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John Bunting posted some more information on the sequel to Legends. Here is his post (in italics) and Ray's responses:

There is going to be a Legends 2 but IIRC it is planned for 2001 or 2002, I was told it would be a new set of authors, but they have a long time to change their minds And there will be a special Leather edition.

News to me, and I would have thought Silverberg would have been trying to get all the same authors, again, as it's the single biggest collection of heavy hitters out there. Except for Ann Rice and David Eddings, name me a New York Times/Times of London bestseller not in that volume.

I wonder if the paperback is all of the hardback or only half of it? There is a lot of text to cram in such a small book

The paperback will be in at least 2 volumes as I understand it.

There have been several conflicting reports, but it seems that right now the UK and Australian editions of KtA will be released on the same day, possibly September 6. The US version should follow soon after, hopefully sooner than the current November date.

Steve McCarthy also posted today that a signed Leather edition of Magician is available on eBay :

For you collectors out there - Ebay Auction # : 132469033

Currently at $137.50.

Steven McCarthy posted a note to the list about a future Legends short story compilation. Here is his post (in italics) and Ray's response:

I was just browsing BandN and I saw that the paperback of Legends (Aug release if you must know *g*) is titled Legends - Volume I. Kind of begs the question doesn't it? Will there be a Feist story in volume 2?

I think so, but I honestly don't know.

Steven also said that the audio version of Legends is split into four parts.

Since the demise of PyroTechnix, a sequel to Return to Krondor is not certain. However, we do know that there was one in the planning stages (with the working name Captains of Krondor). A post by Ray this weekend hinted at it a bit more:

Nope, not going again. As for the game we were demoing, if you mean the CRPG, that's Return to Krondor and it's out. If you mean the roll playing that was done to promote the game, that was an ad hoc game run by Erick Wodjeck who was writing the (now defunct) sequal to RtK.

I'm assuming Mr. Wodjeck worked for PyroTechnix (I'll check the credits). There have been recent hints by Ray at an online Midkemian RPG. Hopefully more news will surface about that in the near future.

Last week two old manuscripts were up for auction on everyone's favorite outage-prone auction powerhouse, eBay. However, they were taken off the block prematurely. Here's what Ray had to say over the weekend about what was up for auction:

OK, here's the story.

1st, Pete Schneider, the gentleman offering the ms. for sale, is an old friend, going back to the days when he was a publicist at Doubleday and he was flogging Magician above and beyond. He was one of my first allies at Doubleday and is an all around good guy.

The manuscript was one of two I photocopies and sent to Doubleday. I did my originals on an old C. Itoh 410a letter quality printer back then, and I was required by contract to send 2 copies of the ms. (That's a hangover from the days they wanted your original ms. and the carbon paper copy!) The little perforations along the sides where the tractor feed strip gets pulled off jammed their copiers when I sent them Silverthorn, so I went down to the local 'copy it yourself' palace and spend $80 to make two copies to send to them.

One of them went into production, which is the one I eventually got back with copy editors, proof-readers, and editors queries and corrections on it. The other got sent down to publicity. That's the copy Peter has.

Anyway, that's what he means by 'original' in that it's the state prior to copy edit so you can see some of the really dumb stuff I wrote before a very talented copy editor named Elain Chubb got her mitts on it.

Ralph Askren posted this note to the mailing list:

I thought you might be interested in some minor, mostly cosmetic, changes to the map of Triagia in the Unofficial Atlas. The file is a bit larger so be ready for a slighlty longer load time.

As I've said before, Ralph's map is the best online map, and probably the best one you'll find anywhere (save for Steve Abram's basement - maybe). Be sure to check it out.

Alex Loke mailed me this information on Erick Wodjeck, who was mentioned yesterday to have been 'writing the (now defunct) sequel to RtK:'

Just some word on Erick Wodjeck in reference to what Ray Feist calls the 'Roll-Playing Game'. Erick Wodjeck is a writer for the Palladium, Rifts and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seriess of pen and paper role-playing games - and a consultant for computer role-playing games. According to Ray, Erick designed the system used in RTK 'ad hoc' of computer generated dice rolling.

Thanks Alex!

Hunter Nielson has put a new poll on his website. The question is: 'Do you like Sierra's Midkemia-based games, or do you feel they do little justice to Ray's books?'

Ray posted this about the eBay auction:

I know the seller. The Faerie Tale galley is legit, but I think we've got some confusion about the MS for Darkness. I'll give him a call and see what's up.

Beth Frantz posted this very cool notice on the list:

For the collectors out there: items 130551244 and 130555811, in the rare books category.. 2 Feist manuscripts on eBay . One is Faerie Tale, starting at $150, and the other is Darkness at Sethanon at $400. I have no idea if these are even reasonable prices for this sort of thing, but I have to admit they would be pretty cool to have.

That rush you hear is some of the die-hard collectors reaching for their credit cards. Good luck!

Fans are always eager for more Feist products (be they games or a movie or TV show) and Ray always says 'show me the money' (okay, I'm paraphrasing). In this post he explains the whole licensing situation:

Krondor's the title of the game. Steve and I aren't Lucasfilm or Disney, where we can break up a franchise into pieces and get seven different companies to put out games:'OK, you guys get the Timmon and Pumba game, and you guys over there get the Little Simba Learning games, and those guys over there get the Simba and Rifiki 10-12 year old Learning game, and that bunch gets. . . .'

'Krondor' is the name of the product, but that license was exclusive for works I've done.

Now, that license is now over and we could limit one to something like 'Elvandar,' or whatever, but part of the appeal of the game is to cover ground. One of the big bitches of RtK was 'not enough territory.'

In any event, we'll be more than happy to listen to anyone who comes to us with an idea.

And that's a point I would like to stress. I get lots of e-mail and regular mail from fans who say, 'You should do a game about . . .' Or 'You should do a movie about. . . '

I don't do games or movies. I license them.

Just so folks understand why I don't pay attention to suggestions on what the next game should be (unless you've got your checkbook open and own a software development/publishing company).

He further elaborated in this post:

A license really is a simple concept (with a very complex application), that says, 'I own something (_Magician_) and you want to do something with that (make a movie), so you'll pay me money to let you do it.'

That's only one example.

Substitute 'make a game,' 'do a comic,' 'record radio shows,' etc. for make a movie in the above. Same things.

This is the reason the very common suggestions (or demands) of 'Make a movie about Magician' or 'Make a real time strategy game of the Riftwar' are mostly useless, since Ray is not a developer.

Ray posted this mail on the success of Return to Krondor. It has garnered neither the critical acclaim or high sales of its predecessor (although Ray notes that it is still selling) and the development was more expensive, and the demise of PyroTechnix cast a pale shadow over the game, regardless of its success. Here's Ray:

Tough question to answer. In terms of raw units sold, it made a profit, and it's still selling, so the longer it's out there, the more profitable it becomes.

In terms of expectations, that's hard to answer because there were so many factors involved with the game that had nothing to do with writing code, putting words on paper, or scoring music and voices.

I think it would have been much happier for everyone if the game had made everyone go 'wow,' which is pretty much what most game makers are looking for.

I think it also would have been a much happier pass if Havas hadn't closed down Pyrotechnix within weeks of the game's release. That certainly killed any pleasure those of us associated with the game might now be feeling.

If you didn't know, Havas is the name of the European (French maybe) company that purchased Sierra Online from Cendant, and preceeded to shut down several development units and reorganized a bit. Oh how we miss the days of Ken and Roberta Williams...

I spent some time tonight doing some minor tweaking on the site. Most obvious is the new image of the cover of Krondor: The Assassins. It replaces the little advertisement for the Return to Krondor Soundtrack CD, which can still be found at Voice of the Arts ' website (and its very good - I highly recommend it). And remember that although the tentative release date for KtA in the USA and Australia is November, it will be released a bit earlier in the UK.

Ray posted this note to the list explaining the differences between Elves:

Gorath is a Northern Mountain moredhel, and they tend to be big, strong, and fast. Other clans may be faster but weaker, stronger but slower, etc. Most elves are at the upper end of human normal range for agility, but some are also stronger and more hearty.

He went on to describe Calis' unique powers:

Calis is unique. His powers come as much from his father's alien nature as they do from the elf side of his family.