Magician, Raymond E. Feist

[jack]

This is relatively famous, and I finally read most of it. In this case it unashamedly does rip off Tolkien; the elves are even named in Sindarin. In fact, what it is is the background for a roleplaying campaign; it was originally conceived as that, and later transformed into fiction, and remains a most excellent background. There's an interesting variety of cultures, on small and large scale, interesting local politics, and several different metaphysical collisions going on at once.

Indeed, almost too many: when you read about the nameless enemy who consumed the entire worlds the current populations are descended from refugees from, you forget about the ancient dragon-lords who ruled as near-gods, and so on. But it definitely filled me with a desire to find out what actually had happened.

The characters are alright, a little generic, but generally pleasant to read about. Unfortunately, actually reading the book didn't really interest me, I ended up just skimming ahead to get a plot summary.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I've read Magician! (Hah, this is what happens when you put links to your livejournal on facebook - strange people invade your LJ). I read the extended version and really liked it, mind you, I was somewhere around 15 at the time which I think helps with books like this. Like Harry Potter - if you read the first one when you were 11, you probably loved it, if not, you don't see it in the same way.

I didn't think at all about the worlds being stolen - I didn't know anything about fantasy roleplay at the time, though, which was probably why. I rather liked both Pug and Tomas (though mostly Pug) and felt that Pug's power came at a price, which was good.

Hmm, this has reminded me of how long it's been since I've read good fantasy ... time, time, where does it go? Oh yes - to Nano. That's right. That's what I should be doing instead of leaving a comment here - under 2000 to go!

--Eudoxia