Rating: 
Summary: A promising but slow start on an epic series
Review: When the real action starts only at the 400th page or so, you know that all the pages before that are about fleshing out the characters. This novel is not a fantasy novel like the others.
First, if you don't like to read about woodworking techniques, forget this book. Even so, Modesitt order theory had to start somewhere. You should have seen my carpenter friend when I explained to him why the wood grains of his cabinet were not ordered.
I would have like the author to explain more what is happening when Lerris manipulate order forces. He creates shields and increase order but how is that achieved in physical terms? I guess it is more detailed in the sequel which I started reading yesterday.
You can see that Modesitt has thought hard about what makes this world works and with more that 8 books following this one, I am sure he has no shortage of imagination.
Rating: 
Summary: fine, fine book
Review: I'll make this simple... I love the Wheel of Time series, but couldn't even get through the first book of the simple-minded Sword of Truth series. I've just finished reading the second book (published) of the Recluce series "Towers of the Sunset" and I must say this is an excellent series. BE WARNED: Read these books in the published order, but realize they do not follow an ongoing timeline of chronology. Example: book "one"-Magic of Recluce, takes place in that world's year 1850, whilst book "two"-Towers of Sunset, takes place years earlier in the year 900, and the whole series jumps around like that. I feel you should try to read them in the published order, because it all starts to come together in a "Pulp Fiction" kinda way... Hope this helps!
Rating:
Summary: First Person Narration Very Interesting
Review: In The Magic of Recluce, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., there was one startling thing about how it was written that certainly shocked me at first, and for good reason. This was that it was all written in the first person narrative style. A long while ago, I had read another book in the first person style, and I thought it was great. The Magic of Recluce certainly does not disappoint. It is a great book that I highly enjoyed, and I think that Modesitt is a great writer, and the first person narration only adds to that. It not only put you right in the action by putting you behind the character's senses and feelings but also gave you a far more intimate knowledge of the character than even third person omniscient is capable of. That was truly a defining feature of the book, and I highly enjoyed reading that. In fact, I probably would have enjoyed reading the book had the plot been junk but the first person narration was kept firmly intact. Further, it was something unique in a rather run-of-the-mill time for the excellent genre of fantasy. It was finally something different, both in its great plot and its superb use of the first person style of writing. All things considered, the book was excellent on its own rights, and Modesitt did a great job making use of a unique and often overlooked literary device in excellent ways. A wonderful start to what should be an excellent series.
Rating:
Summary: Decent beginning of a decent fantasy series.
Review: After reading every one of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books it's difficult to find a decent book to read. I was recommended this series. They said that it was a [copy] of Jordan, yet it was good. Though I don't see the resemblance between The Magic of Recluse and The Wheel of Time, this first book is still good. The slow start put me off a bit, but it was enjoyable enough to keep me going. It did not take too long for me to become engrossed in Lerris' "apprenticeship" with the gray wizard Justin. The rest of the story was easily read. There are a few times where I detected L. E. Modesitt Jr. poking fun at not just the fantasy genre but also the way most authors write. For example, many writers will have their characters sit around a campfire and ridiculously explain the entire world for no good reason. L. E. Modesitt Jr. does the opposite, no one tells Lerris anything at all. Then Justin scolds him for not knowing anything. Obviously (to me) L. E. Modesitt Jr. has some opinions about what makes a book believable. But his methods aren't much better, except for the fact that he denounces the bad methods employed by many authors. Still, I appreciate the effort. I hope he gets better at finding new ways to solve the old problems, rather than giving up and just accepting the solutions created by past writers. I cannot give it 5 stars for it's technical errors, of which there are many, but inconsequential. I did not buy the clever magic system completely. Some of it is flawed. For example, contrary to most magic systems, white is evil and black is good. I find this intriguing (again he is being different) but it's not quite right. L. E. Modesitt Jr. explains his color system by saying that light is chaos (it isn't---light is extremely ordered) so it must be evil. Yet he doesn't realize that white clothing reflects light so by his logical system, chaos masters should wear black, not white. Still, this is a minor error, for which I can forgive (with a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief). But it does, with the help of L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s ridiculous sound effects, drop off a star. (If you want well placed and subtle written sound effects, read Drowned Hopes, by Donald E. Westlake.) So, The Magic of Recluse had a slow but enjoyable start and introduced some new intriguing ideas. Then it got more enjoyable as the protagonist gained more and more knowledge. It's common human error flaws are forgivable, but the magic system needs work. I understand he does fine tune the magic system in his later books. I'll have to judge them when I get to them. But for the meantime, The Magic of Recluse gets [four stars] from me.
Rating:
Summary: Fresh Sci-Fi: The start of my favorite series
Review: I love this book.
I was walking through a bookstore years ago, just browsing for an author or series I'd never read about before; I was searching for something new. The title "The Magic Engineer" caught my eye, since I'm an engineer, and I picked it up. Of course, it was part three in a series, so I grabbed the first book, The Magic of Recluce, and headed home. That was the start of my love affair with this series and Mr. Modesitt's writing in general. You, the reader, can tell from the other reviews here that Mr. Modesitt's writing tends to polarize reviewers into loveit-hateit camps, and it largely depends on where your focus is in reading. If you're looking for page after page of fighting and 'tension', move on to the Shannara series. If you look for depth and development, read on! This book is not the best of the series, and several items he introduces in this book he 'backtracks' on in later books as the magic system develops and becomes more realistic. For example, in this book the great White mage performs magic on an old ewe, and "The two trays weere heaped with succulent sliced and and steaming mutton, with joints at the edges, and with sweetbreads piled at each end. A sheepskin rug lay on the floor beside Antonin..." In later books, we become aware that White magic can only destroy, and largely manifests itself as fireballs. A fireball that would burn the ewe to a crisp, but would not slice it, season it, and prepare bread too! This is the most extreme example of what is started in the first book and later modified. The writing is a bit 'thick' as you try to absorb all there is to know, but the payoffs are a world, magic system, ethical systems, nations,politics, and individual personalities that are *rich* and believable. Mr. Modesitt's strength lies in bringing the reader to understand that in his world, the great and the powerful are just ordinary people like you and me who have been faces with extraordinary challenges due to their birth in history, most times facing circumstances well beyond their control. The characters, largely speaking, just want to be left alone to lead their lives and help others, and they continually get put in circumstances where they *must* deal with strength.
Yet, Mr. Modesitt does not spend a lot of time with battles. His books grow the characters, their circumstances, and the people the know and love. Most fights are something to be finished as quickly as possible so that the characters can get back to their lives, and this is how they are written. This is an exceptional review from one of my absolute favorite authors, and highly recommended to anyone looking for Fresh SciFi. May you love it as I do.
Rating:
Summary: First Person Narration Very Interesting
Review: In The Towers of the Sunset by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., there was one thing that really leapt out at me from the absolute beginning: the book was written in the present tense. Obviously, my first reaction was one of confusion. It was strange seeing a book written so after I had been so long reading traditional novels in the past tense. It kept throwing me off to be reading it like that for the first twenty-five pages or so. But soon I developed a keen liking for it. I thought that using the present tense made the book much more exciting, putting you in the action instead of making the reader a bored spectator to the book. I truly admire Modesitt for going out on a limb like this. I think that it takes a lot of guts for an author to do something like this, especially in today's overly confined and narrow-minded society. Also, it did a great job of making this book stand out above all others. I read this book a while ago, but it's still vivid in my memory due to its radical and noteworthy style of writing. Chances are that I will remember this book for years to come, both as the absolutely excellent narrative that it was and the exquisite and daring foray into the present tense. Overall, this was a truly excellent book that I would recommend without any hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: Charmed, again.
Review: I picked up this book 11 years ago (1992) after having read most of TSRs Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms offerings. It was not what I expected. Unevenly paced, but compelling and real, this novel drew me along and helped me deal with some of my real life issues. Although I lost track of the series after the second volume (so many books so little time) I had such fond memories that I read it again (2003), and still found it enjoyable, with some caveats: - As other reviewers have mentioned, Modesitt spreads onomatopoeia a little too thick. - In places the grammar is so bad that it interrupts the flow of the story, though that may be evidence of a clumsy editor and not the fault of this seasoned author.
- When he deals with secondary characters' plotlines he shifts entirely out of the story's first person past tense mode into third person present tense - very distracting to some readers. - Although large portions of the book are devoted to describing woodwork there are only three woods mentioned in the book: lorken, oak and pine. Of these three only one is ever used as a building material. That's just plain sloppy research, unless I'm missing some deeper symbolism in his use of three colours of oak: white, red and black... - Some portions of the book appear to have been "cut and pasted", with identical descriptive passages appearing in several different contexts. The book's emphasis on independent thought, hard work, and honesty, and its exploration of themes of the balance between order and chaos, and good and evil make it an excellent coming of age story. Strongly recommended for readers aged 16-20.
Rating: 
Summary: Holden Caulfield Goes to Fantasyland
Review: Here's the plot of "The Magic of Recluse": a teenager named Lerris is expelled from the island of Recluse because he is bored with his apprenticeship. He stays at an inn. Then he buys a horse. Then he rides to another inn. Then he runs away from the inn. Then he stays at another inn. Then he meets another wizard who agrees to be his mentor. Then he stays at another inn. Then he uses his magic power on some sheep. Then he stays at another inn. Then he stays at another inn. It was around this point that I quit reading, for the obvious reason that nothing was happening. L. E. Modesitt apparently feels that he holds an amazing gift for onomatopoeia. He frequently provides long streams of letters that are apparently supposed to communicate sounds such as doors creaking and leaves rustling. The coup de grace is Lerris' horse, which makes a wider variety of sounds than a full chamber orchestra and unfortunately makes them very often. We also get to spend a huge amount of time reading about what Lerris has for breakfast, what he's wearing today, what weapons he's carrying, and lots of other insignificant details. Other details are left out, for instance characterization. Despite the fact that he's wandering through a land he's never seen before and supposedly learning about his surging magical powers, Lerris' only reaction is to repeatedly state his boredom with everything so frequently that it becomes like a mantra. Minor characters fair even worse, and invariably seem to disappear after only a few chapters on screen. There is also a bad guy drifting around somewhere, though we never really see him doing anything bad, so it's tough to tell why we're supposed to be frightened of him. Also, what's the big deal with the conflict between "chaos magic" and "order magic"? Order magic is supposed to be good and chaos magic is supposed to be evil, but we're never shown any actual justification for any of it. I got the feeling that this was just a silly gimmick inserted by the author in a desperate attempt to generate interest. For a much better analysis of the topic in a fantasy novel, I recommend "The High House" by James Stoddard.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: This book explores so many different aspects of Nodesitts world it isnt funny some would think the book is slow but in reality he is just trying to clrify everything. So in hte end if you are up for a captavating book that will hook you into another series give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Original!
Review: Pro - original magic system. Order vs. Chaos and how those two "powers" exist with one another Con - every now and again the author switches tenses with certain characters which throws off the flow of the story. Like feeling a spider crawling on you and you brush it away because it is irritating but you still have some chills and goosebumps afterwards. Meaning it is liveable but you don't want to feel it again. This I've read is the biggest complaint with book 2...so I'm going to avoid that book Pro - I didn't know what to expect...just as the main character doesn't have a "real" clue as to what he is to do next, neither did I as the reader. This was handled well, kept the suspense and kept me guessing Con - Like others have mentioned the emulating of sounds got old. At first it was funny, then cute, then irritating, then I just ignored the sounds because it was boring. Pro - I didn't want the story to end!! Story, characters, and the world created were all very enjoyable. Can't ask for much more than that. Pro -
|
