said:

I guess that makes Mikemia-Kelewan a shared universe sort of book setting?  Which is perfectly fine, it is just sad that Feist had so many bad experiences in life that kept him from writing the things he wanted to write, or rather, forced him to write stuff he wasn't very interested in.

Yes. The setting wasn't even created by Feist, it was created by Steve Abrams in the mid-1970s, then Janny Wurts helped him co-write the most critically-lauded part of the series.

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