Raymond E. Feist was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, and was raised in Southern California. He was born with the name Raymond E. Gonzales III, but took his adoptive step-fathers surname Felix E. Feist when his mother remarried.[2] . He graduated with a B.A. in Communication Arts with Honors in 1977 from the University of California at San Diego. During that year Feist had some ideas for a novel about a boy who would be a magician. He wrote the novel two years later, and it was published in 1982 by Doubleday. 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.

Magician is a fantasy novel by Raymond E. Feist. It is the first book of the Riftwar Saga and was published in 1982. It led to many books written by Feist in the world of Midkemia, which was the setting for this book. Originally reduced in size by his editors, it was re-published (after the author's fame grew) with extra text added. Magician is currently published in two volumes in the USA: Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master. The book is still published as a single volume Magician in the UK, which is this book here.