Magician

A classic fantasy adventure

This was a thoroughly enjoyable return to my younger days and a genuine classic of the fantasy genre. It's the first of a three part series but reads very well as a book in its own right. That might be useful for anyone thinking 36 hours is commitment enough!

The characters are well portrayed in not one but two richly detailed worlds as fate brings two very different civilizations into conflict.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the genre and Feist is more accessible that some of the authors that followed him.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Bizarre reading

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator

What didn’t you like about Peter Joyce’s performance?

Mr Joyce makes incredibly strange choices in his reading. As another reviewer mentioned, I see no reason for his decision to pronounce "Arutha" as "Aruta". Nothing in the text or elsewhere suggests it.

Then he seems to have decided not to distinguish between the various characters, just their races - most of the Midkemia men get more or less the same voices, as do the elves, the invaders from Kelewan etc. The only times he deviates from this, he chooses inappropriate voices (particularly Martin and Father Tully). And why did the voice he chose for the men have to be a rasping growl? How many people speak like that? It just sounds like somebody putting on a strange voice rather than the way someone would actually talk. I can see that he's attempting a kind of sing song quality for the elves, but... well... epic fail there.

A good reader should distinguish between voices in a natural way. If a narrator is unable to think of a suitable accent, then it is better that he or she does nothing than something inappropriate. You only have to listen to Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter novels for an example of how it should be done. Each character has their own 'voice', (a great achievement considering the number of characters), yet each one sounds completely natural. Masterly. Stephen Briggs is also brilliant in his readings of Terry Pratchett novels.

What began to drive me mad though after a while (once I'd noticed it) was his habit of a long pause after saying "[someone] said". Why this huge pause? Continually during the course of ordinary dialogue, it was held up by an extra beat while we waited for what each character was going to say next.

Having said all that, he did at least manage to sound relatively enthused by the whole thing, and Pug's and Tomas' voices were fine, so overall it remained an okay listen. It was just a shame that I had to struggle to screen out certain elements in order to enjoy it.

Was Magician worth the listening time?

Generally speaking, yes.

Any additional comments?

Due to the somewhat stilted narration, I'd head towards the kindle rather than audio version.

38 of 43 people found this review helpful

An enthralling story.

Well worth the credit. It is in fact book 1 and 2 of the series and is incredibly good value, at over 36 hours long. I would rate the story as five stars, have already purchased the available sequels and will come back and listen to one this again and again.
Without giving away more than in the synopsis, the initial story follows Pug a potential magician from the initial obscurity of being his keeps kitchen boy, to a journey spanning two beautifully realized and very different fantasy worlds.
While there is quite a bit of action at the start of the story, I personally found it a little slow going at first, after the first dramatic sequence of events. It is well worth having some patience with this story however, as you are gradually introduced to fascinating characters and varying cultures and races in this complex plot. At first I thought the story was only going focus on Pug but as the novel goes on the story becomes even more interesting because it splits also following his companions on their own epic journeys.
The only difficulty I had with the book was the narrator who to me was both a blessing and a curse. Peter Joyce has a pleasant if somewhat dry narrating voice and makes the story interesting by voicing the characters. He also disrupts the flow of the story by announcing he said in a dead pan voice then pausing, which is incredibly annoying and, in my opinion, gets the tone of voice wrong for many of the characters, like the elves.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Brilliant Story, Average narrator!!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is possibly the best book I have ever read. Brilliant characterisation, superb plot and paced in a way that leaves you desperate to keep turning the pages. I was so looking forward to the audiobook but I had my reservations as I has come across the narrator Peter Joyce before.Now don't get me wrong the story is still brilliant and Joyce's reading is enough to keep you engaged, however his performance is average at best. His accents are virtually non existent and some of the pronunciations leave you perplexed - Arutha being pronounce as Aruta being the most obvious (and annoying)! Some of it might be because the narration doesn't match up to what I already had in my head. If you are approaching Magician for the first time It will leave you spellbound, otherwise be prepared for some frustrations but an otherwise okay re-telling of a fantastic story.Oh by the way another annoying thing was that it downloaded in one big chunk of 36 hours rather than being split into four or five pieces. Very frustrating if you accidentally skip forward on your iPod!!!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Magician?

There are so many but the one outstanding moment I would pick is Thomas striding into the clearing in Elvendar with madness in his eyes - the Valheru come again.

What aspect of Peter Joyce’s performance might you have changed?

His ability to define distinct characters is woefully lacking. Please think about a change of narrators.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Borrics dying scene is well written - finally acknowledging Martin!

Any additional comments?

I'll say it again. Please change narrators.

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

disappointing

What would have made Magician better?

Narration is very poor. Stuck it through to end but between the clunky performance and some of cruder personality developments was disappointing

Would you be willing to try another one of Peter Joyce’s performances?

been said by other reviewers Peter does not do a very good job of the dialogue, distracting is nicest thing I can say.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

ok but the names ... toemass and not tomas, hmm!

Great in paper back, always has been a favourite, read many times but the pronunciation of some of the names was just more than a little off putting for me.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Really Dull

What would have made Magician better?

The narration was not very good.

Has Magician put you off other books in this genre?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Seemed like the author was trying to get every possible fantasy cliche in to the story. It started off well, but I couldn't finish it.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Why is this story not on film!!?...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Have read of all of his books in paperback, now listening to them is another experience... makes plane journeys and long drives enjoyable to point of slowing down which improves the fuel economy.... have even got my very sceptical SFF kids hooked...

What about Peter Joyce’s performance did you like?

Peter Joyce reads well and gets the intonation just right, although some of the accents are not as I had them in my head when reading... but excellent

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great story, not so much the narrator

I would like to mention that I'm from the US and I wanted to know if the UK narrator was any better than the US one. This book isn't on audible in the US yet and even if it was I wasn't sure about buying it because the narrator that the US usually gets is John Meagher and his voice just doesn't fit Magician or any of Feists books for that matter. Peter Joyce in some ways was a step up from John. John sounds like a teenager and can't seem to throw his voice completely away from that. Also even though the writer is from the US it just seems like a story that warrants someone from the UK to narrate it. Where Peter Joyce fails is his various mispronunciations and voice choice. As other reviewers mentioned, Arutha is not pronounced "Aruta", as he seems to pronounce anything with a "th" in it as just a "t" which was particularly annoying. Other reviewers have also mentioned the annoying tendency to leave random long pauses between statements that don't merit the pause, and I confirm this. The long pauses are as much a sign or poor editing in the audio as they are faults of the narrator. Lastly, the voices were done somewhat weird, though they aren't as atrocious as Roy Dotrice in the Song of Ice and Fire series. For some reason Father Tully has a light Scottish accent instead of just an elderly voice. Despite all this Magician is a great story and it was great to get to listen to it and catch little things I didn't with an actual read.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

At Last!!! Shame about the narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Magician to be better than the print version?

No, the written word is always better. It's a fantastic story and the audio book is worth listening to but the narration did slightly spoil it for me. The pronunciation of certain words just didn't make sense.

What other book might you compare Magician to, and why?

Silvertorn, in fact anything by Ray Feist

Did Peter Joyce do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Nope way too long, but I did listen constantly over a week or so.

Any additional comments?

A great tale but let down by the narration, but if you are new to the books that shouldn't impact upon the enjoyment

3 of 3 people found this review helpful