A great and interesting reply Ray. Really intriguing to know some behind the scenes info about the books.
Shep. On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 1:50 AM, Stroup, Shelley A CIV SWOS N61 < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Ray for the background story on the Kelewan series, which is one of > my favorite series! This is why I love this List, you can't get that kind > of answer with 140 characters or less! :) > > And Anestis we all know you win the conversation! :D > > Shells:) > > > -----Original Message----- > From: On Behalf Of Raymond Feist > Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 8:18 AM > Subject: Re: Discussion with friend about Kelewan > > I've commented on this before, but in brief, what came through the game > was the concept of Great Path/Lesser Path magic, which was a mechanical way > to deal with why we had to concepts of magic, I should add, not that we > were using EPT Magic system. The only thing that ever made it's way into > the game were the EPT monsters. > > So the concept of a riftwar was how we explained that. The one other > concept that held on to was the metal poor thing, because I thought it made > for a cool distinction technologically. Other than that, nada from EPT. > > I dealt with this silly nonsense 20 years ago. I've heard "Feist stole > his ideas from Barker," "He stole Barker's dream," etc. Look, Phil Barker > got published by DAW, two EPT novels, I believe. They did not do very > well. Whatever tiny elements I inherited through the game, took nothing > away from his opportunity for an audience to find his work. Apparently, > not many people were that interested in his fiction. He had a very loyal, > very supportive game community that loved his stuff and they stuck with him > quite a long while, but EPT never challenged D&D either. > > Joel Rosenberg, God rest him, knew the situation intimately, living in > Minneapolis, where Phil lived, and knowing him through the SF/F community. > His take was simply that Barker felt a sense of injury. What he > apparently didn't know or didn't care to know was that before Magician was > published, Steve Abrams explained the genesis of the Petal Throne to me, > lent me the manual, and I went though a VERY early draft of Magician and > took out everything that was remotely EPT and that's when I started melding > my Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Aztec/Zulu culture--I believe EPT was based on > Indian/Dravidian culture, not Asian. I kept the bugs because I liked them, > but I went for a hive-mind thranx, not whatever it was EPT had, and the one > thing that probably set this whole thing off was I didn't change the name > Tsurani, which was just me doing a funny spelling of the Serani tribe of > Africa; I went for the Ts because of Senator Paul Tsongis just because I > thought it looked cool. > > Anyway, Phil is dead, and Joel is dead, and anyone who has any sense of > what influence is all about in the world of writing knows that what came > from EPT through the game into my work is trivial. 30 novels over 30 years > did not result from any labor but my own. > > Best, R.E.F. > > On Mar 27, 2013 7:07 PM, "Anestis Kozakis" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi Ray, > > A friend and I have an on-going discussion about Kelewan. > He has the impression that you borrowed a large number of elements of > Kelewan from M.A.R. Barker's "Empire of the Petal Throne". > > He cites a couple of articles: > > http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-134.html under > the "Why I only buy his books second hand" heading. The writer of the > article claims you have admitted that Kelewan was very heavily from > Barker's work in various conversations with fans. > > The other article is at > http://www.rpg.net/columns/designers-and-dragons/designers-and-dragons13.phtmland > has the following paragraphs around the middle of the article: > > "Midkemia's unique creation has also resulted in one bit > of controversy: according to Feist, the original Midkemian Campaign run by > Abrams and Everson contained some minor elements borrowed from Tékumel, as > described in TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne (1975). Those elements were, > of course, not brought into any of Midkemia Press' published books. > However, Feist wasn't aware of this genesis, so some of these elements did > find their way into the world of Kelewan - which opposed Midkemia in the > Riftwar. Feist says the ultimate impact of Tékumel on the novels is > "superficial", with other sources like Alan Dean Foster's Thranx and Jack > Vance's Big Planet being just as important. > > > Ultimately, we outsiders can never know the exact > influence of the EPT world filtered through a house campaign upon Feist's > writing. Suffice to say, it might be more than professional writer Raymond > Feist is comfortable with and probably is a lot less than fans have > suggested over the years." > > I keep bringing up how you have always stated that you > borrowed from Japan, China, etc etc (the answer you always give when > someone asks about the influences for the Tsruanni society). > > Just wondering if you would like to share your thoughts on > the issue. > > Anestis Kozakis > > >
