Yet another book to read: Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist

Dual reading is fun. I didn't intend to add this book to the mix, but I took it off the shelf at ye old librarium and figured "what the hell." Actually, I took it and two other Feist books: Shadow of a Dark Queen because I wasn't sure if it or Magician was the first book of his Riftverse, and Talon of the Silver Hawk because I thought it was an unrelated series. Well, Magician is the first and Silver Hawk is related to the series, so I guess those two are out of consideration at the moment. Here's the summary, then hit the jump for more.

To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. But though his courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely Princess, he was ill at ease with the normal ways of wizardry. Yet Pug's strange sort of magic would one day change forever the fates of two worlds. For dark beings from another world had opened a rift in the fabric of spacetime to being again the age-old battle between the forces of Order and Chaos.

As for Magician, I like it so far. It has all the standard fantasy cliches - the protagonist is an orphan boy, there's an wise, old spellcaster, and probably some sort of great evil - but, hey, what can you do? At least in this one, the orphan isn't going down the martial path and instead becoming a magician. I'm sure he'll be doing shows in Vegas in no time!

Speaking of books, I'm having trouble with Sourcery, the other book I'm reading. Or at least supposed to be reading. The thing is only 260 pages long, but I've been slogging through it ever since I checked the thing out. I think the reason is that five out of the first six books in the Discworld series are about wizards and witches. As much as I love Terry Pratchett's wit and humor, it can be grinding. I've been thinking about just skipping it, Wyrd Sisters, and possibly Pyramids, and going straight to Guards! Guards! I could finish Sourcery and then do that, since leaving a Discworld novel unfinished would probably nag me to death. Hrm.