Magician: Apprentice

Publisher's Summary

To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. But though his courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely princess, he was ill at ease with the normal ways of wizardry. Yet Pug's strange sort of magic would one day change forever the fates of two worlds. For dark beings from another world had opened a rift in the fabric of spacetime to being again the age-old battle between the forces of Order and Chaos.

©2017 Raymond Feist (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"Totally gripping.... A fantasy of epic scope, fast-moving action, and vivid imagination." ( The Washington Post Book World)

"Most exciting... a very worthy and absorbing addition to the fantasy field." (Andre Norton)

Fantastic! Just as good as I remember

I first read this book many years ago and as a result have been a fan of the author ever since. The audio book does perfect credit to the work. A must for any fantasy lover.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

A wonderful addition to anyone's library

Disregarding my small struggle adjusting to the narrator I might say that I enjoy this book over reading the print edition. Truly capturing storytelling. I hope more of the authors work is published on Audible!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

The book that started my love of the Fantasy genre

I'm only halfway through the audio, but I think I can safely write a review at this time.

This wasn't the first fantasy novel I ever read, but it was the first that brought a world to life for me and really dragged me in to the genre. I haven't read it in years, and I was afraid my nostalgia was overshadowing the reality of the book but it really does stand up to my memory of it. The characters are compelling and grow and develop with the story. The world(s) is(are) well developed but the author lets you discover it organically as the story progresses, as opposed to an info-dump of world-building.

I will confess that there may be some rose-colored nostalgia in this for me, but I still am really enjoying this audio version. Nicholas Guy Smith is an excellent narrator. While I did only give four stars on the performance, I don't mean that as a knock on his ability. My only (very slight) criticism that kept it from being 5 stars (I would have gone 4.5 if I could) is a bit of a lack of range on his characterizations. Without wording prompts of who was speaking, a few of the characters come across sounding the same. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad by a long shot, or even off-putting enough that I wouldn't want to listen, it's just my $0.02. I'm sure that by the time I finish the rest of the Riftwar books, I won't be able to imagine another narrator in his place.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Fabulous! Brings new light to an old favorite!

My father first introduced this series to me when I was in high school, and I instantly fell in love. I have read all 20+ books multiple times and have wished for years that they would make them into an audio book - finally, that wish has come true - and it's better than I could have imagined! The narrator does a fabulous job in bringing the characters to life and the story is just as amazing as ever! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this series!

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Excellent Fantasy Novel

I read this book series many years ago and decided to revisit it. It is an almost ideal fantasy novel--all of the stereotypes like elves, dwarfs, and dragons. The book isn't deep, but it's fun. It is also remarkably clean, which is refreshing in a post-Game of Thrones world. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys fantasy and just wants to read a fun classic. I look forward to listening to the next installment.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

love it

love it, great narrator, can't wait to hear more of this fantastic adventure of a story.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Love this book

I read this book about 15 years ago and wanted to pick up and re-read it and continue with the rest of the saga.
I could still remember a lot from the first time it is a book that will stick with you and you want to continue to read to get to know more

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Starts as one type of book and ends as another

Not sure I will be continuing this series. The start of the book is interesting enough, but as the book gets near the end, the style changes. It becomes a more political, battle heavy book at the end. The beginning, and much of the first 3/4 of the book, follows one character...only to abandon that character and start with a new viewpoint. Its disconcerting.

Its not a bad story, but the flow seems confused.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Boring characters and bad pacing.

This book was recommended to me by a friend but I found it boring and I did not care what happened to any of the characters. The constant time jumping made it feel like the Author was giving me cliff notes on the story he wished he had wrote instead of actually giving me a story. Also the rules for magic created by the author only seem to apply when they need to for the plot but are then broken every other time magic is used. I plan to at least get through the next book to see if the writing improves but based on this book I would not recommend this series.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

The narrator needs to go.

I've liked this story for quite awhile and know that Raymond Feist is an American, so I never thought of any of the characters having a British accent or having such ludicrous pronunciation for common words.

The story is still great, but the narrator's voice simply annoyed me.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

have returned this book

I returned this as it was relessed in a trilogy which I already own brilliant

1 of 2 people found this review helpful