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Book Review of Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar, Bk 1)

Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar, Bk 1)
reviewed on + 77 more book reviews


This book is classic epic fantasy. The story follows the character of Pug, a young boy living in a castle towards the edge of human civilization. Toward the beginning of the book he finds himself apprenticed to the keeps magician. The story follows his difficulties in learning magic (he has the knowledge and the ability, but for some reason can't actually do anything) and the discovery of people from another world preparing to invade his world.

I will admit that I only read the first 1/3 before deciding this book just wasn't my thing. The book has some excellent details in it, but for all that both the characters and the world feel two-dimensional. I think the biggest problem I saw was that the author has a tendency to tell us how characters feel, or what they're thinking, instead of showing us how they're feeling. This contributed to the characters and world falling flat.

The story seemed interesting, but the characters didn't engage me enough to continue reading.