Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug (2013 - 255 pages. Hardcover) is a coffee table companion book to the successful Midkemia series of novels, most notable of which are The Riftwar Cycle. The book was co-written by Raymond E. Feist and Stephen Abrams.

Rather than just present an abridged version of the books, Feist and Abrams have decided to create a deceit where Pug's son finds his journals and publishes them with his own annotations, this works well and provides a more intimate account of his journeys. The book comes with faux leather, embossed hard cover and a three quarters dust cover.

The pages of the book have been coloured to resemble parchment, which works well on the thick and glossy paper. The book is festooned with hand drawn maps, reminiscent of those found in Tolkien’s work as well as full colour plates, depicting some of the more important events and battles in thirty new paintings. The maps also cover the ever changing geography of the planet and help to push the total number of colour illustrations above sixty.

The book works well as a companion piece for the ever expanding Midkemia series of books and takes the reader all the way from Magician (1982) to Magician’s End (2013) covering all of the Riftwar books. Part travelogue, seen from Pug's point of view, part atlas, the book will delight fans of the series as well as fill in any gaps you might have in your knowledge of Midkemia.

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Charles Packer