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Magician

Magician

List Price: $19.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Masterfully Written
Review: This book was simply amazing. At times it felt like I was reading one of the Lord of the Rings books but besides that everything seemed creative and original. Feist threw many very good ideas together in the book. He did a good job in making everything nice and understandable. While I was reading the book I felt like I was actually connecting with the characters. If you like fiction books then picking this up would be no mistake.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A classic story, but awkward writing.
Review: "Magician," Feist's debut novel, is widely revered as a fantasy classic. However, from a more detailed vantage, it remains only a classic story as the mediocre prose wilts under close reading.

The plot of young boys like Pug and Tomas rising to their fanciful childhood aspirations of great warriors and sorcerers has been done before and since, but Feist fills his story with poignant details that make the character's growths seem real. The world of Midkemia comes alive with rich detail and history, the creation of Feist and a group of role playing gamer friends in the late 1970s. (To his credit, Feist has always acknowledged "The Friday Nighters" for their role in building Midkemia). Several of the supporting characters, including Arutha, Jimmy, and Amos Trask, are so well drawn that they nearly eclipse the two main characters. The political machinations in the Kingdom, the siege of Crydee, Trask's ship voyages, and Pug's growth as a magician all highlight the swiftly paced plot.

In the preface to the 10th Anniversary "Author's Preferred Edition," Feist states that as a new author, he wrote "Magician" with no idea of traditional novel length and scope of characters. This raw approach provides some of the novel's faults, including the awkward length, but it also gives the story a naive charm as it works to a conclusion on its own pace. Feist also insists that he is not a great writer but rather a skilled storyteller, and "Magician" succeeds because it is a "ripping yarn;" an exciting story. If read quickly, the story still shines, but upon examination Feist's prose wears thin, including clumsy phrasing, passive voice, wooden dialog, and abrupt point of view shifts in the same scene. If he were spinning this tale around a campfire, the "ripping yarn" itself would supercede the words. However, on a written page, a careful reader stumbles over the mediocre writing.

"Magician" remains an entertaining story for a quick read, but the rough prose keeps it from true classic status.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A classic story, but awkward writing.
Review: "Magician," Feist's debut novel, is widely revered as a fantasy classic. However, from a more detailed vantage, it remains only a classic story as the mediocre prose wilts under close reading.

The plot of young boys like Pug and Tomas rising to their fanciful childhood aspirations of great warriors and sorcerers has been done before and since, but Feist fills his story with poignant details that make the character's growths seem real. The world of Midkemia comes alive with rich detail and history, the creation of Feist and a group of role playing gamer friends in the late 1970s. (To his credit, Feist has always acknowledged "The Friday Nighters" for their role in building Midkemia). Several of the supporting characters, including Arutha, Jimmy, and Amos Trask, are so well drawn that they nearly eclipse the two main characters. The political machinations in the Kingdom, the siege of Crydee, Trask's ship voyages, and Pug's growth as a magician all highlight the swiftly paced plot.

In the preface to the 10th Anniversary "Author's Preferred Edition," Feist states that as a new author, he wrote "Magician" with no idea of traditional novel length and scope of characters. This raw approach provides some of the novel's faults, including the awkward length, but it also gives the story a naive charm as it works to a conclusion on its own pace. Feist also insists that he is not a great writer but rather a skilled storyteller, and "Magician" succeeds because it is a "ripping yarn;" an exciting story. If read quickly, the story still shines, but upon examination Feist's prose wears thin, including clumsy phrasing, passive voice, wooden dialog, and abrupt point of view shifts in the same scene. If he were spinning this tale around a campfire, the "ripping yarn" itself would supercede the words. However, on a written page, a careful reader stumbles over the mediocre writing.

"Magician" remains an entertaining story for a quick read, but the rough prose keeps it from true classic status.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A classic story, but awkward writing.
Review: "Magician," Feist's debut novel, is widely revered as a fantasy classic. However, from a more detailed vantage, it remains only a classic story as the mediocre prose wilts under close reading.

The plot of young boys like Pug and Tomas rising to their fanciful childhood aspirations of great warriors and sorcerers has been done before and since, but Feist fills his story with poignant details that make the character's growths seem real. The world of Midkemia comes alive with rich detail and history, the creation of Feist and a group of role playing gamer friends in the late 1970s. (To his credit, Feist has always acknowledged "The Friday Nighters" for their role in building Midkemia). Several of the supporting characters, including Arutha, Jimmy, and Amos Trask, are so well drawn that they nearly eclipse the two main characters. The political machinations in the Kingdom, the siege of Crydee, Trask's ship voyages, and Pug's growth as a magician all highlight the swiftly paced plot.

In the preface to the 10th Anniversary "Author's Preferred Edition," Feist states that as a new author, he wrote "Magician" with no idea of traditional novel length and scope of characters. This raw approach provides some of the novel's faults, including the awkward length, but it also gives the story a naive charm as it works to a conclusion on its own pace. Feist also insists that he is not a great writer but rather a skilled storyteller, and "Magician" succeeds because it is a "ripping yarn;" an exciting story. If read quickly, the story still shines, but upon examination Feist's prose wears thin, including clumsy phrasing, passive voice, wooden dialog, and abrupt point of view shifts in the same scene. If he were spinning this tale around a campfire, the "ripping yarn" itself would supercede the words. However, on a written page, a careful reader stumbles over the mediocre writing.

"Magician" remains an entertaining story for a quick read, but the rough prose keeps it from true classic status.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Every bit as good as Lord of the Rings
Review: 'Magician and The Riftwar Saga' are among the greatest works of fantasy/science fiction ever.
Yes, I believe Raymond E Feist is just as good as Tolkien!
It is filled with great new ideas, and while he has in his books some of the older concepts from Tolkien and Lewis - eg Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Elvandar and Mc Mordain Cadel, which bear similarities to places and peoples in the older works, he has reworked them with great creativity into something new and exciting. in the some way that Shakespeare's works took concepts from older balladeers and authors.

There are new concepts such as the Valheru (the Dragon Lords) , the Tsurani , the Rift , the Empire of Great Kesh and new types of magic. What emerges is a great and engaging epic that matches up every bit to Lord of the Rings.

Feist's advanced understandings on magic, warcraft, the nature of world and it's peoples, and its internal politics is astounding. It is jam packed with energy and is somewhat faster moving than Tolkien.

I also like Feist's gentler concept of dragons, far more than Tolkien's (the pet firedrake Fantus is just great) I love reading about all the Princes, Dukes, Earls, Squires, Knight-Marshals etc in the Kingdom, as I similarly enjoy the stranger politics of Tsuranuanni (which is based of Japan/Korea as the Kingdom is on Europe/North America)
With it's system of honor and Great Families, the Emperor, the Warlord, the Great Ones, and the different shifting alliances and parties such as the Blue Wheel Party , the War Party , the Party for Progress etc.

I also think the characters are nicely developed. I finished the book wanting more of Thomas, Pug, Carline (one of my favourites), Arutha, Anita, Amos Trask, Gardan etc, which are available in the subsequent Midkemia/Kelewan books. Feist explores (albeit in a tasteful way) love and sensuality more than does Tolkien.

And Feist's worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan are also well developed, you'll really find yourself lost in these intricate lands.
Certainly Magician and it's sequels are immense in scope in creating a vast world of magic,war,adventure,love,hate and political intrigue

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Read it - you won't be sorry!
Review: Feist has the ability to create a world and characters so real you could really believe them to exist. From the start he captures your sympathy for Pug, and the plot is superb. Also, the book steers away from stereotypical endings and happenings, so you're frequently suprised! Really, do read this book. It was his first and, I really think, his best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a CLASSIC you just gotta have!
Review: Fiest's Series of sci-fi books are the best thing that anyone has ever written. Everytime I go to the bookstore i search for new novels out. Fiest brought to life the characters in his book and made them seem real. The plot dragged you inside and made it seem as if you were really involved in the happenings. You feel the pain, the agony, the excitement, and the rush. You feel like your the main character and you have the power of a magician. Fiest truly is a superior writer. I have been addicted to his works for many years and strive to feel that same feeling flowing inside me when I read and re-read his riftwar saga. I truly felt I was involved in his books for even I have caught myself speaking as if I was Pug myself on top of the stadium preparing to use the magic that I have been taught. A truly excellent most have book to read.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: yet another fantasy book...
Review: I approached this book with, well, great expectations. A few minutes after finishing it I said "Well! Wow!". However, as time goes by, I cannot stop thinking that actually the book is not so good. It is rather like a first attempt of the author to write fantasy. Not only is it full of stereotypes (maybe this is a book who generated these stereotypes, I don't know). The characters are so thin that after a few weeks I have forgotten all of them. They are far from having the precise contours of Tolkien's heroes. They are far from having the depth of Ursula le Guin's characters. Even in the Wheel of Time cycle one could find heroes that are better realised than these ones. The story itself? Well, not big deal. Again, the stereotype of a stranger that tries to invade, and intestine plottings to add some (watery) thrill. A lot of scenes are there only to help the book growing thick. All in all, an easy book: easy to read and easy to forget.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unputdownable!!!!
Review: I dont think I ate for the three days that I read this book! It's probably a good job it wasn't a few thousand pages long or I might have died trying to finish it! I have to say that nothing in the realms of phantasy literature has ever come close to it and I have reade a few books!! I think if I had to be one character from all the books I have ever read it would have to be Tomas... He's one one mean mother and he gets the girl at the end of the day(even if she is a few hundred years old!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Feist's worlds will grab you, but you won't mind at all...
Review: I first read this book as a selection from the SciFi bookclub about 12 years ago...I still love it and go reread it about every 2-3 years. Feist makes characters that you care about deeply, which makes every page suck you into his incredible worlds of Midkemia and Kelewen. Well worth the price and definitely the effort!!


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