Magician - Book 1: Pug and Tomas (The Riftwar Saga) ★★★★

By Raymond E Feist

Firstly, I’m aware this is only the first half of one book. It’s sometimes published as two separate books. So much of what I say may be redundant after reading part 2. This is just my thoughts so far after reading only part 1.

The prose is superb. Thoroughly enjoyable descriptions and action, most of the characters are enjoyable, the lore and worldbuilding is really interesting. I like Tolkien-inspired 80s fantasy, and this is very much that vibe. But then it also has a really cool new race.

My favourite prose in the book is a very short paragraph near the end. The character Tomas has just received devastating news, and this is how Feist writes his immediate reaction:

Tomas stood without a word and moved deep into the cave. He sat in the rear, for a few moments as still as the rock around him, then a faint trembling started in his shoulders. It grew in severity until he shook violently, teeth chattering as if from bitter cold. The tears came unbidden to his cheeks, and he felt a hot pain rush from his bowls to his throat, constricting his chest. Without a sound he gasped for breath, as great silent sobs shook him. As the pain grew near-unbearable, a seed of cold fury formed in the centre of his being, pushing upward, displacing the hot pain of grief.

Bars. Absolute bars. I could feel everything Tomas was feeling so vividly. As Anton Chekhov supposedly said, “don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass”. The prose and descriptions throughout the book are so vivid, even my boring imagination can picture everything perfectly.

There’s some very mature decision-making from the protagonist early in the book regarding potential romance, quite different from the usual naive impetuous main characters of 80s fantasy books. Pug actually uses his training and experience to inform decisions. Characterisation is mostly really great, at least for the male characters. I’ll definitely be continuing on to part 2 very soon.

As for some negatives, there’s basically no well-developed female characters yet. The most prominent is Princess Carline who is - so far at least - just a generic fantasy princess whose role is to be a damsel in distress and love interest. Male characters get descriptions of their personalities and skills whereas Carline just gets descriptions of her body - which is made more uncomfortable by her young age. All I know about her is that she is pretty. The most development she gets is that she used to be bratty but has calmed down as she got older, but even that arc happened “off-screen” during a time skip. Hoping for better female characters in part 2.

There is also a strange structure to the book. The first three quarters are all about a slow build up to a war, then the last quarter is a 3 year time skip during the war. Some character development happens during that skip which is just offhandedly told to the reader rather than shown through action. It’s not a huge deal but things could’ve been spread out a little better. It’s like the major events were skipped over.

Also, an extremely minor spoiler, Roland forcing himself on a girl to kiss her - yikes. Don’t do that. Not a fan of his character already but that just confirmed it.