Magician
core novel 1982 Riftwar Cycle
Record
| First published | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.32 (73,412 ratings, collected 2026-09-12) |
| Page count | 681 |
| First-edition ISBN | 0-385-17580-9 |
| First-edition date | 1982-10 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Magician is the first novel in the Riftwar Saga and opens in the coastal duchy of Crydee on the world of Midkemia, where Pug, an orphaned kitchen boy, is unexpectedly taken on as apprentice to the castle's magician after helping to save the duke's daughter from danger. His rise in status is interrupted when otherworldly warriors begin appearing through mysterious rifts in space, and war breaks out between the Kingdom of the Isles and the invading Tsurani Empire from another world. During the fighting Pug is captured and transported to the Tsurani homeworld of Kelewan as a slave, beginning a new life under a different name even as the war between the two worlds grinds on for years, entangling his fate with the effort to resolve the breach between them.
Where it sits
- Universe: Riftwar Cycle
- Series: The Riftwar Saga core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Raymond E. Feist
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (First Novel), 1983: finalist; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 10.
Notes
- First published 1982 (Doubleday) as ONE novel; split into two US paperback volumes (Apprentice/Master) only in 1986. Counted here as 1 novel.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Riftwar Saga: position 1 of 3: next Silverthorn (1985)
- Internal chronology, within Riftwar Cycle: position 1 of 30: next Honoured Enemy (2001)
Sources
- Crydee.com, Official Raymond E. Feist site
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riftwar_Cycle
- https://www.isfdb.org
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magician_(Feist_novel)
- https://www.sfadb.com/Raymond_E_Feist
← Riftwar Cycle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.