Raymond Feist

 

Here is another guest review, of a series Bjorn and I both love. Enjoy.

The Riftwar Saga

There is a certain elegant beauty in simplicity. Many authors make their mark through startling and creative new concepts. Others claim their fame through a single, beautifully developed character or environment. A few fantasy authors, however, have pursued that simple elegance, spinning common tales in subtle colors and achieving a connection with the reader's biggest visions and deepest hopes. Nobody needs a list of these, but anybody who fails to consider Raymond Feist should know of their possible mistake.

Feist's most stunning idea in this series is the rift after which the Saga is named, a magical portal between two worlds. It is neither new nor especially interesting on its own. He works with a cast of characters who are, for the most part, interchangeable with a host of other characters from other authors. The two worlds he reveals are well developed and interesting to explore, merging recognizable aspects of a great many Earth societies. His true achievement, however, is not in the creation of the palette of characters or the canvas of setting - it is in the painting.

The Riftwar Saga originally came in three volumes: Magician, Silverthorn, and Darkness at Sethanon. A recent edition added some material to Magician, splitting it into two books. The first is set on a standard fantasy world and establishes the Riftwar between worlds. The second takes us to the "enemy" world and takes away any hope of finding a true enemy in the conflict. The third novel finds the main characters of the first set either grown up or dead, in a universe which has gotten far larger much too fast. The final volume takes to the abstract in a way that is beautiful for the accepting, and perhaps a bit eccentric for the reality crunchers among us. Still, who could go three books and leave the fourth unfinished?

To say more would be to say too much. If you read the first, you will read the fourth, stepping easily through a simple and streamlined tale.
 

Don Quixote