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These posts mostly relate to books I am reading or series I am collecting to read in order (I tend to collect the series and then read it in one block). You can see a see a list of the books I am currently seeking, as well as a list of all the books I've bothered to catalog if you're interested.


Sat, 15 Nov 2008


The Riftwar Series

    This series follows to young kids who grow up in a rural castle on the edge of an empire. Pug ends up being the greatest Magician to ever live, and Thomas ends up being merged with an ancient being of massive power. Its a good series, even if people accuse it of being steeped in cliche.

    YearTitle
    1982Magician (later sold as Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master)
    1985Silverthorn
    1986A Darkness at Sethanon


    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)

posted at: 14:39 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


A Darkness at Sethanon




    ISBN: 0553263285
    LibraryThing
    		This book took longer to read that I would have liked, because I have been busy with other things. Its a good book though, and a fine conclusion to the Riftwar Series. I liked this book a lot, although I do think that Magician (Apprentice and Master) was a better book.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)


posted at: 14:33 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


Sun, 26 Oct 2008


Silverthorn




    ISBN: 0553270540
    LibraryThing
    		The characters of the Magician Books battle a new enemy in this book. The book centers around Prince Arthura's poisoned wife and the quest to find the cure. There seems to have been some criticism of this book for being a fantasy cliche (something which people seem to say about a lot of Feist's books), but that's a pretty easy accusation to make with fantasy works -- they all seem to have the same basic them. I guess that's what a genre is -- a shared theme. The book is well written and quite readable.

    Wikipedia page on Silverthorn has this rather startling accusation to make:

    Since its release, the term 'Silverthorn' has been adopted to describe any book in a series (although typically the middle book of a trilogy) that has served little purpose other than to set up a climax in the final book. This term can also be applied to a similar phenomenon in film or television series. This style of book typically has little overall substance, and is often quite poor when compared to the other books in the series.


    That's a pretty unfair thing to say. This book has a story that stands on its own, and progresses the plot of the overall series as well. If I was to make the "does little but setup the next book in the series" accusation, I would point the finger at Tilley's First Family, which does nothing apart from setup Iron Master.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)


posted at: 14:12 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


Thu, 16 Oct 2008


Magician: Master




    ISBN: 0553564935
    LibraryThing
    		Perhaps it would have been better if Feist had kept Magician all as one book. In the first book you hear of Guy (a bad guy!) briefly, and then nothing more. Then, hundreds of pages later in the second book he comes up again as a major plot element. If you haven't recently read the first book, then you are at a disadvantage.

    Apart from that, this is a good book that I would have preferred to read faster. Unfortunately work has kept me unusually busy recently, so this one took a while to read.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)


posted at: 14:57 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


Sun, 12 Oct 2008


Magician: Apprentice




    ISBN: 0553564943
    LibraryThing
    		This is the reworked version of Magician, although its split into two books and there is some content that was dropped as part of the editing process for the original version. This version was developed for the tenth anniversary of the original publication. I read the original version as a kid and was so proud of myself when it finished it -- it was by far the longest book I had ever read at the time.

    I've seen people online complain that this book is just a big ball of cliche. There are dwarves, wizards with funny hats, elves, and so on. But there are also new ideas here, such as alien invaders in a fantasy novel and so on. Overall I think the cliches don't get in the way and are largely used a sort of short hand... Feist doesn't need to explain what a dwarf is, so he can skip that bit and get on with telling the story.

    After rereading this as an adult, I still really like this book.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)


posted at: 19:30 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


Sat, 28 Jun 2008


Raymond E Feist's Serpentwar Saga

    (I went book shopping in Canberra yesterday).

    CYearTitleNotes
    1994Shadow of a Dark QueenStored in Australia (Box 1). Purchased from a garage sale
    1995Rise of a Merchant Prince
    1997Rage of a Demon KingStored in Australia (Box 1). Purchased from a garage sale
    1998Shards of a Broken Crown


    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)

posted at: 17:06 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry


Raymond E Feist's Empire Trilogy

    (I went book shopping in Canberra yesterday).

    CYearTitleNotes
    1987Daughter of the EmpireStored in Australia (Box 1). Purchased from a garage sale
    1990Servant of the EmpireStored in Australia (Box 1). Purchased from a garage sale
    1997Mistress of the Empire


    Tags for this post: book(S) Raymond_E_Feist(S)

posted at: 17:06 | path: /book/Raymond_E_Feist | permanent link to this entry
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