 First edition cover of Daughter of the Empire. Art by Jenny Wurts. | |
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| Author | |
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| Cover artist |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Published | 1987–1992 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| No. of books | 3 |
The Empire Trilogy is a collaborative trilogy of political fantasy novels by American writers Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, set in the fictional world of Kelewan. It is the second trilogy in Feist's The Riftwar Cycle .
The trilogy traces the story of Mara of the Acoma's rise to power from a convent novitiate to the most powerful woman in Kelewan. These three books are contemporary to Feist's original Riftwar Saga and feature some crossover characters, mainly from Magician (1982). Mara struggles to rule her family after her father and brother are killed in a trap set by the Minwanabi, one of the most powerful families in the Empire and longtime enemies of the Acoma. Mara quickly learns how to play the Game of the Council with skill, and challenges the binding traditions of her world.
In the world of Kelewan, Mara of the Acoma must lead her followers through terror and peril while surviving the ruthless Game of the Council. Mara must plot, bend tradition, avoid assassination attempts, and trade her heart for power in order to save the Acoma from destruction.
Mara of the Acoma has now become an expert player in the Game of the Council through bloody political maneuvering. After buying a group of Midkemian prisoners-of-war, she discovers one of them, Kevin of Zun, is a noble who reveals himself a great asset in regards to the Game of the Council.
After rising to power, Mara of the Acoma must face the power of the brotherhood of assassins, the spies of rival houses, and the might of the Assembly—who see her as a threat to their power.
In February 2022, Six Studios acquired the rights to develop the first six novels of The Riftwar Cycle , including The Riftwar Saga and the Empire Trilogy, for television. Hannah Friedman, Jacob Pinion and Nick Bernardone are attached to write. [1]
According to scholar Jessica Dassler, the Empire trilogy was part of a feminist shift in fantasy literature following the women's movement of the 1960s. She wrote that the first book "embodied female empowerment and turning over societal norms" through the character Mara. [2] In a Tor.com re-read of the series, author Tansy Rayner Roberts praised the way it "prioritiz[ed] the domestic and political machinations over quests and forests", which in her view differentiated it from typical epic fantasy. [3] Publishers Weekly called Daughter of the Empire a "full-bodied dynastic fantasy" with "the sweep and drama of a good historical novel about an exotic time and place." [4] A column in Vector compared the first book to "a female Shōgun with fantasy/SF elements" and praised its characterization. [5] A review in Asimov's Science Fiction was more negative, stating that while the novel had a Japanese influence, it was "a little too Japanese to feel like an original recipe, but not Japanese enough to be believable". [6] Publishers Weekly wrote of Mistress of the Empire, "The characters' efforts to work out their destinies within the constraints of a tradition-bound culture is depicted with skill." [7] However, Kirkus Reviews described Mistress as written "in a style more evocative of The Hungry Caterpillar than its obvious paradigm, Shogun", and called the novel "Wearisome twaddle that just lies there, quivering feebly." [8]
Daughter of the Empire and Servant of the Empire were each nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. [9] [10] Servant of the Empire won a HOMer Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1991. [11] [12]
Mara or MARA may refer to:
Raymond Elias Feist is an American fantasy fiction author who wrote The Riftwar Cycle, a series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and have sold over 15 million copies.
Magician is a fantasy novel by American writer Raymond E. Feist. It is the first book of the Riftwar Saga and of the wider Riftwar Cycle. Magician was originally published in 1982. The book is set in a Dungeons & Dragons–style fantasy world called Midkemia, originally invented by Feist and his friends during college. The story follows the early life of friends Pug and Tomas as their world is overtaken by war against alien invaders who appear via portals.
Janet Inglis "Janny" Wurts is an American fantasy novelist and illustrator. She has written several standalone novels and series, including the Wars of Light and Shadow, The Cycle of Fire trilogy and the internationally best-selling Empire trilogy that she co-authored with Raymond E. Feist. Her short story collection That Way Lies Camelot was nominated for the British Fantasy Award in 1995. She often illustrates her own books, and has won Chesley Awards for her artwork.
The Riftwar Saga is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Raymond E. Feist, the first series in The Riftwar Cycle.
Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy is a 1998 anthology of 11 novellas by a number of English-language fantasy authors, edited by Robert Silverberg. All the stories were original to the collection, and set in the authors' established fictional worlds. The anthology won a Locus Award for Best Anthology in 1999. Its science fiction equivalent, Far Horizons, followed in 1999.
Geoff Taylor is an English fantasy artist.
Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.
The Darkwar Saga is a series of fantasy novels by the American writer Raymond E. Feist.
Don Maitz is an American science fiction, fantasy, and commercial artist. He has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, science fiction's highest honor for an artist. His peers in the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists have honored him ten times with a Chesley Award for outstanding achievement, and he has received a Silver Medal of Excellence from the Society of Illustrators.
Heather Gladney is an American author whose fantasy novels include Teot's War (1987) and its sequel Bloodstorm (1989).
Tansy Rayner Roberts is an Australian fantasy writer. Her short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis. She also writes crime fiction as Livia Day.
The Riftwar Cycle is the name given to the series of books authored or co-authored by Raymond E. Feist that revolve around the fantasy worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan.
The Demonwar Saga is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Raymond E. Feist.
The Chaoswar Saga is the final trilogy in the Riftwar Cycle series of fantasy novels by Raymond E. Feist.
The Legends of the Riftwar is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Raymond E. Feist along with three different co-authors William R. Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg and S. M. Stirling.
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This is a complete bibliography of the works by American fantasy fiction author Raymond E. Feist.
AnnaLinden Weller, better known under her pen name Arkady Martine, is an American historian, city planner, and author of science fiction literature. Her first novels A Memory Called Empire (2019) and A Desolation Called Peace (2021), which form the Teixcalaan series, each won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand author of fantasy, science fiction and horror. Muir won the 2020 Locus Award for her first novel, Gideon the Ninth, and has been nominated for several other awards as well.