Raymond E. Feist was born in 1945 in Los Angeles, and was raised in Southern California. He was born with the name Raymond E. Gonzales III, but took his adoptive step-fathers surname Felix E. Feist when his mother remarried.[2] . He graduated with a B.A. in Communication Arts with Honors in 1977 from the University of California at San Diego. During that year Feist had some ideas for a novel about a boy who would be a magician. He wrote the novel two years later, and it was published in 1982 by Doubleday. Feist currently lives in San Diego with his children, where he collects fine wine, DVDs, and books on a variety of topics of personal interest: wine, biographies, history, and, especially, the history of American Professional Football.

Silverthorn is the sequel to Raymond E. Feist's Magician. Released in 1985 it was later followed by the final book in the The Riftwar Saga, A Darkness at Sethanon.