Click here for Raymond E. Feist's biographical information.
Before becoming a writer, REF was involved in games design.
Feist's main impact on the Fantasy Genre has been the development of his Midkemia sequence of novels, mainly set on that planet, with side excursions to the world of Kelewan.
In this sequence the forces of Chaos, having been defeated aeons past, are making a bid for freedom once more.
The stories are split into a number of sub arcs, each self contained but all pushing forward the story of the conflict in current times.
In the original trilogy we followed the story of the Tsurani invasion of Midkemia after their discovery of the ability to create a rift between the two planets in search of metals. In particular we get to see the action through the eyes of two low born children as they grow up during the action. These are Tomas and Pug, the first the son of the castle's cook and the latter an orphan.
They are the focus in the first book of the first trilogy while the last two focus more on the ruling prince of the Western Kingdom.
The three books in this trilogy are:
in which an extremely powerful artefact was found to be hidden underneath an otherwise unimportant Kingdom city.
The next sequence followed up on the next generation as they were confronted by the agents of Chaos that menaced the peace in their time. The books in this sequence are:
where we get an indication of the size of the planet, which is fairly rare in fantasy.
Moving on a half generation or so, we come to the next step in uncovering the plots of Chaos in overthrowing the gods. The level of violence in this sequence is rather high and the body count is quite incredible <G>. The books are:
After the excesses of the above books, REF went back in time to look at the events earlier in the life of James, Duke of Krondor. Again the mystical underpinnings of the conflict are explored and deepened. These books are all set in and around the city of Krondor.
Having recovered his breath, so to speak, Feist is continuing on from the series prior to the one above. This series deals with the group of magicians set up by Pug as a hidden counterbalance to the Academy he had established up at Stardock. Currently this consists of six books:
These books are part of 'The Conclave of Shadows' series.
The final trilogy set on Midkemia:
As well as the above books, REF has co-authored a number of other books set in the same universe. The main grouping in this section are the Kelewan books, co-written with Janny Wurtz. These are more or less contemporary with the first sequence of Midkemia books. There is fairly little to link these books with the main thrust of the Midkemia books, however. These books are:
In addition, there are three books claiming to be co-written by individual authors in each case, though I believe the other author has actually supplied most of the story and characters, effectively admitted in one case. These books are set around the period of the Tsunami invasion. These books are:
Honored Enemy with William Forstchen
Murder in LaMut with Joel Rosenberg
Jimmy the Hand with SM Stirling
Some people have problems with REF's work. Much of this lies in the fact that Feist was originally an RPG designer and has sometimes allowed the actions of his characters to be resolved in a manner rather too similar as to how you would in an RPG - you can sometimes hear the dice rattling in the background.
REF has also written a standalone fantasy/horror novel, Faery Tale, set in modern America.
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