Published: October 1, 1982
Publisher: Spectra
Series: The Riftwar Saga #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 509 (Kindle)
My Rating: 4 Stars
Synopsis:
A worthy pupil . . . A dangerous quest
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.
This book reminded me why I loved fantasy in the first place. It follows several different characters throughout the story, but we begin with young Pug, an orphan boy who becomes apprenticed to the court magician, Kulgan. Pug’s training with Kulgan is actually a small part of the story because a much, much bigger event occurs that takes precedence – a ship from a strange land wrecks along the coast of Crydee, heralding invasion from another world.
The information gathered from the lone survivor of the shipwreck sends the men of Crydee across on a dangerous journey to the city of Krondor and then finally to the capital city of Rillanon to beg the King Rodric for aid. During this segment I felt some serious Tolkein inspiration – the party is harried by dark elves during their journey through the forests and when they finally meet up with a party of dwarves they begin a journey through old mines beneath the mountains because the only pass is blocked by snow. This is also where the party begins to split and more POV chapters are added. The first is that of Tomas, Pug’s best friend who gets separated during the flight through the dwarven mines. While Tomas begins his own journey, the remainder of the party make their way to Rillanon where it becomes apparent that King Rodric is completely mad and is being used by Duke Borric’s rival, Guy du Bas-Tyra. This is an important factor later in the story, but ultimately in the immediate it just means Duke Borric must go marshal the armies of the West and stand against the invading Tsurani without further aid from Rillanon and the Eastern lords. As the story progresses, further POVs are added – Prince Arutha, Martin Longbow the tracker, Princess Carline, and probably more that have slipped my mind.
Magician: Apprentice immediately hooked me and then didn’t let me go… right up until the last little chunk of the book. A certain character disappeared and (to my surprise) didn’t make a reappearance, leaving me with a bunch of characters that just kept on fighting the Tsurani. It honestly got a little tedious, but there were enough truly exciting events that I kept on reading. I was also expecting a pretty big pay off, if not in Apprentice, then in Magician: Master which I ended up getting. It does have some great action sequences, excellent characters, and even just a smidge of politics.
This was a great introduction to the Riftwar Saga and I can see why it’s considered a classic! Pug is a likable, heroic protagonist and the other characters who get their own POV chapters are equally likable – no morally grey, brooding characters here. This is classic epic fantasy all the way. Midkemia (where this story is entirely set) is a fairly standard fantasy world, with elves, dwarves, and the occasional dragon. The invading Tsurani seem to be inspired by East Asian cultures and possibly Central American, just based on some of the names given though their homeland isn’t described until Magician: Master. Overall, I had a fabulous time reading this, binged it in two days, and immediately began the next installment when my special edition from The Broken Binding arrived.
Powder & Page 
I read this one quite a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I’m not sure if I completed the series – I must go back and check.
Lynn 😀
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