I was about 11 years old when I first picked up a copy of Magician: Apprentice, back in the late 80’s. I was immediately hooked, and continued to read Feist’s work throughout high school and college. While I enjoy his more recent works, they don’t come close to the experience that the Riftwar Saga was. Maybe its just because I’m not a kid anymore, but I am curious if there are other Feist fans out there who feel the same way.
Has anyone read the series in childhood and again in (relative) adulthood? Do you recommend doing so, or was the experience lacking compared to your youth?
Do you think Feist’s work could be applied to the screen? Does anyone know of any plans to do so?
Are there Dopers out there who play or have played the spin-off games? What do you think of them?
I have read Riftwar twice and enjoyed it immensely both times. I tried to read some of the follow-up stuff and never got through any of it. I think that he tried a bit too hard to expound on some of the glories of the more popular characters.
I have never played any of the games.
My favorite parts of the story are when Pug/Milamber takes on the Academy and all of the sections with Jimmy the Hand.
I would also like to recommend Faerie Tale by Feist. It is a contemporary novel with a really cool premise which involves fantasy and legend. Very cool.
I’m pretty sure I have a copy of Faerie Tale lying around, but I have yet to read it.
I’ve played a shareware game, but I can’t remember much about it, other than it didn’t keep my interests. There was a MUD or two, but I believe they were closed when Feist’s “official” interests moved onto the scene.
With all of the attention (and $$) being payed to The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter phenomenon, I can’t help but think that there is enough of a market for a screen adaptation of the Riftwar, but I have my doubts as to how good it would end up being.
I’d really really enjoy a well-done effort though, so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.
I enjoyed the Valerhu sub-plot and the cultural implications of the rift. Jimmy the Hand and my affection for the character was pretty much the only reason why I stuck with the later books.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Feist flirt with the concept of a homosexual character in one of his later Krondorian books. The character’s name and which book escapes me at the moment, but it was refreshing nonetheless. I’ll admit that I had plenty of baby-dyke crushes on the tomboyish female characters in Feist’s stories, but alas…they always end up with boys instead of eachother.
I liked the Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire books, that also tie in with the whole Riftworld saga. (being set on the other “world”)
Janny Wurts being the author of these ones.
Interesting collaboration.
I have read the entire Feist collection at least once a year for the last 15 or so years. They are hands down my favorite thing to read. There are even 3 or 4 more books coming out.I cant wait!!!
I honestly dont think I could pick a favorite, the only one I had any problems with at all was Krondor the assasins, it was the one that the video game was based on and it seemed too linear.
When I was younger I always wanted to direct a film version of the books, but there is way to much to make into a movie. Cutting anything out would be a sin in my eyes, maybe a high quality animated series would be cool. But how many movies would it take to capture just the first 2 books.
I think one of the biggest reasons his books are so good, at least IMO, is that the world was created as a role playing game world. With somehting like that to work with, he had lots of ideas and concepts at his disposal.
Great. Here I am minding my own business and halfway through “The King’s Buccaneer” and now I gotta go and dig through all the boxes in the garage (don’t ask) to find the rest of my Feist collection.
If I wind up starting a thread asking about GLBT fantasy characters I am blaming everybody above this post.
Loved the series. I also re-read it usually about once a year. However, I didn’t like most of the Krondor:Whatever series. They all seemed to be like reading a gaming hint book. And the last two books of the Serpentwar series were a bit mystical for me. I’ll have to say that probably my favorite book was The Merchant Prince, which was the second book in that series. Great stuff. I think that the Riftwar books could easily be made into a movie. Doubt they ever will be, but could be.
I liked the books, but it always seemed to me that they were a little too heavily RPG-ish. I mean, it’s refreshing every once in a while to not know a character’s class instantly upon being introduced. I mean, you’d need a seriously flexible DM to create an Aragorn or Samwise character, but most of the characters in the Riftwar play staight to the D&D archetype of their class.
flickering lightbulb of vague familiarity Ok, that settles it…now I have to find a copy and read it again. I was a wee tot when I read it, so I’m sure I missed some of the subtleties. I’d also be interested in reading the source, if you happen to have it handy.
[quote]
Cutting anything out would be a sin in my eyes, maybe a high quality animated series would be cool./
[quote]
I agree. I think an animated attempt could be quite rich. There are so many intense visuals described, even an epic level comic book, something like ElfQuest, would open doors to some very cool illustrations.
I did the same exact thing…read the riftwar saga when I was 15, and have now picked it up again (I’m 32 now). Really good. Still good.
In fact after a very long hiatus from sci-fi/fantasy in general, I’m getting more and more into it again. I’m reading this “Age of Unreason” series by Gregory Keyes right now that’s fantastic.
I know that this thread is more in tune with those who actually liked the series, so I’ll keep my comments short, polite and full of chocolatey goodness.
Without the chocolate.
Because I’m on a diet, that’s why.
Anyway, I tried reading the series a few years back (maybe one, possibly two… four, actually, now that I think on it) and I ended up completely frustrated because of Feist’s lack of detail. I think the most annoying portion (and if I don’t get this entirely correct, it’s because I don’t have the book sitting in front of me) is when Pug is in that magical cocoon of his, learning that second brand of strange magic.
But that’s it. Once he’s out of the cocoon, he knows it all. It’s like Feist (well, to me, at any rate) decided that he didn’t want to actually spend time writing a novel (or the details to make it interesting)–he just wanted to stretch a short story long enough so that someone would mistake it for a series.
I think he created a nifty framework, but the detail just wasn’t there. For me, at least.
But then… maybe I’ll give it a go again. Some of you seemed to really enjoy it, so it might be worth another try.
In hindsight, I have to admit that the Riftwar books appealed to me precisely because they were such an obvious ripoff of Tolkien and fantasy roleplaying–basically a boys’ adventure story set in Middle-Earth with a dash of Oriental Adventures. Yes, it was gamer fiction, but unlike most of its ilk it was highly readable, written with panache, humor and a fairly keen ear for dialogue and pacing.
However, it sort of stretched credibility a bit (if that expression has any place in fantasy fiction) to have Pug and Tomas both acquire godlike powers by the end of the second book. This also reminded me strongly of more than one RPG I’ve played in, where the player characters all quickly achieved superhuman status due to an excessively generous Game Master. I was duly impressed by Feist’s ability to keep the series going by shifting the focus to the secondary characters. For whatever reason, I started to drift away from the books around the time Arutha died, though I seem to recall reading most of the Serpentwar Saga and thinking it was pretty good. I’ve never really felt the need to go out of my way to pick up any of the computer games, though.
I find it a bit funny that “Are Kulgan and Meecham a gay couple?” is apparently a “Frequently Asked Question.” Because, you know, that would certainly be among the top ten questions I’d want to ask about the series. (Shades of T.H. White…)
Oh, and… Mr. Feist? About Macros the Black…I’m sorry, he was Merlin, don’t even try to backpedal out of that implication.
While the world of Midkemia was developed by the gaming group Ray was in, the novels are not adventures of their group. They are set several hundred years before whatever adventures their DMs ran.
If you want to really get information, go here to sign up for the Feistfans mailing list. Ray participates and there are all kinds of discussions, about his books and other things.
Yes! Greg Keyes is great! He has a new one out that I haven’t read yet called The Briar King (Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 1). Must go obtain this…
I’m a big Ray Feist fan too. I read them all so long ago, I have no idea if they’d stand up to a re-read as an adult. And Meecham and Kulgan were a couple? I totally missed that… then again I was like 13 when I read them.
I think the little escapist in me really enjoys the indulgent approach that Feist uses. He certainly throws a lot of conflict and reward at his characters, but that does have a tendancy to make a good story.
