Raymond E Feist

Are there any fans of the author Raymond E Feist here?

I've been very late in discovering and starting to his books. I don't really have time to read that many novels any more, but do spend 2 hours driving in and out of work every day so have been listening to audio books in the car.

The main story ark of his work is known as the Riftwar Cycle. A story of 2 worlds with very different histories, social structures and traditions, drawn together initially in war through a connected "rift" or wormhole. One side (Midkemia) a medievil world with Kings, Knights and magicians reminiscent of Europe, and the other (Kelewan) closer to that of the far east, with honour and respect at the foremost in their social structure, and a powerful assembly of magicians called The Great Ones.

Starting with the very first book, Magician, it got me hooked. The first in a trilogy called the Riftwar Saga following the lives of Midkemians as they battled an invasion into their world from Kelewan. And the story of a boy called Pug discovering his magical abilities.

The narrator of these books, Peter Joyce, did a brilliant job. And he continues to narrate the majority of the rest.

I really enjoyed this first thilogy in the series. But it was the second trilogy that I've loved the most. Called The Empire Trilogy. This trilogy is set completely on the world of Kelewan, and is Political fantasy, drawing much inspiration and influence both of feudal Japan and Imperial China. You could go as far as to imagine it was taking place in the Far East, with Midkemia being the distant lands of Europe.

These books have a rich group of characters and are very complex in their political dealings, which firm the centre of everything that takes place. Manipulating the great game of politics in ways to gain advantage or to circumvent limitations or restricts because of tradition and honour.

Very well written and really enjoyed this. There were many aspects of the politics played out that you just didn't guess how it would play out or a situation overcome until it was revealed. So good these days as its often too easy to guess an outcome these days in many books, series or TV.

The narrator of this second trilogy was different to the rest, mainly because the books centre around Mara, the Lady of the Acoma. So a female voice actress was a far more fitting choice, and Tania Rodrigues did a brilliant job. After a short way into the first book Lady Mara's voice was distinct and unique. And the other characters, mainly male, were very well realised and different.

I would definitely recommend these books to any fantasy fans. Obviously The Empire Trilogy is quite unique as you don't encounter political fantasy novels that often that go into so much detail, and bring interested in politics as well as war tactics helps. But the others in the series are more traditional fantasy, with the world of Midkemia containing the usual races of Elves, Dwarfs, Goblins, Dragons etc and therefore any fan of high fantasy such as Lord of the Rings should really enjoy it.

My next book in about to start is the 7th book, and the first in the duality Krondor's Sons.

But if you do start these be warned, it is a big undertaking. Each book is large. And as audiobooks Magician was 31 hours long. The rest being between 16 and 22 hours each. And the whole saga spanning 30 novels so far.

To date a huge surprise is that these books have not be adapted into any other medi other than some graphic novels. But I've read that work has begun on adapting the first 6 books into a TV series. I really hope this continues and we see this realised. It would be a big undertaking on a par with GOT or Rings of Power if the do as the books are complex. But great if they can pull it off.

I've since discovered that there have been 2 video games released on the PC in the past based on the Riftwar saga.

Betrayal at Krondor, released for MS-DOS in 1993 by Sierra.

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It does look quite dated, but then it is nearly 20 years old. The game is played in 1st person, or an overhead wirld map view. And combat is 3rd person turn based. Its meant to have a very large open game world to explore and became very popular at the time. And us mentioned as a great RPG.

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Return to Krondor, released for Windows in 1998, again by Sierra.

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This game was delayed in development for years, but it shows by having a full 3D game engine. But unlike the first game that was first person, with 3rd person in combat, this sequel is completely third person in a similar way to something like Dark Alliance.

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Reception

Both games received very good reviews. The 1st game became a veey popular ROG among friends, hence a very large open world. The sequel is far smaller but still received good reception.

Novelisation

The story for the game wasn't originally written by Feist himself, but they are considered canon. They were later adapted into novels as the 1st and 3rd books in the Riftwar Legacy Trilogy. And events within the game and this teilogy are referenced in Feist's later novels.

Betrayal in Antara

This is a third game based on the same Feist world, but it is not considered canon. There was a bit of a mess here.

After the first game was released on floppy it didn't sell very well. Sierra had begun work on a sequel, but cancelled it and sold the rights back to Feist and the license for the game was picked up by 7th Level. But after the first game was rereleased on CD it started to sell really well and became popular. So Sierra began work again on another new sequel, but unlicensed so it doesn't have the names of known Feist characters or places.

Sierra's unlicensed sequel was released under the name Betrayal in Antara in 1997. It used an updated version of the same game engine as the original.

But for the official sequel 7th Level worked on it, thrn passed it on to thr developer Pyrotechnix to complete it. But in 1997 they were purchased by Sierra, and a year later in 1998 the licensed and original sequel Return to Krondor was released by Sierra as the official sequel to the original.

Very confusing.

I checked and I have Betrayal at Krondor, it's part of the Total DOS Collection. I guess the other one is a Windows only release.

Yes, Return to Krondor was Windows only.

The other unofficial game, Betrayal in Antara, was based on the original DOS engine, but listed as Windows 3.1, so unsure if that is DOS, or needs Win3.1.