Magician by Raymond E. Feist

Magician by Raymond E. Feist

Artwork for Magician Apprentice


Artwork for Magician Master




Abstracted introduction:
Magician was first published in 1982. It is the first book of the Riftwar trilogy or Saga. It led to many books written by Feist in the world of Midkemia, which was the setting for this book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riftwar#Magician

Descriptions from wikipedia:
Upon the world of Midkemia, the mighty Kingdom of the Isles arose, beside the vast empire of Great Kesh to the south. The kingdom was then nearing an era of greatness; the nation spanned a continent, from the Sea of Kingdoms to the Endless Sea.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Rodric the Fourth, in the westernmost province of the Kingdom, the Duchy of Crydee, and orphan kitchen boy named Pug was made an apprentice magician to the magician Kulgan. An indifferent student of magic, he rose to high station, for he saved the daughter of Duke Borric ConDoin of Crydee, Princess Carline, from a dire fate and became squire of the Duke's court. Pug then found himself the object of Carline’s girlish infatuation and, as result, rival to young Squire Roland, a member of the court.
With his best friend, Tomas, Pug discovered the wreckage of an alien vessel and a dying man of unknown nationality due the hideous storm. The Duke's priest, Father Tully, used his magic to learn that the dying man was from another world, Kelewan, dominated by a mighty empire of warriors, the Tsurani. They had reached Midkemia by a magic gate, a rift in space, and might be preparing the way for invasion. Duke Borric took council with the Elf Queen, Aglaranna, who agreed that some strange menace was approaching the far coast of the kingdom; the elves had seen strange warriors mapping the west, men who vanished mysteriously. Fearing this a prelude to invasion, Lord Borric and his younger son, Arutha, led a company of men to warn the King Rodric of the possible attack, leaving Crydee to the care of his eldest son, Lyam, and Swordmaster Fannon. The company numbered Kulgan the magician, Pug and Tomas, Sergeant Gardan, and fifty soldiers of Crydee. In the forest called the green heart the Duke’s party was attacked by the dreaded moredhel, the dark elves known as the Brotherhood of the Dark Path. After a long, bloody fight, the Duke and the other survivors were saved by Dolgan, a Dwarven chief, and his companions. Dolgan led them through the mines of Mac Mordian Cadal, where a wraith attacked, separating Tomas from the others in the company. Tomas fled deep into the ancient mine, while Dolgan led the others to safety. Dolgan returned into the mine to find Tomas, discovering that the boy had been given refuge by one of the last of the mighty golden dragons, ancient and near death. The dragon, Rhuagh vanished in a wondrous final moment of glory, a boon of Macros, and left Tomas with a special gift, magic golden armour.
Duke Borric’s company reached the city of Bordon, where they took ship for Krondor, Capital of the Western realm of the Kingdom. They were driven by a storm to Sorcerer’s Isle, home of the legendary Macros the Black, and of other wonders. There Pug met a mysterious hermit, discovered later to be Macros. He hints they shall meet again, but warns them not to seek him out.
In Krondor, Prince Erland, the king’s uncle and heir apparent, instructed the Duke to continue on to Rillanon, Capital of the Kingdom, to see the King. While in Krondor, Pug met Princess Anita, Erland’s only child, and learned she was expected to marry Prince Arutha when she grew up.
In Rillanon, Duke Borric discovered the King to be a man of vision, also a man of doubtful sanity, given to outbursts of temper and rambling discourse. Duke Caldric of Rillanon, Borric’s uncle by marriage, warned that the burden of repelling the Tsurani, should they come, would fall to the Western lords. The King distrusted the Prince of Krondor, dreaming of plots against the crown, and was even leery of Borric, who followed after Erland in the succession. He refused to allow the armies of the east to leave the Eastern Realm. Then came the Tsurani invasion and Rodric put aside his suspicions, giving Borric command of the Armies of the West. Borric and his companions rushed westward as the Riftwar began.
During the early part of the war, a raid into Tsurani held territory was mounted, and Pug was captured.
Tomas was with Dolgan’s force of dwarves, among the first to resist the invaders. Something alien had manifested itself in Tomas’s armour, and while wearing it he became a warrior of awesome power. Haunted by strange visions, he was slowly changing in appearance. In a frantic battle in the Dwarven mines, the Tsurani forced Tomas and Dolgan’s company to flee into the forests. Having no safe haven, the dwarves struck out for Elvandar, home of the elves, seeking to ally themselves with the elves. Reaching the court of the Elf Queen, they were made welcome. Something in Tomas’s appearance caused the old elven spellweavers to be fearful, though they would not speak of it.
Lyam left Crydee to join his father, and Swordmaster Fannon assumed command of the castle, with Arutha his second-in-command. Carline grieved over Pug’s loss and turned to Roland for comfort. The Tsurani raided Crydee, using a captured ship; during the battle, Arutha rescued Amos Trask, the Ship’s captain, a former pirate.
The Tsurani besieged Crydee and were repulsed many times. During a battle, Swordmaster Fannon was wounded and Arutha assumed command. After a terrible underground battle between Arutha’s men and Tsurani sappers. Arutha ordered the garrisons surrounding Crydee to co-ordinate for a final battle against the Tsurani. But before that battle could commence, the Tsurani commander, Kasumi of the Shinzawai, received orders to return home with his command.
Four years passed, and Pug was working as a slave in a swamp camp on Kelewan, the Tsurani homeworld, with a newcomer, Laurie of Tyr-Sog, a minstrel. After trouble with the camp overseer they were taken by Hokanu, younger son of the Shinzawai, to his father’s estate. They were ordered to train Kasumi in every aspect of Kingdom culture and Language. There Pug also met a slave girl, Katala, with whom he fell in love. The brother of the Lord of the Shinzawai, Kamatsu, was one of the Great Ones, magicians of power, beings who were a law unto themselves. One night the Great One, Fumita, learned Pug had been apprenticed as a magician on Midkemia. He claimed Pug for the Assembly, the brotherhood of Magicians, and they vanished from the Shinzawai estate.
Tomas by then had grown to a figure of stunning power, made so by his armour, once worn by the Valheru – a dragon lord – one of the legendary first people of Midkemia, masters of all. Little known about them save that they were cruel and powerful and had kept elves and moredhel as slaves. Aglaranna, her son, Calin, and Tathar, her senior advisor, feared that Tomas was being consumed by the power of Ashen-Shugar, the ancient Dragon Lord whose armour he wore; they feared an attempt at a return of Valheru domination. Aglaranna was deeply troubled, for besides fearing Tomas, she was falling in love with him. The Tsurani invaded Elvandar and were driven back by Tomas and Dolgan’s forces, aided by the mysterious Macros the Black. After the battle, Aglaranna admitted her feelings to Tomas and took him as her lover, thereby losing her power to command him.
Pug was cleansed of his memory by the teachers of the Assembly and after four years of training became a magician. He learned he was a gifted follower of the Greater Path, a magic nonexistent upon Midkemia. Kulgan was a lesser path magician, so he had been unable to teach Pug. Upon attaining the Black Robes, Pug was given the name Milamber. His teacher, Shimone, watched as Milamber passed his final test, standing upon a thin spire at the height of a storm while the history of the Empire of Tsuranuanni was revealed to him. There he was steeped in the first duty of a Great One, to serve the Empire. Milamber met his first friend in the assembly; Hochopepa, a shrewd magician who instructed Milamber in the pitfalls of Tsurani politics.
By the ninth year of the war, Arutha feared that they were losing the struggle, and then learned from a captive slave that new troops were arriving from Kelewan. With Martin Longbow, his father’s huntmaster, and with Amos Trask, Arutha travelled to Krondor to seek additional aid from Prince Erland. During the journey, Amos discovered Martin’s secret, that he was Lord Borric’s bastard son. Martin made Amos swear never to reveal the secret until Martin allowed it. In Krondor, Arutha discovered the city under the control of Guy, Duke of Bas-Tyra, and an avowed enemy of Lord Borric. Guy was clearly on some plan to gain the crown for himself. Arutha then ran afoul of Jocko Radburn, Guy’s henchman and head of the secret police, who chased Arutha, Martin, and Amos into the arms of the Mockers, the thieves of Krondor. There they met Jimmy the Hand, a boy thief; Trevor Hull, a former pirate turned smuggler; and his first mate, Aaron Cook. The mockers were hiding Princess Anita, who had fled the palace. Jocko Radburn was furiously trying to recapture Anita before Guy du Bas-Tyra returned from a border skirmish with the neighbouring Empire of Great Kesh. With the Mocker’s help, Arutha, his companions, and Anita fled the city. During the sea chase, Amos lured Radburn’s ship onto the rocks and the head of the secret police drowned. Upon returning to Crydee, Arutha learned that Squire Roland had been killed in a skirmish. By then Arutha was in love with Anita, though he would not admit as much to himself, counting her too young.
Pug, now Milamber, returned to the Shinzawai estate to claim Katala, and discovered he was a father. His son William had been born during the absence. He also learned the Shinzawai were involved with a plot with the Emperor to force peace upon the Tsurani high council, which was dominated by the warlord. Laurie was to guide Kasumi, who had by then mastered the language and customs of the Kingdom, to the King, bearing the Emperor’s offer of peace. Pug wished them well and took his wife and child to his home.
Tomas underwent a great change, bringing the forces of the Valheru and the human into balance. In a titanic inner battle, the human was nearly overcome, but at the end he mastered the raging inside him that was once the Dragon Lord and at last discovered peace within his soul. He became Prince-Consort to Aglaranna
Kasumi and Laurie came through the rift and made their way to Rillanon, where they discovered that the King had become thoroughly mad. He accused them of being spies, and they fled with the aid of Duke Caldric. The duke advised them to seek out Lord Borric, for it seemed civil war would surely come. Reaching Borric’s camp, Laurie and Kasumi met Lyam, who informed them that Borric was close to death from a wound.
Milamber, as Pug was known, attended the Imperial Games, given by the warlord to commemorate his smashing victory over Lord Borric. Milamber became enraged at the wanton cruelty, especially the treatment of Midkemian prisoners. In a fit of rage he destroyed the arena, shaming the Warlord, thereby throwing the politics of the Empire into shambles. Milamber then fled with Katala and William back through the rift to Midkemia.
Discovering that Pug is alive and prospering as a magician, the dying Duke Borric revealed that he had adopted Pug into his family, also awarding him an island to begin an academy of magic. At the last, Borric also revealed that Martin was his illegitimate firstborn son. Upon his death, Lyam became Duke of Crydee and commander of the Armies of the West. Shortly after, the King Rodric himself led a heroic charge against the Tsurani, breaking their ranks and driving them back. He suffered a mortal injury and named Lyam the heir to the throne. As Lyam was now the King, he sued for a peace treaty with the Emperor Ichindar. The ten year war was at the end, and everyone rejoiced. On the night before the peace treaty, however, in Elvandar, Tomas was warned by Macros that there would be treachery, and that the elves and dwarves be ready to respond by force. During the peace treaty, the two rulers, with Pug as the interpreter, began on good terms by exchanging gifts. By chance, the elves and dwarves mistakenly perceived treachery, and the truce dissolved into an all-out conflict, this time with the full wrath of the Emperor against the Kingdom. Pug sought to close the rift, and with Macros the Black, succeeded in severing the connection between the two worlds, stranding four thousand Tsurani in Midkemia. With the threat of war over, all converged to the capital of Rillanon for the coronation of the new King. Lyam was the appointed heir, but Martin was the eldest son of Borric. At the end, to avert civil war, Martin abdicated his claim and supported Lyam to the throne.


My comment:
This is a story quite related to the Empire Trilogy because it was happening this time in Midkemia, another Empire some distance away from Tsurani. It so happen that Tsurani discovered this strange land with climate so much hotter from their own, had strange looking animals and most importantly so rich in steel which doesn't exist in Tsurani and hence considered very valuable. The Tsurani, being Tsurani engaged themselves in battles with the intention to conquer the strange Empire. This story as the title shows evolved around this young boy who apprentice with the magician of Duke of Crydee (name of a country in Midkemia). No matter how much he studied, he was unable to master any magic even though this Master was so sure that the boy name Pug had the talent for it. Then the whole country was involved in the war. Pug who went on a journey with the Duke to seek the King's help was unfortunately captured by the Tsurani and become a slave. His magic talent was discovered and taken by the Magicians in Tsurani to be trained to be a Great One (powerful magician). Pug was now standing between the two Worlds deep in battle.