Feists Riftwar Saga to culminate in a final series

[Alatar]

After only 30 books.

Realm Deepens Riftwar

Best-selling fantasy author Raymond E. Feist told SCI FI Wire that the latest book in his popular Riftwar series, Into a Dark Realm, is essentially the second act of a three-act play. "Our band of brave heroes decides to go see the bad guys on their home ground before the bad guys reach Midkemia," Feist said in an interview. "It's worse than they imagined."

As is the case in most of Feist's books, Pug is the linchpin, even if he's not the main character, he said. "He's the central character in all my works, from Magician onward: a boy who grew up to be the most powerful magic-user on two worlds," Feist said. "In Dark Realm he's one of three major characters around whom the action turns."

Pug, Nakor and Magnus, along with the enigmatic Ralan Bek, travel to the world of the Dasati. "[They're] a race of seriously nasty characters, the creators of the Talnoy and people with whom you would never wish to associate," Feist said. "They make the worst band of villains we've seen so far, all the way back to Magician, look like guests at a garden party. ... The realm is so much darker than any I've shown heretofore."

The book was partly inspired by Feist's desire to see how alien he could make the Dasati, he said. "Rather than odd-looking humans, they would really be strange people with some difficult-to-understand behaviors, such as trying to kill their own young," Feist said.

Trying to build a society where infanticide is the norm but the society somehow continues was a challenge, Feist said. "[The Dasati are] evil by our standards, but by their own standards they're just a bunch of normal folks—murderous, but normal," he said.

Another challenge was keeping a consistent perspective on the murderous Dasati, Feist said. "Trying to find the light side—the fun-and-games side—is a constant temptation, but that would just turn them back into funny-looking humans," he said. "And being it was the second act of that three-act play, finding a decent ending—without the readers trying to form a lynch mob while they wait for the last book—[was a challenge]."

Feist recently signed a new six-book agreement, which will finish up the entire Riftwar cycle, he said. "The entire cycle will have five more books: two for the fourth Riftwar and three for the fifth and last, plus a bonus book yet to be determined," Feist said. "When the dust settles, the entire series of Riftwar-related books will number 30 volumes." —John Joseph Adams

[Primula Baggins]

30 books in the same series?!?

<falls over>

[Alatar]

And they're not small....

Mind you, that probably includes the Empire series which were co-written with Janny Wurtz (I think) and he's been writing them pretty much solidly for the last 20 years or so.

[Tyrhael]

Eh, Janny Wurts' writing is much better than his anyway.