I read it in 1989, so published in the 80s or earlier, in a UK primary school library (aged 11). Similar to A Wizard of Earthsea, but a bit shorter and easier to read maybe. Plot detail I remember: -boy working in a castle or manor house, has some restriction on his senses due to a stone or charm (it makes him deaf or dumb maybe?). He can do magic natively, and lights a fire using magic, maybe by running his fingers along it. He wears a charm of some sort, which an older magician spots and removes, ‘freeing’ him, after spotting him doing magic -he becomes an apprentice to the magician, and can do powerful magic that other magicians can’t. Some kind of war or battle to win. -he meets a girl along the way -it ends with him defeating the enemy — and I think taking his boots off and putting back on fur slippers, and being with the girl.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Pug, known as Milamber on Kelewan, is the most powerful magician in Midkemia save for Macros the Black. He is an orphan from Crydee, and as a child the closest friend of his adoptive father’s son, Tomas. Pug becomes Kulgan the Magician’s apprentice and is captured while on a raid to examine the Tsurani rift machine. On Kelewan he is initially a slave until his talent for magic is discovered, and he eventually becomes a Black Robe magician on Kelewan. Near the end of the saga Macros says that Pug is neither a Lesser nor Greater Path magician, but like him Pug is a Sorcerer limited only by his own abilities which match those of Macros himself.
If that sounds familiar…Magician was first published in 1982 as the first book of the Riftwar Saga. Set in the world of Midkemia, Magician became a jumping-off point for Raymond Feist’s career. Originally reduced in size by his editors, it was re-published (after the author’s fame grew) with the omitted text restored.
Magician is now published in two volumes in the US:
Magician: Apprentice (ISBN 0-553-56494-3)
Magician: Master (ISBN 0-553-56493-5).
The book is still published as a single volume, Magician (ISBN 0-586-21783-5), in the UK.
Thanks, but sadly not, I have checked that previously — although again very similar with the concept of the developing apprentice becoming super powerful using a different type of magic. It doesn’t have the plot points I do remember — senses /speech dulled due to a charm or stone at the beginning, which the wizard removes revealing his potential; ending with running off with the girl (and throwing his boots off!).