Magician: Apprentice

Riftwar, Book 1

By: Raymond E. Feist

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith

Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins

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

"One of the world’s most successful fantasy fiction authors." (The Guardian)

"Understandably, this is one of the highest-regarded books in the world." (Fantasy Book Review)

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

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.

Interesting book. Not sure I'll finish it.

Made it to about 2 hours left. Not sure if I'll finish it.
Story is great for the first half or so. Great writing, well-rounded characters, interesting story. Very engaging.
The second half of the book is 'eh'.
If you don't care about the main character just being dropped from existence for at least hours 8 -> 16 then this book is great.
I'd argue the side characters (Thomas or Roland) would be considered far more developed than Pug is at this point.
I'm sure the series will eventually get to developing Pug, but a 17 hour book and only one instance of him (a magician) using magic in the first like 2 hours is kind of dumb to me (and being ignored in the book for the last 8 hours). It doesn't portend good things for the rest of the books in the series.
I'd like to rename the book to be - Possible Magician: Disappears.
Perhaps if I get bored I'll come back to finishing this book/series. Otherwise, it'll sit in the graveyard.
EDIT: Finished the last 2 hours. MC still didn't show up. Is he even the MC anymore?

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.

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.

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!

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!

Just barely good enough for me to try book 2.

I've read most of the reviews and most is spot on. The MC disappears, the characters are plain, and it has a cliffhanger ending. But criticism for being sexist or male centric is just ridiculous.

It's Not Horrible

I love the fantasy/sci-fi genre, especially epic-class stories. (The Witcher, Anathem, etc.) However, I found Magician: Apprentice to be lackluster. I really enjoyed the first half or so of the story - very compelling - then it just seemed to fizzle out. The characters are enjoyable and the narration was well done. I saw that it has a high review rating. Maybe this particular story just doesn't resonate with me.

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.

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.

have returned this book

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