I think the bones of this story are good and the story itself could have been a lot more interesting if the pacing had been faster and the prose–better? tighter? shaved down to the bare minimum?–had more focus on the scene at hand. So rather than going back a few chapters to catch what I’d missed leading up to the rift and the war, I skimmed right on to the end. This was interesting for about a dozen pages as most wars in secondary worlds are, but I couldn’t get into it because the prose started to drag again. There’s a rift in the time-space continuum– RIFTwar, I see, I see–and a hoard of something from an alien world comes through the portal and invades the world of Midkemia (e.g. In all that skimming though, I did come across something interesting around the half-way point. I should not as it is clearly not for me. However, in a way, I did finish this book, by which I mean I skimmed about 80% of it, read the middle until it lost me, and then read the ending to see if I should go onto Part II. So I have zero memories connected to these genre classics and absolutely no appreciation for chosen farm boys with extravagant destinies to fulfill and/or empires to save. Didn’t grow up reading SFF or playing RPG and didn’t start reading Tolkien until the movies came out.

I guess I’m just not cut out for retro high fantasy. Everything makes me want to take a shot of hard liquor at the moment, and this book didn’t do a good job of taking my mind off that. Well, it’s not entirely the book’s fault.

can’t take the words in this book anymore. Ultimately the destiny of two worlds will be placed in his youthful hands.Location: in between board meetings and the governor’s daily statewide address To Tomas will come a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization.īut Pug is to be thrust into the strangest adventure of all: he will be snatched through the magic Rift, taken prisoner, and granted the unimaginable powers of a dazzling new magic. But for Pug and his warrior friend Tomas, a destiny of otherworldly, mind-expanding adventures into the unknown has only just begun. Suddenly the peace of Pug's homeland is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm through the kingdom, and Pug is thrust into the coming conflict. Before long the apprentice's emerging powers have produced two miracles and won Pug a duke's favor and a princess's heart. and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever.

There, a humble orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician. The story begins at Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles.

Riftwar saga raymond e feist