Rating: 
Summary: almost gave it four starts but ...
Review: I almost gave this book four stars but I was driven to near insanity by Lerris's continual complaints and the exhaustive attencion to detail given by this book. Do we really need to hear about how he made a wood box for more than a page? I loved the magic and the balance of Order and Chaos however. It kept me reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Freshing, new, original fantasy
Review: "The Magic of Recluce" was awesome! I'm a sucker for something original, and this is as original as fantasy gets. My major disappointment was not with the book itself but with the sequel, "The Towers of the Sunset". That is a waste of time; I never finished it because it was so boring. It was nothing compared to this book. All of the characters were great, the plot was great, everything about it was great. Once I got to the halfway point, I was so absorbed in it that I just could not put it down.
Rating:
Summary: So good I had to buy it 3 times!
Review: ARE YOU PEOPLE KIDDING? This book is definitly NOT boring...Modesett writes such a good yarn, it is so human- it seems so well, real sometimes, I have read probably every fantasy author out there and Modesett is one of the few who does not tell a soap opera or write mostly trashy fun novels (which I enjoy too...but this is diffrent!), I actually got somthing out of this book about life...if you are not into fantasy and never have been this is a great read, if you are then this shows you how good fantasy can be...So now you are wondering why I bought it 3 times right? Well originally I borrowed it from a mentor of mine who recomended it loved it and didnt want to give it back to her....well I kept it for 6 months and badly abused it so I bought her a new copy....then a year or so later I lost my dog eared copy and couldnt live without it so...I bought another copy. Then I loaned it to my friend and she wont give it back so, you guessed it I now have another very abused, very loved copy of the book.... Guys just trust me on this one- I dont care who you are this book is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: how boring!
Review: This is one of the worst books I have read in a long time! The story line, scenery and characters were all boring. The story line was also totally unbelievable and needed a lot more explanation. Why wasn't the main character shocked to discover that he posessed magical powers and was the son of one of the most powerful men on Recluce, when he didn't even believe in the existance of magic until he was sent to be a Dangergeld? Why weren't we, the readers, priveleged to discover what it means to be a black staffer? There were too many questions left unanswered while sound effects and the main character's boredom would take up page after page. The ending was a little better, but totally unbelievable. Come on, get real...he did all of that with about a month's worth of training from his uncle (he amazingly figured out Julien was his uncle without us ever being privy to HOW he figured it out) and a little book that he barely understood. I spent the whole time reading this book, wondering when George R.R. Martin will release his new book...I just hope the next book I pick up to bide my time will be better than this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad
Review: This is good stuff. This is not a great epic journey with twenty characters to follow (not that there's anything wrong with that), or killer dragons, or shadow spawn. Lerris, the main character is unhappy with his life in the, as he puts it, mundane dull world of Recluce. At the urgings of his parents, he becomes an apprentice for his uncle, a woodworker. He turns out to be an adequate craftsman, but has no interest in his work. Recluce is a society based on order, any discontentment is a foot Chaos puts through their door. Recluce relies solely on Order, which is kept by the Order (black) wizards. Because of their shunning of Chaos, Recluce is a peaceful place. People like Lerris are given the choice to leave Recluce at an early age. They are offered banishment, or the position of Dangergeld, which gives a chance to return to Recluce at the completion of a quest. Lerris chooses Dangergeld, and enters training with 6 other people. After his training, Lerris and his fellow Dangergelds are taken by ship to Freetown on the continent of Candar. When Lerris parts company with the other dangergelds, he blunders around the Southern half of the continent for a few months. He meets a Neutral (gray) wizard and studies with him for a while. They part ways too soon, and Lerris is left wondering if he has the potential to be a wizard. From there he crosses a mountain rage, pays too much for an Inn, and basically freezes himself half to death. Soon after he comes to a city, and takes on the position of journeyman at a lowly woodworking shop, and turns the shop into a profitable business. After leaving woodworking for good, he gets into some big trouble with a very powerful White (chaos) wizard. He goes on to save the day and get his girl. A unique, touching fantasy, destined to become a classic. Though nowhere near as hard on the brain as the Wheel of Time, it is still a very enjoyable, well-crafted fantasy. Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars but just barely,slow but interesting
Review: I read L.E. Modesitt, Jr's the Magic of Recluce and I just finshed it and it was a interesting book really slow at times and the main character was getting on my nervies quite abit with his "this is boring additude" the guy just didn't want to learn anything and questioned everything.There was some fun parts to the story especially when Lerris,Tamera,and Krystel first met and you noticed the attraction between Lerris and Krystel but each were afraid to say that they loved each other, and tell there true feelings to each other. The relationship between Tamera and Lerris was defferent and the arguing back and forth to each other led me to believe they had more in commen and they each reminded each other they were alot a like, the bickering was as Lerris said was like a brother/sister relationship. I hope to see more on Lerris,Krystal, and Tamera I would like to see there story continue, plus I can't wait to read the rest of the Recluce series. Any one who wants to e-mail me can reach me at my new e-mail adress at (undertaker_91910@yahoo.com) I highly recommened this book. It maybe slow but the story is good.
Rating: 
Summary: Try Again.
Review: I really want to give a better review. I can tell how good of a writer L. E. Modesitt is, by the way he uses different words throughout the novel and character description...but BORING. It was probably more boring than Lerris' actual life. I mean, come on, for almost 100 pages he kept doing the same thing only in different towns...going to an inn, having someone take care of his horse, and eat and drink redberry. BUT THEN AGAIN..... There is a possibility I will go back to this novel because to be truthful. I COULDN'T finish it. I got to page 250 and said, okay that's enough...I just can't take it. I suppose I should have been more patient, and there probably be some grand ending and the rest of the series will go fine. We'll see. What I do recommend is that you read some other books, and challenge your way up to Recluce. Then I WILL RECOMMEND it to you if you can work for it, and get up your patience. Overall, you need a lot of time on your hands and patience to get through it...but it just may be worth it, but not for me. It wasn't hard to understand just monotonous.
Rating:
Summary: How Disappointing
Review: I've seen so many books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I thought I would pick up one. If he's written so many books, then he must be good, right? Boy, was I wrong. Maybe it was just me, but I thought the main character, Lerris, seemed rather slow and dimwitted at times, but then out of the blue he'd realize "Oh, Tamra's in trouble" or "I'm a order master." A lot of things happened without explanation. For example, it's revealed that Lerris is a black-staffer. When did this happen? What does it involve? Why can they not seem to lie? At one point in the story he realizes out of the blue that a certain character in the book is his uncle. How did he know that? He'd never met the guy before in his life. Lerris also seemed to focus on minor difficulties rather than problems that would have been more interesting for the reader. Such as, Lerris is told his father is an order master, but he never knew. But that knowledge just passed with hardly more than a "Oh, I didn't know that, how interesting." Also, Lerris is bored. Extremely bored. And he never fails letting the reader know about it. All the references to boredom were just that... boring! Most of the story is in first person, past tense, from the viewpoint of Lerris. In some places information was needed that couldn't be given from Lerris' viewpoint, so the author switched to third person. That was fine, since it wouldn't make since for Lerris to be talking about something that he wasn't there for. The thing that bothered me was that the author switched to present tense. So part of the book is in past tense, and part of it is in present. Another thing that bothered me in those sections of the book was that instead of referring to the people in those sections by their names, the author referred to them as "the black-haired woman" or "the blond woman"... even after they call each other by name. Another thing that bothered me was this. When a conversation was being overheard, instead of hearing the whole conversation, apparently only the middle part of sentences were heard. ...looked a lot like this... ...a little annoying... And finally the thing that bothered me more than anything was the authors pervasive use of sound effects throughout the *entire* novel. I have an imagination and I think leaving such things to the imagination is better than filling it in for the reader. Here is a short list of some of the most frequently used sounds effects and their interpretations: Wheeee.... eeeeee.... eeuuhhhhh.... - horse Thrummmmmm... thrummmmmm.... - thunder Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! - waitress putting down glasses on a table Snaaaaaaaath.... snathhhhh... - snoring Rrrrrrrr... rrrrruuuuurghhhhh... - stomach growling Thunk. - a falling body, presumably dead Bheeeaaaa... - sheep Yee-ah! Yee-ah! - a cawing crow ...accuffff... acuffffff... acuuu... - coughing pppeeeepppp.... - chirping insects or frogs Here is a quick example of a typical fight between Lerris, who uses a staff, and another person, most likely using a sword or magic fireballs, with translations in parentheses: Whhhhsttttt... (a fireball) Whhhhssssstttt... (another fireball) Thumpedy... thump... (a galloping horse) Whhhhsttttttt! (another fireball) Whhhhssssttttt! (yet another fireball) EEEiiiiiii! (someone screaming in agony) WHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTT! (a really really big fireball) "Aeeeeeeeiiiiii...." (more agony) "Ouuuuuffffff....." (someone hitting the ground) Thud. (a falling body) Now, after this review, you may be wondering why I gave it two stars instead of one. It's true that nothing much happened through the first half of the book, but if you can make it through to the second half of the book, it *does* get better. All the above mentioned things are still prevalent, but the story itself was a little more interesting. I do have to admit, this is the first book I've read in a long time that I've had to force myself to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Issues to consider...
Review: Boy I hate to be the only bad review! There were several aspects of this book that halted the "story living in my imagination" and made me realize I was reading words on a page. One - sounds are not described anywhere in the book. Passages that contain "whack...ching....thump" do not tell you what action is taking place, nor what the sounds were attributed to. You are forced to guess what is happening until the next paragraph, where more often than not the action isn't explained. Two - there is a timeflow problem. One minute a character is laying on the ground in an unknown state, and one sentence later is staggering towards the door. When did they get up? How? Slowly, weakly, spasmodically, what? These books will be great reads for some. Myself, I guess I'm just used to a different authorship style.
Rating:
Summary: AN INTRIGUING SWITCH ON BLACK VERSUS WHITE
Review: Review by Nina Coombs Pykare, author of DEATH COMES TO DESDEMONA. An intriguing plot pits white/chaos/evil against black/order/good. Banished from Recluce because of his boredom, Lerris meets other dangergelders and embarks on the quest set him by the Council. White wizards, black wizards, grey wizards, dangergelder friends and the good people he meets along the way, make for an engrossing story in this first of the series. I plan to read the rest.
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