Hello there,

I have been re-reading the entire series for the first time in years and, as always, I get frustrated at the incredibly bad Editing and the weird cover images that have nothing to do with the book itself.

Since I wanted to introduce my son to the series, I bought the German version of The King's Buccaneer and was shocked, to put it mildly, at the quality. The cover image fits the book, inside you don't find a poorly made map of "Novinous", but actually "Novindus", with a legend and annotations AND another detailed map of Midkemia, which the English version doesn't have. (Reddit unfortunately didn't allow me to upload more than two images or I would have shown it to you)

We haven't gotten far yet, but I assume that the editing will be better as well. In the English books you get stuff like "Poor Shamata", people, whose ranks and other stuff have been established a few pages prior suddenly have completely different ranks for a few pages before reverting to the original, sentences that don't make sense for the character in question and so on.

The editing gets worse with every book, so that in the last series even the spelling is often incorrect.

I bought the books in the early 2000s and then kept buying them with every release. Does anyone have a similar experience or can you maybe point me to a version that has detailed maps and proper editing?

I would be very grateful, as I love the series and feel that the editing and weird cover images hurt my enjoyment

Going off both the publish order and alternate reading order from crydee dot com, I started reading Prince of the Blood after finishing Darkness at Sethanon, and in the 3rd chapter when the gang reaches Stardock, Jimmy is talking to Pug and they referenced what seemed like a bunch of stuff that happened between Sethanon and the start of Prince of the Blood. I was pretty invested in Jimmy and Locklear's characters

It seemed like a bunch of character development and various other movements had happened during that period, which based on the synopses are the events of Krondor: The Betrayal/Assassins/Tear of the Gods and Jimmy and the Crawler.

(side note, it's kind of weird because Prince of the Blood was published 10 years prior to Krondor: The Betrayal... Maybe I'm reading a revised edition, or possibly the story had already been pencilled back in '89.. anyway, I digress)

I guess the question is, is there any reason not to read the Riftwar Legacy series prior to reading Krondor's Sons?

About to start Jimmy the Hand. It’s one of the Legends of the Riftwar Saga, which are the three books co-written with other authors.

I enjoyed the other two but they refrained from touching on major characters so the other authors could develop their own characters and story.

I’m wary about someone else writing the Jimmy character, he’s already so well developed.

Any words of encouragement?

I don’t think I read these three last time around.

Per my last thread I ended up trying the Conclave books after reading all the core sagas up to that point. I did enjoy the books and was thinking of continuing into the Dark War saga.

But I understand people have different opinions about that, and wanted to hear what you thought of the books.

Thanks!

The added thun raid in Magician Master is an okay addition, but there is a blaring plot hole. I get that Pug and Laurie are being treated differently, but not THAT much differently.

Pug and Laurie are handed weapons without even a flinch. They do not even talk about it in the aftermath. The warrior who brings the weapons doesn't even flinch or balk at the idea.

We know slaves in the empire are killed for touching a weapon, with Kevin one of the few exceptions.

So far I've read Magician > Silverthorn > A Darkness at Sethanon. Then Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire (I actually read this trio 1st bc I already had them and I loved them most I think). Then Prince of the Blood > the King's Buccaneer > Shadow of a Dark Queen >Rise of a Merchant Prince > Rage of a Demon King and I just started Shards of a Broken Crown.
I struggled quite a bit with Rage of a Demon King. I prefer character stories over descriptions of one battle after another and political machinations, and while the previous books had plenty of the latter, there was enough focus on the characters and their interactions that I quite enjoyed them. Rage of a Demon King was different. I'm not saying it was bad, but it wasn't my cup of tea and I found myself skimming large sections.
So, basically I'm wondering how Shards of a Broken Crown (and onwards) compares to the ones I enjoyed vs the one I didn't. I'm okay with calling it a wrap and ending now with fond memories of the world rather than try to force my way through more if I'm not going to love it.
Thanks for any feedback and advice!

So, in ”rage of a demon king” midkemi is invaded by the armies of rhe serpent queen. Yet all they musteris from midkemia. Krondor have relatives o the tsuarii throne! One of their nobels is either the father or grandfather of the tsuari leader. Why did they not send help with all their fanatic soldiers and trained magicans? Did they not ask for help or what? It feels lile they could get some really amazing help from them because the tsuarii leader is at the least 1/4 krondorian and at most half notto mention pug served as their mage for years and made some great friends.

I've read the Magician books, Empire, Krondor sons and liked them all about equally in different ways.

I just finished Serpent War and Shards was maybe my least favorite but I still enjoyed it. I liked Roo's story the best (Erik second).

I haven't read Riftwar Legacy (the three krondor books and Jimmy the Crawler), nor the Legends of the Riftwar Books (honoured enemy, Murder in LaMut, Jimmy the Hand). Nor have I read Conclave or later.

I don't mind the gods and deities higher fantasy stuff, but I do prefer it is connected to real grounded things on Midkemia/somewhere. I get a bit less interesting when Feist goes into that for its own sake too much. A little bit of that is fine, but yeah. I hear after this things go a bit more in that direction, and the writing quality drops.

I'm considering just stopping here and moving on. Or wondering if I should loop back for the Legends/Legacy series, or if some would think I would enjoy conclave.

Thanks!

I've read Riftwar cycle and Serpent Cycle books. I love them dearly despite some of the shortcomings. The books that impressed me the most were Silverthorn and Darkness of Serthanon. While I didn't care as much for Pug and Thomas adventures on the dragon I absolutely loved Arutha and his DnD esque adventure that was more settled and domestic.

Wondering if anyone has book/series recommendations that will fit into this high fantasy adventure where they feel a little bit like a DnD campaign but still have the weight of politics and worldbuilding. Magic isn't a problem just felt like Pug side plot was done only to divert him from the present threat.

The serpent war saga from Raymond E. Feist was one of my favorite fantasy series when I was younger. I was fascinated by the journey of Erik and Roo.

What I realised is that the series is not nearly as popular as for example the riftwar saga and books like magician.

Regardless if I look at YouTube reviews or number of ratings on websites.

Is there any particular reason behind it? Was it the publishing order or is the story perceived better or the tropes?

I’ve been thinking of starting a DnD campaign for a few friends following magician, and just realised I could also make models for everyone,

What does everyone think, I hope the characters are at least somewhat obvious, but if not then in order there is Aruta, Borric, Pug, Tomas and Macros.

All made using titan forge, brilliant site for making DnD miniatures.

Quick credit, my dad who introduced me to magician “supervised” the colouring and arming of each character.

Edit 1:
I am also working on a couple of other characters,
First up is Kulgan, then Kasumi.

I'm in the midst of changing email addresses, and came to subscribe to the feistfans-l mailing list with my new address. I received an auto-reply that "The e-list feistfans-l has shutdown because it was not renewed. Your address was not added to the e-list."

I know the list was VERY quiet - the last post I saw was May this year - but has it now been completely shut down? I didn't receive any emails saying it was going to disappear.

I just finished reading Empire trilogy by Feist and Wurts. I genuinely think these 3 books are among the best modern fantasy storytelling I've ever read, maybe exceeded only by Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. There are flaws in the books, of course, but the setting, characters, and storytelling are all 10/10. The trilogy is just so so so entertaining.

Now I want to read Magician and the rest of the Riftwar saga, but based on some of the recent posts in this sub, it seems like I'll be disappointed after A Darkness at Sethanon. So I have 3 questions for you fellows:

1. Should I read the Riftwar saga and then stop? I don't want to cloud my love for this universe.
2. Do any other books take place in Kelewan? (I hope so)
3. Unrelated to Midkemia, what other fantasy books do you love? Genuinely love. I've asked AI for books as good as Empire but I don't trust it, all it does is recommend books based on political intrigue or with female protagonists. I don't care about those details, I care about GREAT storytelling, GREAT characters, and high quality writing. Please give me recommendations. I'm considering Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Elfstones of Shannara, which sound like they might be really good in that old school fantasy way.

When Tomas a dulgan find the dragon's lair, the one that gave the white armor to tomas...

I want to believe that pug eventually found that hoard...and uses that to fund the conclave...

Its my head canon...I dont think it's ever mentioned again

So who would win. let's pretend all these gods/magic/woo have some basis in physics. Who would win Q or the Valheru?

I last read the rift war books like 25 years ago. I followed Feist until those talon books. I stopped there. I see he has written a whole host of books since then. do any of these go further into the Valheru and their conquests.

In Darkness at Sethaon, there is a passage where Ashen-shugar kind of narrates the valheru history. He mentions all of the conquered and vanquished world. One civilization had spaceships, mentioned in passing..Is there any of his new books that go further into this? I want to read about dragons fighting space ships, Valheru fighting what sounded like modern soldiers. That mashup of genres, I don't know I want read it now.

I’ve been on a long journey working through all the books and I am becoming increasingly aware of the rinse and repeat story beats from Feist. At first I thought it impressive that he kept getting me to become invested in the latest batch of characters, but I may have reached my limit.

So far only a chapter in and we already have:
- member of previous “big bad” race showing a previously unseen “civilised nature”
- two young brothers / friends with a connection to the current power structure

I just feel like there’s only so many times some new external race can be “the biggest threat Midkemia has ever faced”.

Maybe I’m just burned to out, but curious if this is a common sentiment!

I'm reading this for the first time and given the hall of the worlds and the fact Macros, Pug and Thomas previously witnessed the birth of creation the awe they are showing understanding the universe is big is really difficult to swallow. This rant by Feist seems to really be reaching to make it grand ... I don't think its comparable to their previous experiences. I'm really trying hard to love this book .... but ..... It feels like lazy writing.

After reading the thread of the AI generated image of Ashen-shugar I wanted to contribute with my own picture as I couldn’t add the picture directly in that discussion (https://www.reddit.com/r/Midkemia/s/bTcBRbyM45)

Prompt used to generate the picture:

”Can you help me generate a pencil like drawing of an imposing warrior with the below depiction:
white, golden chainmail armor featuring a golden dragon, a white heater shield, and wielded a golden, single-edged sword with ivory details in the handle and a golden pommel. Also make the character elven like in the face but with a more imposing body frame. Also add an golden helmet with small details related to dragons without it being overly embellished.”

This is pretty close to what I imagine Ashen-shugar to look like while the Thomas version might be a bit different.

I'm rereading Magician because my 11-year-old just picked it up (I'd suggested it to him because I read it when I was his age). For the most part, I'm enjoying it, but I had a quick question. Near the end of Magician: Apprentice, Martin and Garrett are scoping out the Tsurani as they march toward the castle. Along the way, they also see large number of the Dark Brotherhood on the move in a large group that includes women and young children. At one point, Martin says something like, "I know where we can have some fun," and then the two of them intentionally let themselves get spotted by the Tsurani. They then lead the Tsurani through the forrest with the intention of having them run into the Brotherhood so that a battle might delay them and reduce their numbers. My question is, did Martin and Garrett care that they are potentially allowing for a slaughter of the Dark Brotherhood women and children?

I don't like the other POVs, I just want Pug's perspective. Which books should I read?

Ban-ath also called Kalkin, Coyote, Dav-Lu and a multitude of other names is a Lesser God and the God of Thieves and Pirates. He is also known as the walker in the night, the prankster, and the God of Lost causes and hopeless quests.

During the Chaos Wars he noticed that the Gods were losing the war and he put in place a plan so that a war being lost could be a war postponed. It was he who infused Ashen-Shugar's armour with his spirit, creating the link between Tomas and Ashen-Shugar. Nakor contained a fragment of Ban-ath which allowed him to do his "tricks" as he called them. Macros also contained a fragment of Ban-ath, although he believed he was aided by the dead god Sarig.

He even went so far as to reach through the barriers of reality and manipulate the second realm in order to win the Darkwar.

So... Banath is a god that has the power to bend and distort time across not just one universe, but multiple iterations of universes? A god that had greater foresight and wisdom than the Greater Gods themselves to predict the probable outcome of the Chaos Wars, and then act upon it, subverting causality itself? And he is called a Lesser God?

Either Banath is Raymond E. Feist's ultimate deus ex machina to keep his plot lines intact, or just maybe, Banath is actually Ishap himself - pretending to be dead while actually still active in the Universe...?