Just finished Modesitt's The Magic of Recluse... (spoilers)

[Nerull]

I'm posting this for those of you who have read the book (actually, I'm just posting this mostly to share my feelings about the book, but all opinions welcome). What was you opinion of this book? I give it about a 6 out of 10. Things that I really liked included the system of order v.s. chaos, the idea that the forces have to balance, and the idea that neither side is really all that good (in the end, the protagonist is an order-mage, but he has rejected his homeland to live in Candar).

However, there are some glaring things that bothered me. Probably the biggest to me was the ending. He defeats Antonin and is about to free Tamra, and suddenly he has every single answer to pretty much everything. He knows that Justen is his uncle, knows his father destroyed Frven, etc. and more importantly, he knows it just out of nowhere, with no advance warning. I could just imagine the author sitting there thinking "oh damn, the publisher didn't want me to go over 500 pages and I'm almost there. I better throw some explanations in real quick." To compound it, the next chapter after that, he is thinking to himself how he doesn't have all of the answers. I was just like "what? You were coming up with some real good answers that would make Sherlock Holmes proud just last chapter." Also, I also didn't like the idea that they still show chaos = evil, thereby implying that order = good, despite all of the relevations about Recluse. Also, I thought that the book bogged down in the middle while he was working for Destrin. In fact, I wonder if Modesitt was a woodworker in real life, as he spends a LOT of time talking about wood.

So, enough of my ranting (both good and bad). Any other opinions on this book? And are the other books in the series better or worse than this one?

[ 05-27-2004, 07:26 AM: Message edited by: Nerull ]

[shadowhound]

I have the book sitting in the bottom of a cupboard somewhere, I found it rather dissapointing and I now I wish that I put that time to something more productive... like re-reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The Game of Thrones again.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by shadowhound: I have the book sitting in the bottom of a cupboard somewhere, I found it rather dissapointing and I now I wish that I put that time to something more productive... like re-reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The Game of Thrones again.

LOL...I mainly read it because I was looking for source material for a new campaign I am designing ( thread is here). Like I said, I didn't think it was a bad book; I just didn't find it to be really good book, either. I read through the quick synopses of some of the other books, and some of them seem repetitive. I think I'll skip the rest of the saga; I've got the answers I needed from that first book.

[Morgeruat]

one thing to remember is that the hero is a champion of law, so he's going to try and see it in the most positive light he can, while villainizing chaos, and this would show through in the authors tone, again it's all a matter of perspective any of the chaos mages would have complained that law is too restrictive and places too many constraints on them and their power.

[Dreamer128]

The book was ok, although I liked the Sequel (actually a Prequel ) alot better.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: one thing to remember is that the hero is a champion of law, so he's going to try and see it in the most positive light he can, while villainizing chaos, and this would show through in the authors tone, again it's all a matter of perspective any of the chaos mages would have complained that law is too restrictive and places too many constraints on them and their power.

Good point, but it also echoes most of the works out there, including the Elric saga and other such works. Everything I've seen out there is law = good and chaos = evil; even the original D&D set from the 1970's had this. For once, I'd like to see a story where the chaos guy is the good guy, and the order guys are the bad guys. It would actually be refreshing to see it for a change.

Dreamer128, which sequel is that? The Magic Engineer? What was better about it?

[Dreamer128]

No, I thought it was called 'The Towers of Recluse'. It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall finding the main characters and storyline more appealing.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Dreamer128: No, I thought it was called 'The Towers of Recluse'. It's been awhile since I read it, but I recall finding the main characters and storyline more appealing.

The reason I asked which book is because it lists all of the books in the Saga of Recluse right at the beginning of the book I bought, but does so in two columns. You can't tell if The Magic Engineer or The Towers of Recluse is the next book, and neither were at the bookstore I went to (so I couldn't see if the front of the book said "the sequel to Magic of Recluse").

I've got most of my ideas together for what I want in my campaign, so I'm doing more designing than reading right now (though I am reading Cat's Cradle right now, but it is an easy read).

[Dreamer128]

Well, The Towers of Recluse is the prequel to Magic of Recluse. It covers the founding of Recluse [img]smile.gif[/img]