The Magic of Recluce (Recluce series, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: Best Fantasy Book Ever Written!!!
Review: I absolutely loved this book! In fact, it was this novel that got me started on fantasy. I thought the plot was great, and I just loved Lerris. For once, a main character who was a normal human being. I think it's Lerris' believableness that make him a better hero than any other ever created. This book made me a die-hard Recluce fan, and the whole series is great. It's fantasy without the dragons and maidens stereo-type. Also, I'm fifteen now, and I read this (for the first time) when I was twelve. This book and this author appeals to all ages. A great story!

Rating:
Summary: This is one of the best books I've ever read!
Review: This is a superior book and though his other Recluce novels do not compete with other fantasy books, this is definately one of his best.

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive.
Review: Author L.E. Modesitt strikes gold with this novel about a late adolescent growing into adulthood, power, and responsibility. "The Magic of Recluse" is a fantasy novel that offers an interesting twist on the traditional themes of maturation, order against chaos, and good against evil. The most unusual thing about the novel is its many pages given over to the description of fine cabinetry (the craft in which the protagonist eventually becomes a master). I have no intrinsic interest in woodworking, but I found these passages to be compelling. Modesitt knows how to write.

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Summary: Very disruptive writing style
Review: I found this novel to have a fairly interesting plot line, even if the start was a hair slow. My biggest problem with this work was Modesitt's writing style. I often felt myself taken away from the flow of the story by the author's *very* frequent usage of nonsense letters to represent a sound or an action. Maybe it's a nitpicky complaint, but after reading this work, rather than remembering the depth of the characters, or the pull of the plotline, I came away remembering that I had to decifer what seemed like pages of "Wheee...eee..." and "Thrummmmm.....Thrummmm...." and "Splattttt...." I may check the next book of the series out from the library, but it was definitely too much of a disappointment for me to spend money on it.

Rating:
Summary: read this
Review: this is full of magic and wonderful characters. i think the characters were the great thing about this book. the characters were interesting, they were not all perfect, but each were flawed in some way, and overcoming the flaws was the lesson of the story. great book. it's a must read.

Rating:
Summary: "Hooked from the start"
Review: I truly enjoyed this book. I mostly liked how the characters had human characteristics, while also having fictional characteristics. Modesitt knows how to write a great book and make it seem as if you were there and that you knew Lerris.

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I really enjoyed this coming of age tale of young Lerris. The start was very slow, i.e., Lerris plodding along in his Uncle's woodshop. I almost couldn't get past the beginning, but once he set forth on his Dangergeld I could scarcely put it down. The magic system of Chaos and Order really made tangible sense to me, more so than in many other books of this type. I recommend it to any fan of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: The Magic of Recluse, Good, but not best
Review: The Magic of Recluse is a refreshing new epic into a factual example of magic. Allthough this is a new and rarely sought view, it is pulled off quite nicely. There are some exaples of this view, but they are basic and crude, usually ending up as bland science fiction, or worse, a documetery of a power. This has some very charming chareter development and the third person present time was astounding! I wish she would write more of it into her stories. John Brownlee

Rating:
Summary: first book in a great series
Review: This book starts off Modesitt's wonderful series of the all time struggle between order and chaos. It mentions many things that happened in the past and the rest of her books go back and tell about them. BOTTOM LINE:READ IT

Rating:
Summary: A great reading experience
Review: This is one of those relatively rare fantasy books written in the first person perspective, so it let's you actually BE Lerris if you choose to let your imagination free. And it's easy to do so, not least because the author takes the trouble to make him such a wonderfully normal person, a "hero" with every day worries and joys. It's a wonderful experience to be able to sympathise with the central character, beceuse just like us, he's so obviously human, he makes mistakes, he doesn't see everything. This is a really good read. Although it may not be in the class of Tolkien, that's not a putdown because VERY few could ever touch Tolkien. I seriously recommend Modesitt's Recluse series for those who like good fantasy.