This is the reworked version of Magician, although its split into two books and there is some content that was dropped as part of the editing process for the original version. This version was developed for the tenth anniversary of the original publication. I read the original version as a kid and was so proud of myself when it finished it — it was by far the longest book I had ever read at the time.
I’ve seen people online complain that this book is just a big ball of cliche. There are dwarves, wizards with funny hats, elves, and so on. But there are also new ideas here, such as alien invaders in a fantasy novel and so on. Overall I think the cliches don’t get in the way and are largely used a sort of short hand… Feist doesn’t need to explain what a dwarf is, so he can skip that bit and get on with telling the story.
After rereading this as an adult, I still really like this book.
[isbn: 0553564943]