Talk:Raymond E. Feist

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Can anyone explain what "When the group players was extended they played on fridays." means? I presume it is supposed to say "When the group was expanded, they played on fridays", and have changed the entry to reflex this, but if someone has better knowledge, please correct it. In general, the entry needs some work, as especially the first paragraph is badly structured.--Kristjan Wager 12:44, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Category

I have proposed Category:Raymond E. Feist Books for deleteion, as uunneeded. Visit this page to express an opnion on this issue. DES 30 June 2005 21:42 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

I have merged the seperate entries for the Riftwar Trilogy (all of which were stubs) into the single article Riftwar. DES 30 June 2005 21:49 (UTC)

[edit] Wife

The entry says he lives with his wife and kids. I am pretty sure he is now divorced but I have not been able to find a reliable source. Anyone know where to find this?

Entry now does not even mention a wife, but he was definately married. At least I remember meeting her back in at a signing for the release of Daughter of the Empire at Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney. I was a teenager at the time and was probably quite annoying hanging round the store all night until closing time because I was waiting for my father (who work rounf the corner) to give me a ride home. Anyway I remember her very clearly because I remember her pointing out to Raymond "This guy must really like you, he's covered your books in contact plastic. I only did that to my Tolkiens" - Waza 01:31, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

-> In the preface to Krondor: Tear of the Gods Feist mentioned the end of his marriage.

[edit] George Lucas

Isn't that a picture of George Lucas? I think I've seen it before

No that is Feist.
—Lady Aleena talk/contribs 13:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Title of entire body of work

Has anyone ever come across a title for the entire body of work that started with Magician? How long must we call it Midkemia and Kelewan? I would go with Riftwars since it started with one and rifts continue to be a problem in the most current books. Any objections?
—Lady Aleena talk/contribs 13:00, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is that 'The Riftwar Cycle' can be used to refer to either the first three (or five, see my point further down) novels, or to the entire 30+ book series (by the time it finishes). However, this causes confusion. I refer to them as 'The Midkemian Saga' but that's just my take on it. I don't think Feist has come up with an overall title, which means we shouldn't either.--Werthead 23:58, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I have a box set from the early ninties published in the UK called the Riftwar Saga covering the first three books. I thinkk the the kelewan books fall under their own banner, and the remaining books (mainly set in Midkemia) are part of the Riftwar Cycle? Just an opinion! cheers, 57.66.49.133 13:34, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Raymond E. Feist did an interview in SFX#150 and he called the entire series of books 'The Riftwar Cycle'. That seems to indicate that 'The Riftwar Cycle' is the overall name for the books, with 'The Riftwar Saga', 'The Serpentwar Saga', 'The Riftwar Legacy', 'Legends of the Riftwar', 'The Conclave of Shadows', 'The Darkwar', 'The Demonwar' and 'The Godswar' as the individual series titles.--Werthead 14:56, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Just letting you all know...

I'm just going to let you all know that I'll be doing a massive update of the articles related to Feist. I've read all his books, I'm a member of the mailing list, contribute occasionally to the Midkemia Archives wiki etc. I will warn however, that some things won't be cited (yet). I'll be finding the sources for these within the next few days.--Tal 10:09, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

For those that you aren't citing immediately, you may want to use the citation needed template. Mike Peel 18:18, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Is there a way to cite an email as a source? I understand that it would normally be a un-reliable source, but this WAS an email from the man himself... Anyways, I'll copy it here, just I have no idea how to cite it. (BTW it is huge)

[edit] Feist Email

On Feb 26, 2006, at 12:00 AM, Ray Annis wrote:

Dear Mr. Feist:

(If this is a subject that has been done to death or is painful to talk about, I will understand.)

I saw a "Bonanza" episode a couple of weeks ago and saw that it was directed by your dad, Felix.....is that correct?

And one time, while researching filmography of Robert Heinlein's, did I not see your father's name involved somehow in the classic "When Two Worlds Collied".

I am sure many newer fans, like myself, have never heard of all the stuff your dad did....if it not verbotten, or done to death, or too painful to talk about, can you tell us about him? Did he bring you with him to sets? Anything would be welcome.

Ya, that episode is titled "Blood on the Land," and was the only Bonanza my dad did; Everet Sloan, one of my favorite character actors and a friend of my pop's, acted as the heavy in that one. Anyway, Felix was my step-father, as my biological father had died with I was a little younger than 5 years old.

I think you are mistaken. The film was "When Wolds Collide," and was based on the novel by Edwin Balmer and Phillip Wylie. You might have been clicking on links and gotten to my pop this way; the leading man in WWC was Richard Derr, who co-starred in Guilty of Treason, a film my pop had directed the year before, staring Charles Bickford, Bonita Granville, Paul Kelly, and others as well as Derr.

It's hardly "painful" as my step-father died forty years ago last September. My mom still misses him, and I think of him regularly, but life does move on.

My pop had some strong SF roots, having directed a pretty incredible film back in 1933 called Deluge which (to me at least) was the inspiration for the disaster film The Day After. It was "lost" for years, and then a print was discovered and you can still get copies of it on VHS from Amazon. The special effects of New York being hit by a tidal wave are pretty amazing for the day, and the acting style is pure 1930's melodrama. Sydney Blakcmere was the star, who most folks remember as "Roman" in Rosemary's Baby.

Pop did a lot of "shorts" i.e. short subject films, the Robert Benchley and Pete Smith "Specials," like "My Grandfather's Clock" a really silly 20 minute take off of Holmes/Watson, where Philo Holmes and Doctor Watkins solve the murder.

His other SF entry was Donovan's Brain, staring Lew Ayres (best known for his Doctor Killdare films, eight of them, but you might know him best as playing the President of the Twelve Colonies in the original Battlestar Galactica pilot). Nancy Reagan (then Nancy Davies) was the co-star. Hugh Brooke adaptded the story from a Curt Siodmak novel, and my pop wrote the screenplay.

In TV he did a few Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episodes.

Pop died in 1965 after being the line producer for a year on Peyton Place. He had been married three times (my mom was his third wife) and left behind six kids, only three of whom are still living, me being the eldest.

He never brought me to sets, as it were, a lot because kids were not welcome on sets. I did visit the set a few times when I was a teenager, remembering in particular one night shoot on the backlot at Fox on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode. The second AD was drunk on his ass, and set ups were taking a very long time. Richard Basehart, the incredible actor who played Admiral Nelson, who was also drunk on his ass, stood up on a crate and began reciting the entire screenplay for "Tight Little Island," line for line. The film was retitled from the British "Whiskey Galore" (also the name of the book written by Compton MacKenzie, who wrote Monarch of the Glenn) for the US. It's a very funny film about a true story when a ship with a quarter million bottles of whiskey aboard sank off the coast of the Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides, Scottland, and the locals plotted to plunder it. True story--and even today a passer by will find a bottle washing up on the beach every few years. Anyway, Basehart has everyone laughing so hard no work was getting done so my pop had to crack the whip and get everyone back on page so they could finish the shot; which was nothing more than a scene in which Basert and David Heddison came skulking around the corner in a vaguely Eastern German town to get into a black sedan and speed off.

Well, that's about as much reminiscence as I have time for today. My pop was considered one the best "B-film" directors around, and I've had several younger directors cite him as an influence. He got into TV early and most of his work as I was growing up was on TV. The only feature I remember him directing was Pirates of Tripoli, with Paul Henre, but after that it was all TV.

He was a good man, flawed as we all are, but he tried his best and you can't ask for more than that. Very sharp mind and very keen student of human behavior.

Best, R.E.F.

<delurk>

<snip> >Anyway, Felix was my step-father, as my biological father had died with I was a little younger than 5 years old. </snip>

Feel free not to answer this.... If Felix Feist was your step-father, does that mean you changed your surname when you were young? If so what was it originally?

Tim </delurk>

My step-father adopted my younger brother and myself. My birth name was Raymond E. Gonzalez. No, I am no relation to the Raymond Gonzalez who plays jazz and classic guitar.

Best, R.E.F.

Do you have a Latin background then Ray?

Cheers, Chris

Ethnically? Culturally? No. My biological father's family were original Basque, who came to California via Mexico, then Texas. My grandparents were born in Mexico, my father in Texas (my uncle was born in Mexico because my grandmother decided to go across the border shopping and went into labor there). I was born in California. But I was raised by my Anglo-Saxon (ancestors on the Mayflower) mom after my father died, and my step-father's heritage was New York Jewish (even though his parents had converted to Christian Science), so my upbringing was serious white boy in the San Fernando Valley.

I think, strictly speaking, even thought he Basque region is nestled between France and Spain, they aren't technically "latin," given their culture and language predates the Roman incursions into that area. Anyway, after a few generations in Mexico, Texas, and California, my father's family was decidedly "latin," as my grandfather not only played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he was also a founder of the Los Angeles Mariachi Orchestra, and everyone on that side of the family is bilingual.

Best, R.E.F.

OK, admittedly it is *Very* long, but it's pretty much a complete rundown of Ray's background, and a lot of the info there could be used on the Felix E. Feist page. --Tal 23:59, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

There is a Template:Cite email, which you could use, but have a read of the discussion page there first. Mike Peel 08:31, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reading order section

Is the reading order section a) encylopaedic enough to be on wikipedia, and b) necessary? I would have thought that the order of the books in the biography, and the comments along with each book, would be enough to figure out what order to read the books in. Mike Peel 18:24, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Krondor's Sons?

My understanding is that neither Prince of the Blood nor The King's Buccaneer belong to a 'series', they are both subtitled "A Riftwar Cycle Novel". Thus they should either be made stand-alone or moved alongside Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon in the 'main' Riftwar Cycle series.--Werthead 23:58, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Magician's Son

Magician's Son was the working title for Exile's Return. As far as I can tell, it's never been used in relation to Wrath of a Mad God.--Werthead 14:42, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synopses

I'm fairly sure that we're not supposed to use the official synopses due to copyright, so would anyone like to add their own synopsis to any of the books, or I'd be happy to do so if need be. Tal 10:45, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

You're right that we aren't allowed to use official synopses, i made that mistake on some pages a while ago and got told off and if you're willing to write them i say go for it.
Salavat 10:57, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Character Profiles

Have just finished a reread of the books and am going to try and do pages for the major not magician characters such as Arutha, Lyam, Jimmy the Hand, Erik von Darkmoor, etc.
Salters 14:10, 31 August 2007 (BST)

[edit] Removal of copyrighted material

I have just removed all of the publisher's blurb, for the main reason that they are copyright material, which isn't allowed on wikipedia. Summary written in your own words ideally with sourcing and references can be added but it would be better if they were on the books main page. I plan on creating a seperate article for each book, unless someone else does.

I have also removed excessive Fair Use book cover images; see Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria items #3(a) and #8)

I have saved all of the ISBN's onto a text file, which i will add to the books separate pages.

Salavat (talk) 13:20, 17 November 2007 (UTC)