Re-reading Magician (by Raymond E Feist)

I’m enjoying rediscovering my fantasy roots. Haven’t gone as far (yet) as revisiting LOTR for the nth time, but I have been back to Midkemia and Tsuruananni in Raymon E Feist’s Magician.


I had forgotten the almost SF feel to the Tsurani incursion into the land of Midkemia that underpins the plot of Magician. With hindsight, I now realise the ‘alien’ feel of Tsuruananni – where the hero, Pug, gets captured and taken as a slave – is because it’s a realm based largely on a stylised version of 16th and 17th century China and Japan.


And I think that’s Feist’s genius; the juxtaposition of the Tolkienian fantasy world of Midkemia – where Pug comes from (complete with dwarves, elves and men) – with the Shogun-esc martial world of Tsuruananni. The mash of cultures in Magician brings conflict and adventure, just as Europe’s incursions into China and Japan did three hundred years ago in our world. Throw in a heavy dash of magic, a space-time rift and presto! you have epic fantasy!


In fact, I wonder if Feist’s creative writing juices were fuelled by the novel Shogun (James Clavell, 1975) and, five years later, the spin-off TV series of the same name, both of which were hugely popular. At the start of the 80’s, Shogun was as culturally important as iconic TV shows such as Game of Thrones, Fargo and the recent Breaking Bad are today.


The story in Shogun throws a European sailor, John Blackthorne, into the alien world of 17th century Japan, ruled at the time by samurai. After immense privations, Blackthorne himself eventually becomes a samurai. This is very akin to Pug, the MP in Magician, being taken to Tsuruananni, where, of course, he becomes a master of that culture, just as Blackthorne did in Japan – Pug’s master magician to Blackthorne’s master samurai.


Who knows? It’s pure conjecture on my part, but with Magician being published in 1982, seven years after the Novel Shogun and just two years after the TV min-series, perhaps not such a surprising source of inspiration for Raymond E Feist. And, if it was, good on him for turning it into such epic fantasy!


Whatever his inspiration for the book was, Feist lets his imagination run riot in Magician, which leaps along at breakneck speed, sometimes even over-loading on information and detail. That said, we never lose sight of Pug, or who is doing what to whom (and why) – and the book has a satisfactory conclusion. For me, it works as a standalone piece, but it is just the first part of the Riftwar Saga trilogy, which concluded with A Darkness at Sethanon in 1986, following Silverthorn in 1985.


I’m not going to re-read the latter two books, one revisit to Feist’s worlds was enough, just to air my roots a little.


No, it’s more modern stuff for me at the moment. I’m now about 3/4 the way through The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss, 2007), on the recommendation of my good friend Joe Wonnacott – who is an epic fantasy writer in his own right! I’m enjoying it very much and will be sharing thoughts in a post soon.

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