Raymond E. Feist

Raymond E. Feist is an American fantasy author best known for the Riftwar Cycle, a sprawling multi-series saga launched with Magician (1982) and set primarily in the world of Midkemia, which Feist originally developed as a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting before turning it into fiction. The Riftwar Cycle eventually grew to encompass several linked series — the Riftwar Saga, the Serpentwar Saga, the Conclave of Shadows, the Darkwar Saga, the Demonwar Saga, and others — following Midkemia's magicians, soldiers, and rulers across generations of conflict with the alien Tsurani empire and other threats. Feist frequently collaborated with other writers to fill in corners of Midkemia's history: the Empire trilogy, co-written with Janny Wurts, tells the Riftwar from the perspective of the Tsurani noblewoman Mara of the Acoma and is often cited as some of the strongest work in the entire Riftwar Cycle, while the Legends of the Riftwar trilogy paired him with three different collaborators — William R. Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg, and S. M. Stirling — for standalone side-adventures set during the original war. Feist closed out the core Riftwar Cycle with Magician's End in 2013 after more than thirty years and thirty-plus novels, one of modern fantasy's largest single continuities — but he didn't stop writing: the Firemane Saga (2018-2022) launched a new trilogy originally promoted as unconnected to Midkemia, and the ongoing Dragonwar Saga, begun with A Darkness Returns (2024), ties back into the wider Riftwar universe through returning characters, including a reincarnated Pug.