Book Review: The Magic of Recluce

The Magic of Recluce (The Saga of Recluce, #1)The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent world building and superb magic system with an annoyingly dense but affable young adult protagonist on a quest. Lerris is ‘the chosen one’ but for all the wrong reasons or completely mysterious hidden reasons until he’s painted himself into a corner with his fumbling choices. Lerris isn’t burdened with a prophecy, but he resists the status quo of Recluce. Lerris is just your typical young adult with attention deficit disorder (i.e., he’s bored and finds everything boring), but Recluce doesn’t prescribe Ritalin. Somewhat like extreme Amish, Recluce peacefully forces their misfits to either exile permanently or go on dangergeld (similar to rumspringa but with a quest attached), during which they must decide if they can return to Recluce and succumb to its creed and worldview (seeking perfection in Order). This novel follows Lerris on his journey as a dangergelder until he understands all that Recluce embodies and effects, and reaches his decision.

If you are looking for a story with character growth, Lerris’ journey as an exile from Recluce will fit that bill. If you are looking for a new fantasy world with a detailed history, divergent societies, a logical robust magic system, with a different spin on the age-old struggle between angels and demons, good and evil, black and white, order and chaos, then you’ve come to the right story and series.

Modesitt’s Recluce series reminds me of Asimov’s robot stories. He sets up a scenario with some basic, seemingly simple rules (for example, Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and Modesitt’s Order/Chaos balance system as glimpsed through snippets of The Basis of Order) and proceeds to challenge those rules with his world and its characters. While each novel adds a piece of the broader puzzle, for the most part, like this first one, the books stand alone quite well.

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November is L.E. Modesitt, Jr. month at the GoodReads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club.  The author will be joining in the discussions of both books later this month.

 

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Books we’re currently reading

Haze
Haze 

by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Start date: November 1, 2010


The Magic of Recluce
The Magic of Recluce 

by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Start date: November 1, 2010




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Book Review: The Hero and the Crown

The Hero and the CrownThe Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aerin may be the king’s daughter, but you wouldn’t know it from the looks, the stares, the snickers, the pranks, or the court gossip. Her father loved and married Aerin’s mother after his first wife died childless. But being from the North, of unknown heritage and lineage, suspicions of witchcraft at worst and being a commoner at best, followed Aerin like a fog of misery. Her royal Gift failed to manifest as she entered and traversed adolescence, which further fueled the rumors of her inadequate or inappropriate breeding. Aerin wrestled with the trappings of her princess-hood, losing the battle with gentility and sought solace in the royal library and her father’s retired lame warhorse, Talat. Nothing say quest and adventure like a dissatisfied frustrated teenage princess and a well-trained loyal equine collaborator. For starters, and against all odds and her father’s wildest nightmares, Aerin and Talat master the art of dragon slaying.

Aerin proved to be an inspiring character, one I could have warmed up to and appreciated in my own adolescence. But Talat stole the show for me. More than once, his actions and courage brought tears to my eyes.

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Book Review: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 1)The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Average Rating Across All Stories: 3.5 stars

The two best stories are “The Phoenix on the Sword” and “The Queen of the Black Coast”; otherwise, the first half of this anthology holds the best of the bunch, gradually dwindling down to my least favorite two stories: “The Vale of Lost Women” and “Rogues in the House.” The final story almost redeemed the second half, but didn’t quite pack the punch necessary to overcome the duds immediately prior to it.

The anthology includes referential material (over 100 pages worth in the back and a 25 page introduction), including original drafts by Howard, unpublished drafts, and Hyborian Age information, maps, and chronologies.

I enjoy reading Howard’s fast paced fiction, especially to spice up my lunch hour during the work week. I highly recommend this collection to all fans of the original one-of-a-kind blue-eyed-blazing barbarian from Cimmeria.

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Book Review: The Last Unicorn

The Last UnicornThe Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beagle continually surprised me with his unique prose. Descriptions and metaphors in odd juxtapositions that at first make no sense but then you blink and they make complete sense. His dialogue often rang with rhythm and rhyme, nudging me to re-read a snippet just to hear it roll off my tongue.

A quest adventure fairy tale fantasy flipped topsy-turvy. Instead of a child pulled unwillingly along by prophecy, an undying unicorn discovers she is the last of her kind and leaves to learn their fate. Rather than an all powerful wise wizard, she encounters a second-hand failed apprentice masquerading as a carnival magician. Witches, curses, obsessed kings, indifferent prince turned hero, complacent subjects, elemental forces, mystifying happenstance magic confuse and confound her until she nearly loses herself.

A timeless tale of love, beauty, regret and hope.

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Book Review: CryoBurn

CryoBurn (Vorkosigan Saga, #14)CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really only 3.5 stars, but the last chapter made it 4 stars for me.

If you strip away the space opera and science fiction, this story boils down to a mystery/thriller where the old adage ‘follow the money’ proves axiomatic again.

Miles is on a new (to us) planet, Kibou-daini (settled by people of Japanese heritage). An entire culture mortally afraid of dying (pun intended) to the point where millions, if not billions, of citizens have chosen cryo preservation rather than the more traditional final frontier (i.e. Death). Oddly, since they are not dead, as citizens they still retain their votes in this democracy, albeit by proxy held by ever larger more monopolistic corporations. This sparked quite a few intriguing interpolations both in the characters and my own internal ponderings.

As Emperor Gregor suspected, thanks to his Komarran familial connections, Miles uncovers a plot that could pose an inexorable glacial threat to a third of the Barrayaran Empire and manages, in his usual manic hyperactive style, to expose and diffuse said threat.

Cameos by Ekaterin, Mark and Kareen. Briefer cameos by Ivan and Gregor in the last chapter, but have a box of tissues handy.

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