L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s The Magic of Recluce begins his bestselling fantasy series the Saga of Recluce, which is one of the most popular in contemporary epic fantasy. Young Lerris yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. In Recluce this means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses dangergeld. Lerris will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked, and he must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos. Saga of Recluce #1 The Magic of Recluce / #2 The Towers of Sunset / #3 The Magic Engineer / #4 The Order War / #5 The Death of Chaos / #6 Fall of Angels / #7 The Chaos Balance / #8 The White Order / #9 Colors of Chaos / #10 Magi’i of Cyador / #11 Scion of Cyador / #12 Wellspring of Chaos / #13 Ordermaster / #14 Natural Order Mage / #15 Mage-Guard of Hamor / #16 Arms-Commander / #17 Cyador’s Heirs / #18 Heritage of Cyador /#19 The Mongrel Mage / #20 Outcasts of Order / #21 The Mage-Fire War (forthcoming) Story Collection: Recluce Tales Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. The Imager Portfolio The Corean Chronicles The Spellsong Cycle The Ghost Books The Ecolitan Matter At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Magic of Recluce

Kelsi Proulx

Ugh...I almost put this down in the first few chapters. Seriously wishing I had.

Things I had problems with:

Over...abundance...of...ellipses...These...get...extremely...annoying...and...makes...reading...very...difficult...
Flat characters, including the MC. In fact, the whole thing just felt flat. He spends a good hundred pages in a small town perfecting woodworking. If I wanted to read a book about a woodworker, I would. Instead, I chose to read about a wizard so would like to read about a wizard!
Sound effects. I felt like I was reading a movie script or something with all the click clacks and the wheee (which is apparently a horses whinny. Not sure how he came up with that...)

Things that were ok:
Premise. This had potential to be a really good story.
World building and magic system. This was actually done quite well, if the rest of the book hadn't annoyed me so much I could have enjoyed this a lot more.

I may continue with the series eventually. Since there are 18 books, it must get better...right?

L. E. Modesitt Jr.

The magic of Recluce

Alexia Cambaling

I really wanted to like this book. I spotted it in a used bookstore and bought it because of the publisher and the fact that I was vaguely aware of the author. Unfortunately, while it was mostly okay, it was also so boring at parts that I had to skim in order to finish the book.

I would classify this as kind of a slice-of-life fantasy. While it is undeniably set in a fantasy setting, it also features the characters doing more mundane things such as woodworking. I did appreciate this moments because they give a glimpse of how the characters live and how they get by in their society.

Our protagonist is Lerris, a young man who happens to be incredibly bored with his island-nation of Recluce, a land which favors order above all things. Because of this, he is unable to fit in within Recluce and must undergo something called a dangergeld, in which he would be tested and the masters would see if he may return. At the beginning of the book, I found Lerris to be very edgy? He pretty much questions everything and is unable to reason out his boredom properly. He definitely struck me the wrong way since he was born into so much privilege but was unable to see it.

He does get better though, as he goes through his dangergeld. He becomes a better person in a lot of ways, although I wonder if he did learn other, just as important lessons along the way. I did enjoy the description of how he traveled in the mainland and had to get by. I usually like the travelling parts in stories so that wasn't the problem for me.

The problem mostly came from the fact that the ending felt pretty rushed. It was like the author wanted to wrap it up in one book and escalated everything near the end. The build up didn't really feel natural and I might have forgiven it if it wasn't boring. Unfortunately, much like the main character, I too found myself pretty bored with the world. While the order vs. chaos thing had a lot of potential but it failed to grab me.

I read that this book can be read as a standalone, fortunately. While I was disappointed and thought that this book is only good enough for one read, I might consider picking up other books in the series. Honestly however, that might be unlikely.

The Magic of Recluce

Reviews