The Sword and Laser discussion

Our pick for next month was made by long-time member Terpkristin. It will be: Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist.

People on another Discord Channel got this and The Magicians by Lev Grossman mixed up. Been meaning to read this , so nice.

I haven't read them, but the book was adapted by Marvel as a 17-issue series of comics, collected in three volumes:

Magician: Apprentice Volume 1
Magician: Apprentice, Volume 2
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar

Start of one of my favorite series! Excited to re-read with everyone.

Ooooh I’m excited!!! This whole series was given to me by a friend and it’s just been sitting on my shelf so what a fun surprise to not have to go out and get the next pick.

The first paperback edition of Magician Apprentice has cover art by artist Kevin Eugene Johnson. The painting he did for the cover is at

https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryp...

Feist on sex, self-doubt and GRRM...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Yay! Instead of me complaining about picks by the polls, people can complain about my suggestion. It definitely seems fair.

Seriously I’m looking forward to the reread. They were recently released on Audible in the US but I don’t know anything about the narrator.

My feelings about the Magician trilogy are … complicated, but I highly recommend the related Empire trilogy he cowrote with Janny Wurts:

Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire

I really enjoyed this series back in the day. hopefully I'll like this one again on reread.

I read this already, I’m going to read the comics because I really liked it. I recommend reading the sequel it’s a great read too.

One of my friends just finished a complete read of the series and that prompted me to put this high on my re-read schedule. Perfect timing from S&L!

I actually started reading this recently. I’m a couple of chapters in already. Happy to read with everyone :)

I love the Riftwar Saga series

This isn't available as a separate book outside the US.

Magician was split for the US market into
Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master

Luckily the eBook of Magician is only $2.99 (In Oz), so I will re-read the "full" book.

Tassie Dave wrote: "I love the Riftwar Saga series

This isn't available as a separate book outside the US.

Magician was split for the US market into
Magician: Apprentice and [book:Magician..."

You beat me on this question. I grabbed Magician because I couldn't find the other (and, as you say, so cheap), but it doesn't sound the same as just the two books compiled

The version available outside the US is the updated 10 year anniversary version. It contains everything that was in the original version plus extra material that Feist wanted put back in.

I'm not sure if the US Book(s) have the added material, but everything else should be exactly the same.

Magician was also reissued as an "author's preferred edition" in 1992. I think they subsequently used that as the basis to reissue the split volumes?

I read the intro to the Kindle version and yes, it's the Author's Preferred Version.

terpkristin wrote: "Yay! Instead of me complaining about picks by the polls, people can complain about my suggestion. It definitely seems fair.

Seriously I’m looking forward to the reread. They were recently release..."

Well, after my joy when a book I absolutely love was picked by the poll, now the next pick is a book that I read a few years ago and absolutely hated. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all! At least I can work through a bit more of my TBR shelf, and it’ll be interesting to see what others make of Magician. I suspect a few people - maybe even you terpkristin - may have fond memories from reading it in the past and then discover on a re-read that it hasn’t aged too well. Or maybe everyone else will love it and I’ll just be grumbling in a corner by myself.

As far as I know I’ve never read any of Feist’s work, but I am quite familiar with the Don Maitz cover art to his books, being the big collector of SFF art books that I am. The cover to this book shows up often and is sumptuous: https://images.app.goo.gl/3nTV48oSYHM...

This gives me the excuse I need to give his stuff a try.

Trike wrote: "As far as I know I’ve never read any of Feist’s work, but I am quite familiar with the Don Maitz cover art to his books, being the big collector of SFF art books that I am. The cover to this book s..."

I’m not a Feist fan as mentioned above but that’s some seriously gorgeous art!

I read the Magician and have to say I enjoyed the first part (Apprentice) much more than the second one (which was kinda weird). It's actually a cozy old-school fantasy and I've been meaning to read the third book since it has different character focus but never get around it.

I know I ready this when I was in college, because I remember buying it from my college bookstore and feeling lucky I had cash to spare. I cannot for the life of me remember what I thought of it. I'm trying to decide if that means it merits a reread or not.

terpkristin wrote: "Seriously I’m looking forward to the reread. They were recently released on Audible in the US but I don’t know anything about the narrator."

I listened to the preview and it sounds super interesting. I look forward to listening to the whole thing.

after all the ground breaking Sci-fi we have been reading lately. excited to do some worldbuilding fantasy. nice suggestion Terpkristin

I heard about this book, thought it sounded great and been meaning to give this a read this for about 30 years. I think it's time to finally give it a go :-)

I read The Magician when I was young (in the 90s). Did I like it? I'm not sure, but I remember finding it quite generic, very standard DnD-style fantasy. I'm not opposed to giving it a reread, though it'll likely also have to be a rebuy, as it's unlikely I'll be able to find my old copy ;)

Hooray! I've been wanting to reread.

Great pick! I've got very fond memories of reading this book on our honeymoon, never got around to the rest of the series though. Definitely something I'd like to go back to some day but my TBR is a little big at the moment.

Malcolm wrote: "Great pick! I've got very fond memories of reading this book on our honeymoon, never got around to the rest of the series though. Definitely something I'd like to go back to some day but my TBR is ..."

What’s 31 extra books? Add ‘em!

Trike wrote: "What’s 31 extra books? Add ‘em!."

Wow, I didn't realise it had got that big :-? I've read 9 or 10 of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rif...

The Riftwar Saga trilogy and The Empire Trilogy are both great.

Yeah...I counted 17 on Goodreads, but had no idea. Welp, I'll read the first one. No guarantees after that. I like to finish out the series if we read the first one here, but for another 16 books I'd better love the thing.

I requested the audiobook yesterday and it said it had a 3 week waiting list, but it came in tonight. So I guess I know what I’m doing all night.

This has been on my to read list and my Kindle for awhile. Will definitely read this with group. I think the only Feist I'm vaguely familiar with was the old school RPG video game he had writing credits for, *Betrayal at Krindor*.

Ruth wrote: "...now the next pick is a book that I read a few years ago and absolutely hated."

Sorry!!! I do have fond memories of reading it but part of what I like is that it's not complicated. We've had some tough books lately. We shall see how I like it upon the re-read, for sure!

What happened to the plan to read all the Hugo nominees? I was expecting to take a few months off with no S&L reads.

AndrewP wrote: "What happened to the plan to read all the Hugo nominees? I was expecting to take a few months off with no S&L reads."

Oh, we did it. Last quarantuesday. We also read next year’s nominees. Didn’t you get the text?

terpkristin wrote: "Ruth wrote: "...now the next pick is a book that I read a few years ago and absolutely hated."

Sorry!!! I do have fond memories of reading it but part of what I like is that it's not complicated. ..."

No need to apologise, no pick is going to please everyone. This way, I get a month off from reading the S&L pick, which means more time to read stuff from my TBR, and I’ll still enjoy following the discussions.

Finished.

Not a spoiler, but this is only half a book. Unfortunately my library doesn’t have the second part. :/ So non-American readers are probably better off.

I originally read the all-in-one volume published in the UK. It has a different, but still very impressive cover.
https://midkemia.fandom.com/wiki/Magi...
This time around I will be reading the US version in two volumes, that makes it much easier to add to Goodreads as a re-read.

AndrewP wrote: "I originally read the all-in-one volume published in the UK. It has a different, but still very impressive cover.
https://midkemia.fandom.com/wiki/Magi...
This time around I will be readin..."

That's the book I read back when (go never mind)... It was a nice counter weight to Stephen R. Donaldson which I was also plowing through around the same time.

" My feelings about the Magician trilogy are … complicated, but I highly recommend the related Empire trilogy he cowrote with Janny Wurts:

Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire"

I second this =)

I was a bit fuzzy on what I had actually read in the Riftwar Saga, so I looked up Magician: Apprentice not read great. Bought Magician on audible only to realise when I was going to add it as "currently reading" this version I had read.

I read this one and the others in the initial trilogy (if you count Magician as just one book) way back in the 80s when they first came out. I really enjoyed them and have been meaning to revisit the series. Right now though my reading slate is full and I have sworn not to start any new fantasy or SF series until I have finished some of the series I am partway through. So I won't be re-reading with the group this time. But I hope you all enjoy it! And hopefully I will free up some time to visit Midkemia again in the near future.

It is still classed as a trilogy, even though Magician was split into 2 books for the US. They are 2 half books, not 2 Books.

Many are finding out, (and will find out), that Magician: Apprentice is only half a story.

Since it’s two books outside of the US I think the sequel Magicians Master should be an alt-pick

I really like the pick as I have really wanted to read the books after playing some of the game Betrayal at Krondor. This is a very nostalgic pick for me, as this is one of those epic fantasies from the 80s which I grew up on. Authors like Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, and Feist were were a great escape from the difficulties of growing up, where young people became heros in a well known fantasy world. They are a lot tamer than the George RR Martin take, and simpler in some ways, akin to comfort food.

Great pick! I only read the "Apprentice" part of this book years ago. This is a great opportunity to finally read the whole thing and maybe even continue the series.
I also remember it being very generic fantasy (humans, elves, medieval Europe-ish setting) but that sounds quite comforting to me in these strange, self-isolated times.

I do know that we build a big part of our RPG world with influence from this and have some weird memories about snake people, but that's it. I will have a look for the audiobook.
And yes, Betrayal at Krondor! Again, the title is clear in my head, but no idea what actually happened...

As the month has arrived, I'm locking the announcement thread. Please feel free to create as many discussion threads as you'd like and mark spoilers where appropriate.