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

[theinquisitor.livejournal.com]

Did you read the 'author's extended edition' version? 50,000 extra words the editors couldn't make him cut anymore, now he was famous.

Yeah...

(FWIW, I think the book is worth reading, as some of his later books are rather good, and it's acceptable, as well as being useful background. The Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire spin-offs, meanwhile, I think are excellent - I'd read them next...)