Series · fantasy

Riftwar Saga

by Raymond E. Feist

The Riftwar Saga series by Raymond E. Feist has 3 known books (3 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Magician (1982). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Silverthorn.

Books
3 known books (3 novels)
Published
3
First published
1982
Status
completed
Shelved under
Last checked

Start here: Magician (1982) — then read straight through in publication order.

Reading order

The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.

  1. Book 1:

    Magician

    Novel

    Magician is the novel that opens Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga, published in 1982. It's followed here by Silverthorn. It's the natural place to begin the series, which ran to completion between 1982 and 1986 across 3 books. US mass-market paperback editions split this novel into two volumes, Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master; it's tracked here as the single novel Feist originally published.

    Alternative text for cover: Cover of Magician
  2. Book 2:

    Silverthorn

    Novel

    Silverthorn is by Raymond E. Feist, the second novel in the Riftwar Saga, published in May 1985. In the reading order it follows Magician and precedes A Darkness at Sethanon.

    Alternative text for cover: Cover of Silverthorn
  3. Book 3:

    A Darkness at Sethanon

    Novel

    A Darkness at Sethanon is the Riftwar Saga's third entry, a novel by Raymond E. Feist, published in 1986, at 528 pages. It follows Silverthorn as the most recent entry in the series so far.

    Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Darkness at Sethanon

About the Riftwar Saga series

Pug is an orphaned kitchen boy on the estate of the Duke of Crydee when an alien race, the Tsurani, tears open an interdimensional rift and invades his home world of Midkemia, dragging him into a war between worlds and a magical destiny he never chose. Magician introduces Feist's world-spanning epic in two halves -- Pug's captivity and magical awakening on the invaders' home world of Kelewan, and his friend Tomas's rise among an ancient, godlike race back on Midkemia -- before Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon widen the scope into court intrigue, a hunt for a cure to a magical poison, and a final confrontation with an ancient evil threatening to unmake both worlds.

Published across the 1980s, the Riftwar Saga is the foundational trilogy of Feist's Riftwar Cycle, a body of work that would eventually span more than a dozen further trilogies and duologies across four decades. It set the template the rest of the Cycle follows: sweeping, multi-book plots; a cast that ages and grows across volumes rather than resetting; and a habit of following secondary characters -- Pug's son, apprentices, entirely new generations -- once the founding heroes' story is told. New readers to the whole Cycle should start here; almost everything that follows assumes you already know Pug, Tomas, and the world of Midkemia.

Frequently asked questions

How many books are in the Riftwar Saga?

Three: Magician (1982), Silverthorn (1985), and A Darkness at Sethanon (1986). Some US paperback editions split Magician into two volumes (Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master), but it's a single novel.

What order should I read the Riftwar Saga in?

Publication order: Magician, Silverthorn, A Darkness at Sethanon.

Do I need to read the Riftwar Saga before other Feist series?

Yes -- it's the foundation of the entire Riftwar Cycle, and nearly every later series assumes you know Pug, Tomas, and Midkemia from these three books.

Is the Riftwar Saga a complete trilogy?

Yes, complete and self-contained, though the wider Riftwar Cycle continues across many further series.

What is Midkemia?

The medieval-fantasy world where most of the Riftwar Saga takes place, connected by magical rifts to the alien empire of Tsuranuanni on the world of Kelewan.


Reading order last verified .