By L. E. Modesitt
Tom Doherty Associates / Tor Books 2000
Reviewed By Robert Thompson 3/25/2001
I can't believe that this is the first review I've done on a L.E. Modesitt Jr. book: I've been a big fan of his for several years.
Modesitt is a prolific writer, who manages to maintain good quality writing and interesting stories while publishing 3-5 new books a year. I like the Saga of Recluse series best, but the Spellsong Cycle is good too.
The Recluce Saga is sort of "Swords and Sorcery", but it is somewhat different from any other books in this genre than I have read. It is kind of hard to describe WHY it is different, though.
The series started out with a war between the followers of Order and of Chaos, with Order apparently being the "good guys". But as the series progresses, it becomes apparent that not all the followers of Chaos are bad.
The Scion of Cyador is the direct sequel to Magi'i of Cyador. The entire series does NOT have to be read in the order of publication, but there are a few books that are sequential, and THEY should be read in order.
Anyway, Lorn is the very talented son of the "Fourth Magi'i" who is the fourth most powerful mage in the Chaos order (and much more than that ... shhh!....). Lorn is a student at the Magi'i Academy, when we first meet him, but he gets kicked out because of his unconventional techniques and his confrontational attitude in disagreeing with his teachers who are too traditional to explore new solutions and adapt to a changing environment.
Lorn is forced to join the "army" (the Mirror Lancers) where his unconventional techniques and hidden abilities to manipulate Chaos cause him to rise through the ranks quickly AND make lots of enemies among his superior officers and at the same time gain the devotion of the men under his command.
After all of his successes in fighting invading Barbarians and the monsters escaping from the Acursed Forest in the Magi'i of Cyador he is sent to the port city of Biehl, where he is to command the Lancer detachment there and support the "Customs Service" there. He soon uncovers the corruption of the Customs officials, fixes that, while at the same time turning the "Sad Sack" Lancer outfit there into a crack fighting force. After soundly defeating the Barbarians operating in that area, he is promoted and reassigned to another "hotspot", where he manages to break all of the rules while setting the Barbarian invasion back by at least a year.
Once again he is promoted and reassigned, this time to Lancer Headquarters as Aide to the overall Lancer Commander. Here, the intrigue and double-crossing REALLY gets good....
Although all of the Recluce series is good, I enjoyed these last two best. I wish that I had had officers like Lorn back in my Army days. I had some that were as good tacticians as he is, and some that were as good leaders who inspired "devotion" but never any who were BOTH.
In Order of Publication, the Recluce books are:
Magic of Recluce
The Towers of the Sunset
The Magic Engineer
The Order War
Death of Chaos
Fall of Angels
The Chaos Balance
The White Order
Colors of Chaos
Magi'i of Cyador
Scion of Cyador
