Rating: 
Summary: A step down.....
Review: A step down from The Towers of the Sunset which was by far the best book in the series (i've only read the first 6-so i'm not sure how good the last two are). Still, it is worth reading if you like Modesitt's unique style.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusion riegns
Review: After a lot of soul searching and gnashing of teeth I was able to allow that different people like different things and became tollerant of the present-tense writing form of the Recluse books. It still irks me and is extremely difficult to read for most peole I know, but I am not the writer...The first thing I have not been able to swallow at all yet (a reference to the constant and extremely annoying food eating scenes) is the fact that most of the sentences in the book are not attributed to any person (especially in group settings) and you must guess who is speaking. The second thing is that the way characters interact are not logican nor normal. There is no explanation beyond vague references as to why Dorrin suddenly smiles after Kadara says seomething, why someone gets upset during a conversation that is totally irrelevant to the thing making the person upset, etc. Why did the old healer know that Dorrin was doing the right things? No explanation whatsoever. The story has such an interesting plot and could be taken very far, but because of the confusing and strange character interaction and lack of character development beyond the main character, the story becomes confusing and dull. If the rest of the books in this series are like the first three, there is no reason to continue reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Modesitt's best yet!!
Review: By reading Modesitt's books in sequential order, the improvement from one book to the next has been obvious to me.
*Note that I have only read the first three books so far, and I know that it would be hard to keep improving throughout the series*
In The Magic Engineer, Modesitt has produced a remarkable book which turned out to be completely unique in many ways. While it began almost the exact same way as The Magic of Recluce, with a young man being exiled for doubting the perfection of Order to go out into Candar and become a man, the book took on a much more mature tone once Dorrin got settled in as an apprentice blacksmith in Spidlar. The imagery in this book was much better than in the past two, and the limited use of sound effects was also an improvement. With such wonderful characters as Brede, Kadara, and Leidral (who are much easier to picture and to keep track of than the secondary characters in the other novels) Modesitt brings you in to a marvelous world in which you can feel close to those you are reading about. (Don't tell me that you didn't get upset when Dorrin had to leave behind Meriwhen, who was only a horse!) Also, with the wonderful inventions of Dorrin, which were very well described so as to be easily pictured by the reader, Modesitt almost has the reader feel proud of some accomplishment. I especially liked the weapons Dorrin forged for Brede. Completely slaughtered the stinking Whites! It was awesome. I would definetly rank this book as Modesitt's best work so far and look forward to reading some more of his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Great war, great read.
Review: First of all I would like to say I read the two previous books in the series (in order) before reading this one. I liked this book the best. Without boring you with details, let me say this was the most entertaining fantasy war I have ever read. It had strategy, tactics, battles and slaughter. The fact Dorrin uses violence to oppose the forces of chaos is not lost on him or the reader and the book even brings up a strong moral point: Was a cause of order served by Dorrin's resistance or did he hurt the cause of order by his opposition? What alternatives lay open to him? Without being to preachy, this book is an awesome read they will make you think by the end of it.
Rating:
Summary: Gwaaa! Where's Leyladin?
Review: Heh, heh. While I read this book before the "Colours of Chaos," it's a good one to refer back to to compare Order mage Dorrin to his "shadow" rival Cerryl. While Cerryl's story is a bit more polished and larger in scope, Dorrin's story is still not half bad, and while many will undoubtedly bawk at its slow pace, "The Magic Engineer" presents an absorbing, complex and fully realized world filled with depth and texture. Since this book takes place at the same time as his later "Colours of Chaos" novel, one can have fun seeing the slight changes Modesitt does to the story by omitting certain scenes and altering them to shape the book's point of view--or rather, he added certain scenes and characters in "Colours of Chaos," however you want to think is the "true" point of view (where's Leyladin? Wasn't she in the same room as Anya and Cerryl? Gaaah! How could you forget my favourite Modesitt love interest of all time? )
Rating: 
Summary: Please, no more chewing and swallowing...
Review: I appreciate these books for the level of detail Mr. Modesittputs into them; the main character often spends most of the book justfiguring out how to make enough money to eat. But I can no longer stomach all the eating scenes in them. An odd criticism, I know, but they really got to me. In practically every book, there are several scenes where the characters' every chew and swallow were set forth in excrutiating detail. "I think," he said, pausing to take a bite of the roll, and then washing it down with a sip of redberry, "that I would be more careful than to say that." I never want to read the word "redberry" again. Damn, I just reread that last sentence. It literally got to the point where my wife and I would be sitting together reading, and I'd suddenly jump up and yell "Oh no! They're going to start eating again!" Then I'd stomp around the house ranting for a while as I quoted parts of the eating scene at high volume. My wife, of course, thought I was crazy. Then I started reading her the full scenes. Her response was "This guy must either be a frustrated chef or very fat." I can't psychoanalyze Mr. Modesitt or comment on his physical condition, but I realized that I'd made a mistake in buying two of his books without previewing them, after I'd liked the first one in the series. I finished them, but reading them started feeling like work.
Rating:
Summary: The best book in the series!
Review: I have read all the books in the the "Recluce series" and this to me is one of the better ones he has written! It was amazing to see, and feel, how this story takes place in a land far beyond what we can comprehed. I enjoyed how well he brought every detail into the light.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I read lots of fantasy. Lots. This is one of the best. Some of the greatest character development i've ever read, and a great characters themselves. This book is not challenging for people who didn't have trouble with books like the fellowship of the ring. ne how, if u enjoyed this book, i reccomend the The lord of the rings saga, The dark is rising saga, and, my personal favorite, dragonlance books.
Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: I really enjoyed this book, however this is the first book by Modesitt that i have read. It is extremely descriptive, which helps create a very realistic fantasy world. I also enjoyed how the characters do not get insanely powerful, which is becoming all to common place in modern fantasy. Overall a great book that i read for 5 hour stretches because of how engrossing it is.
Rating:
Summary: I close the book after 5 chapters
Review: I would give this book a minus 10 if there was such a rating. Try reading any book that recounts the story and dialogue in the present tense for 500 pages if you get as far as the first few chapters and not close the book in disgust.I am sure the author is a very accomplished writer but I'm not quite sure if he was using a poetic form of recounting a story. In addition; try reading a novel of sentences that usually did not go beyond six or seven words. Not very easy! I was planning to collect the entire series of the Magic of Recluce but this initial book did not leave a good impression and instead will stick to Robert Jordan and Janny Wurts whose entire series I have brought in hard-cover and will finish reading while I await their newest installments.
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