The Fantasy of Feist and the Friday Nighters

Raymond E Feist’s hugely successful ‘Riftwar Cycle’ has entertained millions of readers for over three decades. A year after the release of ‘Magician’s End’ — the final book in the series, I take a look back at this popular series, and speak (via the magic of the internet) to RE Feist.

In 1982 the opening chapters of two of the longest running and most successful series in fantasy literature were published — Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, and Raymond Feist’s Riftwar Cycle.

Although King was already a highly successful horror writer when he first introduced us to Roland of Giliad in ‘The Gunslinger’, Feist was unknown. His first novel ‘Magician’ was greeted with little fanfare, and initial sales figures were moderate at best.

Given Magician’s less than auspicious start, Feist could never have imagined how successful his first book would become, and that it would spawn a further 29 novels set in his fictional world of Midkemia.

“Magician has become a true classic of the genre”, says Christine Tolec from Sydney’s Galaxy Bookshop. “We have four separate editions of the book on the shelves at the moment, and it remains immensely popular”.

“Feist’s series is epic. In terms of both popularity and longevity, it ranks him alongside the likes of Tolkien and George R Martin.”

Feist was studying for a communications degree at California University during the mid-seventies, when he first decided to write a fantasy novel centring upon a young boy who becomes a great magician. While the concept itself was by no means original, the process that breathed life into the Midkemian universe and its myriad of characters certainly strayed from the norm.

Steve Abrams, met Conan Lamot and Jon Everson through the Triton Wargaming Club at the University of California. In 1975 Lamot returned from a trip away with the newly released fantasy war game, Dungeons and Dragons. Unhappy with the limitations of the game, the three modified the rules based on their own knowledge of medieval history. Lamot produced a guideline of the new rules which he named ‘The Tome of Midkemia’.

They met one night a week to play the game. Midkemia gradually grew as new cities and new players were introduced into the game. One of these new players was Raymond Feist.

Feist asked the other ‘Friday nighters’ (as they had begun referring to themselves as), if he could use Midkemia as the background for the book he was writing. “I had no grasp on how to tell a story”, he said in an interview with Examiner.com in 2013. “Using our gaming world as a background for the story made it easy for me to concentrate on the narrative, and not fret about world-building.”

Having received the group’s approval, Feist began introducing his characters into the world of Midkemia. Two years later he submitted a, “very lengthy novel”, to Double Day, who agreed to publish the book on the proviso that he shorten it by some 50,000 words. Feist did so, and in 1982 Magician hit store shelves.

Magician tells the story of an orphan boy named Pug, who becomes a magician of immense power and his foster brother Tomas, who is transformed into a warrior with godlike abilities, after inheriting armour infused with an ancient magic. With the help of a myriad of other characters, they attempt to repel an invasion by the Tsurani, an alien race who gain access to Midkemia through a controlled rift in space and time.

Rifts had been employed by the Friday Nighters, and Feist liked the idea of a more mechanical approach to magicians moving from one place to another, rather than disappearing and reappearing in a puff of smoke. “People like rules, or at least the appearance of rules, even in fantasy”, he explained in an interview with SFX last year.

The use of rifts is a constant theme throughout Feist’s books, and of course the reason the series is known as the Riftwar Cycle.

While centred on Pug and Tomas, Magician delves deeply into the more mundane aspects of the invasion of Midkemia. Feist’s detailed and descriptive narration of medieval warfare, and the political intrigues involved was uncommon in the genre at the time, and his approach gradually attracted many new readers.

It could be argued that Feist ‘re-invigorated fantasy. His appreciation for, and details of the economics of warfare was a uniquely post-1987 crash approach to the genre’.

As was the ‘incorporation of second-wave feminism’ into his characters, particularly in the Empire trilogy, which attracted more women readers to fantasy literature.

The Empire trilogy was written directly after the Riftwar Saga, and was set on the Tsurani home world of Kelewan. The trilogy centres upon Mara of the Acoma’s struggles to maintain the honour of her house in a society dominated by men.

Co-written with Janny Wurts, Feist says the collaboration was a “massive” help in his development of female characters post Empire. “Janny and I went through a woman’s life from teenage to maturity and discussing how to evolve her taught me a great deal. Without Mara, I never would have created Sandreena or Miranda”.

As Feist has admitted, he did not have to concern himself with creating a world for his story, which meant he could place more emphasis on the introduction and development of a myriad of different characters.

As each subsequent series came out, larger areas of Midkemia were opened to the reader. New characters were constantly introduced. Many of them making just short appearances, while others, including the afore mentioned Sandreena and Miranda, became major participants in the ongoing story, their involvement lasting throughout a series, and often beyond.

Feist has introduced literally hundreds of characters into the world of Midkemia over the last 30 years, and although perhaps surprising, claims not to have a favourite. “Not really”, he says. “Every character serves a dramatic function. Some are a little more amusing to write, like Jimmy, Amos, and Nakor, because they get the smart ass lines”.

“The thing about writing is you’re already thinking about the next story while you’re writing the one you were thinking about during the previous one. And there are always new characters to write about.”

As the series progresses the themes and tone of the books become darker. The lines between good and evil become less distinguishable.

Feist’s extended universe is gradually opened up to the reader through an ever increasing amount of dialogue between numerous characters, made up of theories containing elements of science, religion, fantasy and metaphysics.

“That’s a writer’s vanity, actually”, Feist admits, when asked if the theories he presents in the books, in any way reflect his own. “It has nothing to do with my own personal view of the universe, but rather a view of the universe”.

“I wanted to look at “magic”, and by exertion articles of faith in Midkemia, by seeking out reality based explanations. Nakor treats magic as some sort of superstring theory, his ‘stuff’. Faith as an engine to shape fundamental expressions of natural forces.”

It is not until Magician’s End that Pug, and with him the reader, finally discover and understand the true nature of the forces behind the events that have been troubling Midkemia for over three centuries. Feist uses the book to finish explaining the nature of his universe, which again is done through lengthy dialogue between five of the more prominent characters of the books.

The final pages of the series, while holding no real surprises, are not unsatisfactory for the long time reader. Feist wraps his story up well, although perhaps not before time.

Three decades and 29 novels is a long time to spend in one place (metaphorically speaking), and there are some, while enthusiastic readers of the earlier books, drifted away after the third and fourth series.

Galaxy’s Christine Tolec is also of the opinion that the sheer volume of books in the series turns many new readers away. Which, she says is unfortunate. “Magician is a classic in its own right, and can easily be read as a stand-alone book.”

Feist himself, says he never really had any thoughts of wrapping the series up any earlier than he did. “Mostly not”, he says. “There had always been five riftwars in Midkemian lore. Not to mention my publisher kept paying me to write them.”

It has been a year since the series concluded, but at this stage Feist does not miss Midkemia, nor have any immediate intention of returning. “Not right now”, he says. “I can always go back should the urge strike, which is probably why I don’t, but anything is possible.”

He says he is still being surprised by his success. “I never imagined Magician would be in continuous print for almost 32 years in the English language. It’s perhaps my single biggest point of pride.”

At present Feist is working on a new fantasy novel titled King of Ashes, which will be the first chapter in The War of Five Crowns trilogy. Set in a completely new world, He confesses the process of creating this new universe was not what he was expecting. “It’s a different experience”, he says “I’m sort of making it up as I go and it’s proving a bit more difficult than I anticipated.”

Although asked, Feist would not elaborate on the book any further. “Sorry”, he says, “but I’m keeping that under wraps for a while longer”.

Raymond Feist’s ‘Riftwar Cycle’ has generated global sales in excess of 15 million copies, and has been published in over 20 countries. His books have made it onto the bestsellers lists of both The New York Times, and The Times of London.

Thanks to Raymond E Feist.

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