Raymond E Feist

Raymond E Feist was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, and was raised in Southern California. He was born with the surname Gonzales, before being adopted by Felix E. Feist.

As the son of producer/director Felix E. Feist, who directed Peyton Place and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, he grew up in the film business. In 1966, he worked as an apprentice film editor at 20th Century Fox, though it wasn’t a successful venture.

Raymond E Feist's working resume reads like a jack-of-all-trades. He was a door-to-door photographer, a used car salesman, a game designer, a construction worker, a university assistant resident dean, and a health project coordinator before finally becoming a best-selling author.

Raymond E Feist originally played with a group who called themselves the Triton Wargaming Society at UCSD. The game playing later evolved into roleplaying games based on Dungeons & Dragons but  set in a fantasy world called Midkemia, a creative collaboration belonging to Stephen Abrams and Jon Everson. This is the same group who is acknowledged as the “Friday Nighters” in his novels.

Doubleday published his first book, Magician (which was originally titled Pug and Thomas) printed in 1982. He never expected Magician to become as popular as it has, and at the time, he never considered writing as a career. Twenty years later, his books are now published worldwide in 17 languages with approximately 20 million copies out in print, 2 million of which are in English.

Raymond E Feist  has also collaborated with Janny Wurts (Empire Trilogy), William Forstechen (Honoured Enemy), Joel Rosenburg (Murder in LaMut), and Steve Stirling. What he enjoys most about these collaborations is the chance to see other writer’s processes, sharing and learning with them. Though these, along with the rest of his writings currently in print, are fantasy; Ray does not bind himself to one genre alone.

Feist currently lives in San Diego with his children, where he collects fine wine, DVDs, and books on a variety of topics of personal interest: wine, biographies, history, and, especially, the history of American Professional Football.

Series

• Conclave of Shadows

  • 1 Talon of the Silver Hawk (2002)
  • 2 King of Foxes (2003)
  • 3 Exile’s Return (2004)

• Darkwar Saga

  • 1 Flight of the Nighthawks (2006)

• Riftwar Universe

  • Kelewan Empire
    • 1 Daughter of the Empire (1987) with Janny Wurts
    • 2 Servant of the Empire (1989) with Janny Wurts
    • 3 Mistress of the Empire (1992) with Janny Wurts
  • Legends of the Riftwar
    • 1 Honoured Enemy (2001)
    • 3 Jimmy the Hand (2003) with S. M. Stirling
  • Riftwar Saga
    • 1 Magician: Apprentice (1982)
    • 2 Magician: Master (1982)
    • 3 Silverthorn (1985)
    • 4 A Darkness at Sethanon (1986)
    • 5 Prince of the Blood (1989)
    • 6 The King's Buccaneer (1992)
    • 7 Murder in Lamut (2002) with Joel Rosenberg
  • Serpentwar Saga
    • 1 Shadow of a Dark Queen (1994)
    • 2 Rise of a Merchant Prince (1995)
    • 3 Rage of a Demon King (1995)
    • 4 Shards of a Broken Crown (1998)
  • The Riftwar Legacy
    • 1 Krondor: The Betrayal (1998)
    • 2 Krondor: The Assassins (1999)
    • 3 Krondor: Tear of the Gods (2002)

Novels

• Faerie Tale (1988)
• Raymond Feist (1988)
• Voice of Hope (1996)
• Serpent Queen (1996)
• The Prince of the Blood (2004)
• The Wood Boy - The Burning Man (2005) with Tad Williams

Anthologies

• Legends (1999) with Robert Silverberg

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