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We’d get one, sometimes several, very long chapters from one POV without hearing anything from the other protagonists. My problem was more with the pacing and the POV changes than with the story or content itself. In the second part, we finally get to learn more about the Tsurani, sometimes even from their own point of view. At the beginning of the second part, the war between Midkemia (Pug and Tomas’s home world) and the invading Tsurani has been going on for five years.
#Raymond feist how to#
It was the second half, the one that was new to me, that dragged on…įeist made some interesting decisions about how to tell this story. I enjoyed the writing style and actually breezed through the first half of Magician very quickly. You never get the feeling that there is any real danger for our protagonists but that doesn’t mean the more thrilling scenes were boring. Whenever they encounter trouble, something or someone conveniently appears and saves the day. It’s your basic Tolkienesque quest story and I was happy to be in it. Their journey leads them into dwarven caves, over mountains and over sea. They even go on a quest with a group of people – among them a dwarf lord and an Aragorn-like master of the hunt. Following Pug and Tomas as boys was a charming experience, not only because everything is so quaint, but because I knew exactly what I was going to get.
I had read it before, although many years ago, and I only remembered a few key scenes. While it does tell one larger story – that of the war mentioned above – it clearly feels like two books.
I understand why this book was split in two by certain publishers. We soon learn that a people from somewhere else is invading the country and this starts a very, very, VERY long war. What really kicks the story off, however, is the arrival of a strange ship at the coast. But we, well-read in fantasy as we are, know that Pug has great powers slumbering deep inside him and is destined for Great Things. Both boys dream of becoming great warriors in the military and conquering the heart of a beautiful princess – maybe even their own princess Carline, who knows? But, as you can expect, the ceremony arrives and everyone is chosen except for Pug, who is then picked by Kulgan, the magician, almost like he’s taking pity on him. They are looking forward to the annual choosing ceremony with trepidation, because this will decide their future. Pug and Tomas are two teenage boys who live in Crydee, where there is a Lord, a magician, a priest, and a princess. I was once an orphaned kitchen boy, with no family and no prospects, but I am destined to become a master magician… I longed to train as a warrior and fight alongside our duke like my foster-brother, but when the time came, I was not offered that choice. War had come to the Kingdom of the Isles, and in the years that followed it would scatter my friends across the world.
The world had changed even before I discovered the foreign ship wrecked on the shore below Crydee Castle, but it was the harbinger of the chaos and death that was coming to our door. Pug danced along the edges of the rocks, his feet finding scant purchase as he made his way among the tide pools. Those Tolkien-inspired fantasies have some real problems… The experience was both wonderful and a great reminder of why SFF if such a brilliant genre these days. To clarify, depending on which edition of the book you pick up, it is sold in either one or two volumes. As I had only read the first half – Magician: Apprentice – previously, I thought this would be a good chance to re-read that part and then go straight for the second. I picked this book up late in April when it was chosen as a Sword and Laser book club pick.
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