Legends Of The Riftwar Books in Order

Legends of the Riftwar is a trio of side stories set during the first great conflict between Midkemia and Kelewan. Co‑written with William R. Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg and S. M. Stirling, these novels step away from princes and archmages to show how ordinary fighters, mercenaries and thieves experience a war that will later be reduced to a few lines in history.

Honored Enemy follows a battered Kingdom patrol, penned in by winter and enemy lines, who are forced into an uneasy alliance with a Tsurani unit to survive an even worse foe. It’s a story about battlefield pragmatism, shared codes of honor and the thin line between “us” and “them” when both sides just want to get their people home alive.

Murder in LaMut switches the lens to three older mercenaries—Durine, Kethol and Pirojil—who are tired of long campaigns and hoping for easy garrison duty. Their trip to the northern town of LaMut, however, turns into a murder investigation wrapped in local politics. The novel blends classic fantasy with the feel of a small‑town mystery: rival merchants, suspicious nobles and soldiers who know that a single corpse in the wrong place can spark a wider conflict.

Jimmy the Hand brings things back to the character many readers met in the Riftwar Saga. Fresh from helping Prince Arutha and Princess Anita escape Krondor, the teenage thief Jimmy flees south to the coastal town of Land’s End to lie low. He expects easy pickings and gullible provincials. Instead he finds secrets, haunted reputations and a mystery that challenges everything he thinks he knows about being the smartest person in the room.

Across all three books, the tone is more focused and intimate than in the mainline sagas. Magic is present but rarely the whole solution; most problems are solved (or made worse) with steel, guile and hard choices. The collaborations let Feist’s setting breathe in new directions, as each co‑author brings slightly different rhythms and interests—military grit, noir‑ish investigation, or street‑level capers.

For readers, Legends of the Riftwar fills in the negative space around the big events. It shows how the wider war disrupts border garrisons, merchant routes and quiet coastal towns, and how the actions of people far from the throne rooms still shape what comes next.

If you’ve already read the core Riftwar books, these novels reward you with fresh angles and deeper texture. If you’re new to Midkemia, they also work as stand‑alone tales that happen to unfold in a larger, well‑realised world.