• MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE
  c.1993, Bantam Spectra
  ISBN: 0-553-56494-3
  Pug and Tomas are boys who live in the town of Crydee on the far coast of the enormous Kingdom of the Isles. Pug is a magician's apprentice; Tomas is a trainee soldier. The two friends are unexpectedly thrust into the center of great events when they make first contact with a man from another world, and alert their lord the Duke of Crydee to the presence of invaders in his lands. The invaders have come from the distant world of Tsuranuanni by means of a magical "rift" in space. Their goal is to conquer as much of Midkemia as possible, partly because they need its resources, but partly because they are a warrior people and conquest is what they do. Pug and Tomas then join the Duke in a journey to the Kingdom's western capital city of Krondor, in search of aid for the war against the Tsurani. The way leads through a dwarf-dug complex of mines under the Iron Mountains. In the caverns, Tomas gets lost and eventually finds his way to a huge cavern inhabited by a dying dragon, who gives him a magical set of white-and-gold armor with a matching sword. Meanwhile, Pug is slowly learning his own destiny as a magician of unusual power and skills. This was Feist's first-ever novel. It's not as well-written as later books in the series, and the origins of Midkemia as a fantasy role-playing milieu are obvious, but it's still a very good read for all that.
• MAGICIAN: MASTER
  c.1993, Bantam Spectra
  ISBN: 0-553-56493-5
  Three separate plot threads wind their ways through this book:
  • First, Pug has been a slave for three years on the Tsurani homeworld of Tsuranuanni. His status unexpectedly changes when he uses magic in the presence of a Tsurani magician. On Tsuranuanni, all magicians belong to "the Assembly," which holds a rigid monopoly on the use and study of magic. So Pug joins the Assembly and learns the Greater Path of magic, eventually leaving his old self behind and emerging as the magician named Milamber -- a magician of great strength and greater independence.
  • Second, Tomas has become a formidable warrior, using the strange powers of the Armor of White and Gold to defend Midkemia against the invaders. The down side to this power is that the weapons are using him as much as he is using them, transforming him into an avatar of Ashen-Shugar, a member of the long-dead race of demigods called the Valheru.
  • Third, Arutha, the son of the Duke of Crydee, seeks to get more troops and aid for his father from the King of Isles. To his dismay, he finds that the monarch is on the edge of madness and real power has fallen to the rogue lord Black Guy of Rillanon, who may be plotting civil war.

  With the Kingdom threatened from within and without, one more complication enters the picture: the legendary mage Macros the Black. Macros has plans of his own, which involve playing all sides against one another with the ultimate goal of ending the war and closing the rift between Midkemia and Tsuranuanni.

• SILVERTHORN
  c.1985, Bantam Books
  ISBN: 0-553-27054-0
  It's been several years since the war between the Kingdom and the Tsurani ended in a failed parley and the destruction of the rift that provided passage between the two worlds. Macros the Black is vanished, perhaps dead. A mysterious warchief named Murmandamus has appeared and is working to unite the moredhel ("dark elves") into an army powerful enough to destroy the Kingdom. As one of his first steps, he seeks to fulfill an ancient prophecy by killing "the Lord of the West," Prince Arutha of Krondor. However, the assassination misfires and instead leaves Arutha's bride Anita fatally injured by a poisoned crossbow bolt. The mage Pug uses his powers to preserve Anita's life, while Arutha undertakes a desperate mission to find a cure for the poison. Arutha's tracks are dogged relentlessly by more assassins and other attacks sent by Murmandamus. At the same time, Pug and his fellow magicians and scholars seek information about the threat that lies behind Murmandamus: a dark power older than time itself, which appears to be somehow connected to the world of Tsuranuanni.
• A DARKNESS AT SETHANON
  c.1985, Bantam Books
  ISBN: 0-553-26328-5
  The moredhel Murmandamus is on the march again, and again he seeks to kill Arutha, the Lord of the West. Arutha strikes back, then fakes his own death and disappears into the Northlands with a handful of companions, seeking to learn more about the moredhel warchief. Meanwhile, Pug of Stardock returns from Tsuranuanni with news and information about the ancient enemy who stands behind Murmandamus. The half-Valheru warrior Tomas uses his powers to do something no one has done in centuries: summon a dragon, on whose back he and Pug travel between worlds in a quest for Macros the Black. Along the way, they learn what lies behind Murmandamus, and why he must be defeated at all costs. Everything comes together back on Midkemia, where Murmandamus seeks to seize the city of Sethanon and reach a long-lost treasure that lies buried beneath it.

The Riftwar Saga was only the first of several large stories that Ray Feist wanted to tell about the world of Midkemia. His next two novels were stand-alones, set some twenty years after the Riftwar.

The Serpentwar Saga tells of the rise of a new power in Novindus, and its development into a gigantic attack against the Kingdom of the Isles. The story involves several familiar characters from the Riftwar Saga, and several new ones as well.

• SHADOW OF A DARK QUEEN
  c.1994, Avon
  ISBN: 0-380-72086-8
  Erik von Darkmoor was an apprentice blacksmith. His friend Rupert "Roo" Avery was a ne'er-do-well who wanted to become rich. Instead, they're both in prison for the murder of the Baron of Darkmoor. They have one chance to avoid hanging: accept service in a small company of desperate men being sent to Novindus. Novindus is being methodically conquered by an enormous army, and after previous events (as told in The King's Buccaneer), it has to be viewed as a threat to the Kingdom. The company's goal is to learn who leads the army and what its ultimate goal is. The company numbers forty desperate ex-prisoners and a handful of regular soldiers, led by Calis the half-elf. Also along for the ride is Nakor, the part-mage, part-con-man, part-Fool with magic powers that rival Pug's. They learn far more than they expected: that the conquering army is led by a witch named the Emerald Queen, and that she is conquering Novindus in order to turn that whole continent into a base for a massive invasion of the Kingdom. As allies she has the dark magicians of the Pantathian serpent people, and a race of gigantic reptilian warriors called simply the Saaur. There's not much new in the way of plot in this novel. What makes it interesting is two things: first, the characters of Erik and Roo; second, the very well-detailed descriptions of life as a mercenary soldier, which draw heavily on historical accounts of the Roman legions.
• RISE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE
  c.1995, Avon
  ISBN: 0-380-72087-6
  A handful of men, including Erik and Roo, survived the Battle of the Serpent City on Novindus and have now returned to the Kingdom. While Erik stays in the army and rises steadily in skill, experience, and rank, Roo sets about becoming a rich merchant. In the process, he runs afoul of enemies more dangerous than any he faced on Novindus. In short order he finds himself fighting for his honor, his property, and his life. For their part, Erik and Calis return to Novindus, to find the homeland of the Pantathian serpent people, in hopes of both destroying the Pantathians and finding a way to defeat the Emerald Queen's mighty army. They find that they're too late -- the Pantahians are already being methodically destroyed by a third player in this lethal game, a demon from another world. The demons drove the Saaur from their own homeworld into Midkemia, and now seek to follow and destroy Midkemia the way they destroyed the Saaur homeworld. This novel suffers heavily from "middle book syndrome" -- it neither clearly starts nor clearly finishes any of its several plotlines, and understanding those plotlines is impossible unless you've read the prequel.
• RAGE OF A DEMON KING
  c.1997, Avon
  ISBN: 0-380-72088-4
  The Emerald Queen's army is on the way, setting sail from Novindus aboard a huge fleet of ships. Erik, Roo, Nakor, Pug, Prince Nicholas, and many other characters from throughout the entire Midkemia series come together in the final defense of the Kingdom against the invaders. During an attempt to destroy the fleet by magic, Pug discovers the enemy army is no longer led by the Emerald Queen. Instead, it's been taken over by a powerful demon who seeks the Lifestone, the same Valheru artifact that Murmandamus attempted to seize so many years before. While Erik and James lead the final defense of the Kingdom against the invading army, Pug, Macros, Nakor, and Miranda combine their wizardly talents in an attempt to defeat the demons at their source. All the threads lead back to the Lifestone, and the Kingdom's defenders must figure out the secret to the Lifestone and somehow place it beyond the Enemy's reach forever. The climax to this novel is some of the most skilled writing I've read, as Feist manages to take much of what was "revealed" in previous novels about the Valheru and the Lifestone, and turn it on its head without making it seem clumsy or contrived.
• SHARDS OF A BROKEN CROWN
  c.1998, Avon
  ISBN: 0-380-78983-3
  A 'wrap it all up to mail' book, more or less, full of conventional military campaigning and political intrigues. The great invasion was held off, but at a staggering cost. The remnants of the army from Novindus occupy part of the Western Kingdom and dig in there, while Erik and the Kingdom commanders make plans to rebuild the destroyed city of Krondor and either destroy or conquer the invaders. Sensing weakness, the Empire of Great Kesh moves against the Kingdom's southern border. Meanwhile, Pug and his fellow wizards Miranda and Nakor seek to understand and counter a force of dark magic that is still aiding the enemy army, even after the deaths of both the Emerald Queen and the demon who took her place.

KRONDOR: THE BETRAYAL
c.1998, HarperTorch
ISBN: 0-380-79527-2
A novel based on the storyline of the computer game Betrayal at Krondor. The game was very good; the novel is less good, but still a worthwhile read. Several familiar Riftwar characters, mainly Squire Locklear and Squire James, aka Jimmy the Hand, find themselves involved in a plot by the moredhel chieftain named Delekhan to assemble an army and attack the Kingdom. Delekhan believes that Murmandamus is still alive and held prisoner in the abandoned city of Sethanon. He seeks to rescue Murmandamus and seize the secret hidden within Sethanon. He is aided by six mysterious magicians and opposed by a renegade moredhel named Gorath. However, Delekhan's "allies" seem to be playing a game of their own. The novel's origin as a game shows, but not badly so -- since Midkemia originated as a world for fantasy role-playing games, a novel based on an RPG storyline isn't as out of place here as you might think.

KRONDOR: THE ASSASSINS
c.1999, HarperTorch
ISBN: 0-380-80323-2
Set immediately after KRONDOR: THE BETRAYAL, this novel continues the story arc that the previous novel set in motion. William, son of Pug and soldier of the King, joins Squire James in tracing the secret of the renegade thief-lord known as the Crawler. The trail leads the two men to a complex plot of dark magic and darker goals, based in an abandoned Keshian fortress south of Krondor. In an amusing twist, Feist has Prince Arutha decide that something is seriously wrong in his realm, specifically because of the endless waves of assassins that keep appearing out of nowhere with the goal of killing him and/or undermining the Kingdom's power and defenses.

KRONDOR: TEAR OF THE GODS
c.2000, HarperTorch
ISBN: 0-380-79528-0
The novel based on the second Krondor computer game, Return to Krondor. The newly appointed Court Mage for Prince Arutha turns out to be a beautiful young Keshian woman named Jazhara. Her arrival in Krondor coincides with still another magical plot against the Kingdom, this one led by a mysterious magician and a berserker pirate. The pirate, named Bear, attacked and sank a ship that carried a vital artifact called the Tear of the Gods. Squire James, William, Jazhara, a warrior-priest named Solon, and a novice mage named Kendaric must retrieve the Tear while unraveling the dark magic that protects Bear and seeks to seize the Tear for its own ends. Unlike Betrayal at Krondor, both the game and the novel of Tear of the Gods seem to have been developed from the start with the goal that they would fit into the ongoing master story arc for Midkemia.