The Empty Shelf Book Reviews

       Good Day, good day, and welcome to the Empty Shelf, where we discuss and review Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels and series. My name is Mike and I’ll be your reader and reviewer. As usual, there are some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. Today, we’re going to discuss Magician, by Raymond E. Feist. Now, Magician is the first novel in the Riftwar Saga, which is the trilogy that started the Riftwar CYCLE. The Riftwar Cycle encompasses some 30 novels, with a few other novellas and short stories thrown in for good measure. The most recent novel, the one that ended the cycle, is called “Magician’s End” and it was released in 2013. So the whole universe was told over a span of about 30 years. In world, it takes place over about 50 years, across several kingdoms and worlds. It really is quite the epic achievement. The original concept for the world of the Riftwar, called Midkemia, came from Feist’s time in college, where he and his friends were fond of RPGs. Toget...

I've read about half of The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell. If you're unfamiliar, the first book is The Last Kingdom, and it was turned into a very successful tv show on Netflix. I got just a tad burned out on the characters in that series (there are 13 books I think), but I really enjoy Cornwell's style and I love a good King Arthur story, so I set my attention on The Winter King. This is Cornwell's take on the aforementioned King Arthur, except he's not a king. He's a warlord, which is fine. A fresh take can always be nice. Set in the 5th or 6th century, right after the departure of the Romans from Britain, many of the character and place names are very strange. That can be difficult to reconcile from time to time; keeping track of who's who, and where's where. But, again, that's fine because Cornwell includes a glossary at the front of the book that outlines all that stuff. Jumping back and forth is a hassle, but hey...first world problems. I r...