Fantasy Book Club Series discussion

I thought it would be a neat idea to have all of our participants post their ratings (1 – 5) and reviews here. If you want to link your review so people can vote for it, that’s fine, but please also copy and paste the text here to make it browse easier.

As always... Spoilers are welcome as long as they are marked as decribed below.



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To mark spoilers: Goodreads has a new option that I'm hoping we can all be diligent in using, the spoiler tag! It's an html code that will hide the spoiler so that people can browse the thread without fear and click to open the spoiler only if they are ready.

To do the tag, just surround the text that you want to hide as a spoiler with [spoiler] in front, and [/spoiler] at the end (with [] replaced with <> to make it work). (view spoiler)[Then you get a link like the one you just clicked on that the spoiler hides behind! (hide spoiler)].

If you have any questions, or if you're confused by my instructions, feel free to ask!

I finished a couple days ago, and finally completed my review today.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Review: The first time I read this I was completely enthralled, and gave it a solid five stars. My fantasy repertoire was seriously lacking back in those days, and I instantly fell in love with all that is Midkemia. The second time around I still loved it, but found I had to drop the rating to a four. It’s not that I loved it any less… I’m not sure what exactly happened. It’s just now that I have more experience with fantasy, and now that I know what else is out there, it was hard to give it a solid five star “It was Amazing!” rating. But it’s definitely four and a half!

The good: I love the characters. Pug and Thomas and Fantus the Firedrake; Amos Trask and Anita during their short interludes; Feist did an excellent job of making me feel connected to the characters, invested in their stories. I also love the world. Traditional though it may be, with elves and goblins and dwarves and trolls; it was very well done which makes all the difference. And the plot? Although it does start out seeming like a traditional quest type fantasy novel, there are plenty of twist and turns along the road that make set it apart from others of its type.

The bad: I’m not even sure I can name any bad.. I’m drawing a blank. I pretty much loved it through and through.

Overall, four and a half stars. I’m interested to see if my other ratings stay at five stars or drop to four as well, as I continue on with my reread with the rest of the series.

I originally had it rated at 5 stars, in my head because when I read it the first time there probably wasn't a Good Reads website then. This time I rated it 4 stars, I don't know if that was fair either because I just know what is going to happen and that is why I wasn't as into it as I was earlier.

Julie wrote: "I originally had it rated at 5 stars, in my head because when I read it the first time there probably wasn't a Good Reads website then. This time I rated it 4 stars, I don't know if that was fair ..."

It was pretty much the same way for me. When I first came to GR, based on my memories of it I rated it five stars. I was tempted to leave it at that.. But decided to go with my more honest opinion of four stars based on this read through.

Just finished this a few minutes ago. I'll post my review later. I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next one.

This is a favorite series of mine. I have read the 1st 2 trilogies 3 times. The second, The Empire series is an all time favorite trilogy which gets 5 stars for all 3 books. Thus, I rate each book in the 1st trilogy 4 stars, but only in comparison with the 2nd. I would probably rate them 4.5 in comparison to all epic fantasy I have read.

All is relative!

I wrote (and published) the first draft of my review of Magician: Apprentice this morning. Why a first draft? Because I have a god-awful run on sentence starting out the third paragraph that I need to revise but have no time again until lunch to do so. My apologies to any and all copy editors in the audience. :)

Great review, Jon!

Dawn wrote: "Great review, Jon!"

Thanks, Dawn

Jon wrote: "Dawn wrote: "Great review, Jon!"

Thanks, Dawn"

I like your list of favorite characters. I have not gotten around to this this month (cannot find my well-read volme), but your review stimulated my memory.

One of my favorite character, who gets an entire volume in the future, is (view spoiler)[Jimmy the Hand (hide spoiler)]. I cannot remember which book he appears in.

Oh I love him too, Kernos. I think he shows up in Silverthorn? I also love (view spoiler)[Amos Trask (hide spoiler)], who gets a bigger part as the books go on.

(view spoiler)[How is Amos Trask a spoiler? oh..you just hid his name the real spoiler is that he gets a bigger part as the book goes on. (hide spoiler)]

I hid his name to be on the safe side, in case anyone thought it was a spoiler to know he became a bigger part in later books. Easy enough to add a couple spoiler tags just in case.

I finished it on the 8th. It was a lot of fun. Here's my review.

I finished it & then read 'Master' right after. That ends well enough I felt I could stop & go on to a different author for a while. The story hangs too much for me to be comfortable quitting after 'Apprentice', thought.

Jim wrote: " The story hangs too much for me to be comfortable quitting after 'Apprentice', thought. ..."

Ditto. I really don't even want to review it right now, because the hanging ending leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, I too, have the authors preferred hardback edition, but wanted to check in here briefly before continuing on.

Again, this was a first time read for me. I gave it 4 stars, but am feeling more like 3.5 stars at the moment. Part of that could be the "ending."

Likes: The writing style is enjoyable and easy to read. The characters are likable and would even make good role models. The world is nicely realized.

Dislikes: Not a whole heck of a lot has happened, and I feel like characters are introduced and then completely forgotten about.

Also, there are some pages falling out of my book, right near the end. =(

Disclaimer to Dislikes: Deeerrrh... it IS the first (half of a) novel in an extended EPIC fantasy series, (and you are reading a library book). Many might say your dislikes are to be expected. Does this mean I maybe DON'T like epic fantasy series? lol well, no. Just that I hate the spin-up.

Other: I could have used a little more magic, yet, kinda appreciate that it could hold my intrigue so well without.

And what is going on with Tomas and his visions? Feist has piqued my curiosity there...

If I was reading the paperback, and this actually WAS the dead ending of the book, I: 1) wouldn't be very happy, and 2) would be wondering, "where-in-the, what-in-the, heck! happened to Pug?#@$!"

GENERAL NOTE: So far it seems like everyone finished this book early on and then stopped visiting (or probably just commenting in?) the discussions.

I'm hoping that more people are still wrapping up and will post as they progress and finish, or that we can somehow reinvigorate these threads and whip up some more group discussion. =)

I'm still here! I think you'll definitely benefit from going directly into the second half. Most of your dislikes will be rectified, and there's much much much more story line resolution. More insight to Thomas, more magic, more Pug (!!).

Apprentice is definitely only half of the story.. I only decided we should split it into two months for consistency of the read length. As one book, it would have been one really long story and then two shorter.. Split into two it's four more average length novels. I figured that would be best for people who do a lot of group reads!

Dawn wrote: "I'm still here! I think you'll definitely benefit from going directly into the second half. Most of your dislikes will be rectified, and there's much much much more story line resolution. More insi..."

I noticed the conversation has died down, but figured it's because everyone's read it and is waiting for book 2. I even wondered if we wanted to speed up the schedule a little bit, but I guess we might lose some people. I, of course, prefer to read series books back to back in one sitting :D, but I'm working on my compulsiveness this year, lol.

I guess it's easier for me (and probably a lot of others) to pause in between, because it's a reread. My first time through I plowed through them all in a row, there was no stopping me!

I also assumed it had slowed down because of the alternating schedule with the Malazan books. I know some people are reading both series, so they've already moved on to that discussion.

Dawn wrote: "I also assumed it had slowed down because of the alternating schedule with the Malazan books. I know some people are reading both series, so they've already moved on to that discussion."

I forgot about the secondary group read also going on.

I meant to post some oddball questions or thoughts to see if it would generate discussion, but I have had very very little sleep lately, and my brain just isn't working very well.

I have no doubts the rest of the book will attempt to dislodge my stated dislikes. I am really still quite shocked that they would split it. I can understand from a marketing perspective, but I can't imagine how it would feel from the authors perspective. (Ooo, now there's a question for Mr. Feist).

Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "noticed the conversation has died down, but figured it's because everyone's read it and is waiting for book 2. I even wondered if we wanted to speed up the schedule a little bit, but I guess we might lose some people...."

Definitely don't want to lose anyone, but speeding up isn't a horrible idea, and it may be one worth considering come March...

I'm curious to see who else will finish in the next week.

I have to disagree about speeding up the schedule. I belong to many many clubs and barely can squeeze in all the reads I need to complete per month now. I actually look forward to shorter fiction works that I can read in a couple of days.

And what if I'd waited (or had to wait) until this week to start Magician: Apprentice? Many other readers may be in a similar predicament.

Just my two cents,

Jon

I for one like the one a month pace... Any more and I wouldn't be able to keep up and lead the discussion, on top of all of my other group reads...

Oh I think we should stick with the current schedule. Was just having idle thoughts.

Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Oh I think we should stick with the current schedule. Was just having idle thoughts."

lol

I'm one of those trying to read both series. So far, Magician: Apprentice was an easy, fast read. Gardens of the Moon takes me so much longer to get into. So keepting up with that series may end up being harder than this one. I think the pacing has worked well so far. I read this early and moved on to another book. Whenever I do that, I move on to that book and forget the details of the one I read earlier. I have been following the discussion though. I will be reading Magician: Master come March. I'm looking forward to it. Gardens of the Moon is good, but so different from this series. It will be nice to have a more linear plot.

OK. Finally wrote review.

=)

I just finished my 3rd reading of Magician: Master last night.

Reading some comments here really makes me think on the whole 1 book/2 book question with Magician.

Having read the next few books several years ago, and with a fresh reading of Magician in mind, I'd like to reassure the first time readers.

Yes, Magician: Apprentice left many things hanging. But the author did intend for both halves of this story to be a single novel. If you read it as one book, it has a beginning and a satisfying ending. While it's the first book in a long series, it stands on its own rather well.

So I think y'all will be pleased with Master. It wraps up all the cliffhangers quite nicely.

Yes! This is one of those situations where the final book is much more than the sum of its parts. I rated the two books & the single volume as 4-star originally. On this re-read I momentarily considered dropping Apprentice to 3, but changed my mind because it got so good near the end.

But I've been seriously contemplating the change of my review for the full volume. As one book, it does feel more like a 5-star than a 4.

Another book I did that with was the first Chronicles of Amber. While I rated each of the 5 books as 4-star, the story in one big package of 5 books felt like a 5-star to me. Those were published separately but also read more like one longer story.

I rated the first half four stars, and the second half five. Together they'd probably be five. They are definitely two parts of a whole... On one hand I kind of regret breaking them up into two months, but on the other, I think it did good to keep it short and easy to keep up with. If we read Magician as one volume I think a lot of people would have gotten behind, especially those trying to read Malazan as well!

Oh, I think it was a good call, Dawn. It was probably more convenient for those reading the individual books. It was good for me to take the pause in between as I had other goals to work on this month. I wasn't on the edge of my seat to know what happened next either, since I'd read it before.

I do, too. I like long books, but am amazed at how many people get overwhelmed or refuse even to start at long books.