Saturday 9 June 2012

The Magic of Recluce - L.E. Modesitt Jr - Review

The latest in my Eclectic Reader Challenge - this one ticks the box for Fantasy...

I have kinda gone off track as I could not find an Historical Fiction book to read but I will...


Story


This saga is the first (written by L.E. not in the timeline of the universe) of the books set in the magical world of Order and Chaos magic welder.  The story sees a young man, Lerris, sent out from the safe island of Recluce, where he just didn't fit in with the total Order.

The rest of the world lies in a grey area where powerful Chaos mages rule offsetting the Order of Recluce.

This is the journey of understanding as Lerris earns more about the difference between White (Chaos) and Black (Order) magic and the mysterious and Grey magic.  Lerris it turns out is a powerful Black magician who can also weld a mean Black staff... There is cause and effect (too much Chaos leads to more Order and vice-versa) so for the pure Order island of Recluce there must be an opposite pure Chaos. Lerris find himself having to restore some Order in the world of Chaos, but what will he loose because of that fight...?

Review

I have always been meaning to read more of Modesitt and really enjoyed the Imager series - he always seems to be able to come up with alternative magic and fantasy as a genre tends to have magic core to its heart.  Recluce is true to that statement - the magic is very different and opposed to each other.  Which creates a perfect platform for the traditional good v bad (order v chaos).

While I enjoyed this book I have not been able to get into the sequel - set in a different time to the first - I find I am more confused then able to enjoy the story... maybe it will get better the more I read but I'm not sure I have the time to try much more...

This book 3/5...