Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Temporary Hiatus

Hi all,

I have decided to take a temporary break from my blog to focus more on my next novel, Rise of the Necromancer. The progress has become slower than I would like lately and I want to get back on track with Book 2 of The Magician Rebellion before resuming the blog.

In the meanwhile I am also working on a special multimedia promotion for my first novel, Rogue Magician. For now I am being a little hush-hush on what it will be exactly, but I think it will be something that people will enjoy.

With any luck I will have new reviews and stories back up on the blog within a month or so and hope to see you then.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Magician: Apprentice Review

            For my first book review, I chose a book that is three decades old (technically, it’s three decades since the original book, Magician, but that one is much harder to find now), but one that I discovered recently and have found it to be a very entertaining series. Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E Feist is the first volume in the four part Rift War Saga and is also the first book in a much larger overall series spanning more than thirty books and still growing.
            Magician: Apprentice focuses on Pug, a young orphan boy who becomes the apprentice to a master magician, but finds that he has little aptitude for the magical arts. Pug is the main character of the series, but he is surrounded by an interesting cast of characters including his best friend Tomas, Squire Roland, Prince Arutha, and Pug’s love interest, the headstrong Princess Carline. At first these characters appear as secondary characters to Pug’s adventures, but about halfway through there is a shift in the story as they face an invasion by the Tsurani, a noble race of off-worlders determined to take over the world and these secondary characters come to the forefront of the story. At first, I was miffed, because I wanted to get back to Pug’s story, but I begrudgingly grew to enjoy these other characters just as much.
            Up to this point, I have given you very little information beyond what you could get off of the back cover and that is intentional, because I don’t want to ruin any of the surprise or suspense in this well-crafted story for you. There is nothing I hate more than having an interesting story or plot twist ruined for me and I assume that you feel the same way.
Raymond E Feist develops an intricate world filled with elves, dwarves, magic and adventure. His writing style is a brilliant balance of description and action that immerses the reader the world of Midkemia while still driving the story along. In many ways it reminds me of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series and that is not a bad thing. However, one thing that I really enjoy about this book that is a departure from Tolkien’s middle-earth and something that I try to incorporate into my own writing is that although there is a conflict between the races of Midkemia and the Tsurani no one is inherently evil (except, perhaps, for the dark elves and goblins, but their intentions are never made clear). There are people who have their own agendas and are in opposition to the heroes, to be sure, but no one is inherently evil in that they just want to destroy the world. Even the Tsurani who want to take over the world have the best of intentions believing that their way of life is superior to Midkemia’s “savages.”
The one possible drawback is that if you read Magician: Apprentice, then you will need to read the follow-up Magician: Master as well to get the feeling of the complete story. Originally the two books were one book titled Magician and was a shortened combination of these two books. For this reason the first book just kind of ends, but the second book has a very satisfying conclusion. Of course, I usually prefer trilogies and series to stand alone titles, so this did not bother me at all.
Overall, I highly recommend Magician: Apprentice to anyone looking for an excellent fantasy read with a classic feel. The world of Midkemia is detailed and lends itself well to the engaging storyline. The characters are likeable and developed so that even the minor characters feel like they have a life beyond the limits of their place in the story.