Magician The Movie?

[Ross]

I've not read the Servent Of the Empire books yet. Less than a hundred pages off from finishing The Kings Buccaneer so will be reading them next!

[Grimward]

Sounds like you're about to discover Janny Wurts, Ross, if you've not read her stuff previously. Beware: If you find yourself enjoying the series as much as I did, you'll suddenly find you have a lot more books to buy and a WHOLE lot more reading to do!

Coming back to the movie, though, I really hope they do a stand-up-and-cheer job of it; one of my favorite SFF scenes ever is in Magician. When Milamber attends the Emperor's birthday and witnesses the execution of Midkemian soldiers-turned-slaves in the arena, the description of what he does next is both Feist at his ABSOLUTE best AND Pug/Milamber at his most charismatic. You know it's going to be in the film because there are far too many aspects of that scene that scream "drama". It would really be dreadful, therefore, to have to watch some hack butcher that moment by not giving the build-up to it enough attention.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Sounds like you're about to discover Janny Wurts, Ross, if you've not read her stuff previously. Beware: If you find yourself enjoying the series as much as I did, you'll suddenly find you have a lot more books to buy and a WHOLE lot more reading to do!

Coming back to the movie, though, I really hope they do a stand-up-and-cheer job of it; one of my favorite SFF scenes ever is in Magician. When Milamber attends the Emperor's birthday and witnesses the execution of Midkemian soldiers-turned-slaves in the arena, the description of what he does next is both Feist at his ABSOLUTE best AND Pug/Milamber at his most charismatic. You know it's going to be in the film because there are far too many aspects of that scene that scream "drama". It would really be dreadful, therefore, to have to watch some hack butcher that moment by not giving the build-up to it enough attention.

That was a fantastic part. It's weird how it doesn't happen very often throughout the books though, but I suppose if Pug did use his extraordinary powers alot more then the whole series would have been over in 500pages.

On Janny Wurts, I'm just going to carry on reading Feist until I can't get a copy of the "next" book that I want to read. Then i'm going to get Robin Hobb's farseer trilogy, Stephen Donaldson's Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire Series. So much I want to read and so little time (I reckon I have at least 60years left in me:P)

[Grimward]

Ah, but the Empire series is written by both Feist and Wurts, good sir. And once hooked by Janny.....

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Ah, but the Empire series is written by both Feist and Wurts, good sir. And once hooked by Janny.....

Just read the first chapter Should be good!

[fingy773]

[quote=GOLLUM;1015741]It's only ever been 1 book from when I bought it and the 25th anniversary edition was also a single volume. It may be that it was printed at some stage in 2 volumes but I think you'll find in most cases it was published as a single volume.

I met Feist in Melbourne and got the 3 krondor books I think it was ? signed in Hardback by him. Quite cool actually.[/quote]

when was this i never heard of it??

i agree with whoever said that the time cuts would stuff the movie up

[Tribble]

Originally Posted by Fake Vencar

How about this? With other books being poorly put into films, except for LOTR of course, would we welcome this? If so, what about roles?

Saw this somewhere else ages ago and they were having a right old banter. Seems they were not too keen as well

The LOTR movies put me to sleep.

I really didn't like Jackson's take on LOTR at all

[Tribble]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Sounds like you're about to discover Janny Wurts, Ross, if you've not read her stuff previously. Beware: If you find yourself enjoying the series as much as I did, you'll suddenly find you have a lot more books to buy and a WHOLE lot more reading to do!

I tried reading the Empire series ... and it bored me almost as much at the hatchet job done by Jackson on LOTR

[Grimward]

Sorry to hear that, Trib. Did you feel that way about Magician (the book that established Kelewan, the world in which the Empire Series occurs), too?

Not sure that I've extended a welcome previously so....Welcome to The Chrons!

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Tribble

I tried reading the Empire series ... and it bored me almost as much at the hatchet job done by Jackson on LOTR

Surprised about this. But everyone has a different liking!

I found that I was hooked after the 3rd chapter of the first book.

[Grimward]

Alas, I warned you, if "warned" is the right word....

Janny usually needs a little set up time, and then things start to move. Once they do, look out! I see Ray's structure in the books, but Janny's prose, although if you haven't read Janny before, it might be a little hard to pick things apart in quite this manner (I'd read Sorceror's Legacy and the Cycle of Fire series from Janny prior to the Empire series). Did you finish all three books already?!!

[Clansman]

Ah, Grim one, you did indeed warn him. I got my start on Janny's stuff with Empire, and an auspicious beginning it was. However, I was led to that by Fiest's Magician, which I thought brilliant when I read it in 1986 (in one trade volume, not two paperbacks. It was in fact split in two for the mass market editions on the western side of the Pond). I have not returned to it in the 20-plus years since, and I am due for a re-read, perhaps of the anniversary edition.

A movie of Magician? I'm sorry, but unless they want to do a duology or a trilogy, the screen play will be nothing but a hack job. Jackson, for all of his faults, at least gave LOTR enough screen time for the story to make sense, and he took several years to produce a screen play that supported that vision. Magician is a really big book, and if it is cut too much, as with any story, it will come out really crappy on the big screen. Just look at what happened to Dune, back in the early 1980's. Absolutely horrible, because, in part, about four hours of film ended up on the cutting room floor, so that they could produce a 2 hour movie.

Better to have a mini-series on HBO, like GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire. They tend to do things much better than most of Hollywood. Or if a decent director and studio are willing to get behind a decent-length screen play, they actually might pull it off in two movies.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Grimward

Alas, I warned you, if "warned" is the right word....

Janny usually needs a little set up time, and then things start to move. Once they do, look out! I see Ray's structure in the books, but Janny's prose, although if you haven't read Janny before, it might be a little hard to pick things apart in quite this manner (I'd read Sorceror's Legacy and the Cycle of Fire series from Janny prior to the Empire series). Did you finish all three books already?!!

I have 124 pages left of the 3rd book. I read alot. (at work...but shhh don't tell the boss- im glad they arn't bothered aslong as the work gets done)

I really want to read more of Janny after this but I don't think I want to cut off from REF until i've finished everything.

If I did what should I start with?

[Clansman]

Ross:

Hop on over to Janny Wurts' sub-forum, which was started up in the Chrons a few weeks back. Here is the link, for faster action: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/janny-wurts/

I don't want to get hijacking threads, but since you asked, I will briefly answer:

I would send you first to reading To Ride Hell's Chasm, which is a one shot novel, fairly recent, and shows off her style really well. Then, I'd send you into her grand epic (currently at 8 books, and heading for a finish at 11 books. The ninth is due out next year) of The Wars of Light and Shadow, starting with Curse of the Mistwraith. Watch out in those threads in her sub-forum, though, because spoilers are everywhere, and she specializes in surprises for her readers.

Fans of Feist often enjoy Wurts, which isn't a surprise given their collaboration and friendship, but their styles are quite different. Wurts is definitely more complex and thought-provoking, and her characterization is better than anybody else in this field, IMHO.

[Ivaron]

Originally Posted by Clansman

she specializes in surprises for her readers.

Fans of Feist often enjoy Wurts, which isn't a surprise given their collaboration and friendship, but their styles are quite different. Wurts is definitely more complex and thought-provoking, and her characterization is better than anybody else in this field, IMHO.

Really?

I got the Empire trilogy for my birthday. I would never have bought them myself because the two books (Jimmy the Hand and Murder in LaMut) of Feist+other I'd read earlier were simply horrible imo.
Anyway, so I was quite sure it wouldn't be worth my time, but decided to read a bit before deciding wether or not to trade them in for something else at the bookshop..

I read about two or three chapters from the first book, and if I didn't have the option to trade them in I probably would've thrown them out in disgust

From what I read, I would think Wurts' writing style is a horribly slow read, with very few surprises if at all, too dull to be thought-provoking and too much time spent on characterization.

Maybe the best way to describe what I thought of what little I read from Daughter of the Empire would be to compare Wurts to Robert Jordan. Imo, Robert Jordan's series The Wheel of Time has a good story but is very slow to read and is too annoyingly over-the-top in characterization. Well, from what I read in Daughter of the Empire Wurts is even worse in this.
Combine this with me not liking drawn-out stories that aren't rich with plots and story (which I assume the Empire trilogy lacks because of it being a side-story), and that's why I traded them in.

But your post makes me think I might have judged too soon..