Tag: LE Modesitt Jr

Cyador’s Heirs (Saga of Recluce #17)

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Title: Cyador’s Heirs

Series: The Saga of Recluce #17

Author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 629

 

Synopsis:

Cyador is gone and its survivors are in Hamor, trying to carve out a kingdom amongst hostile dukes of surrounding kingdoms.

The younger son is sent off to be trained and ends up fighting a war in defense of a new ally.

 

My Thoughts:

The fact that I am still reading this series should say something. However, I am not sure what, as I do nothing but complain about each book as I read them.

Modesitt has a certain voice when writing the Recluce books and it is one that can stupify, grate and generally annoy. Even while telling a rather fantastic story. And that is what keeps me coming back. The stories.

The stories are formulaic to the extreme,  nothing is original and you’ll be sick and tired of people eating by the time the novel is done. But you’ll read it to the end and read 17 books worth and read the next book when it comes out.

What can I say? I still enjoy these but it is with the knowledge of the flaws, deliberate I believe sometimes, of these books.

Arms-Commander

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Arms-CommanderArms-Commander

Saga of Recluce #16

L.E. Modesitt Jr.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

Another half decent book by Modesitt. I’ve enjoyed the Recluce books, and this one is as good as any of them.
A bit of man-hating, but considering that Modesitt has created a world of nothing but evil ‘men’, not surprising.
And thank goodness, we don’t get bloviated descriptions of every meal 🙂

Haze

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Haze
L Modesitt Jr
SF
2 Stars
303 Pages

I gave Modesitt a final chance with this book. He failed.

It is at least 1000-1500 years after the fall of the American Empire but at least 2-3 times per chapter the main character is reminded in one form or another how evil they were and how enlightened and wonderful this new society is.

First off, who even talks about empires thousands of years in the past?[except for historians and history buffs? Not the run of the mill people] The past is forgotten and the evils of a generation are glossed over by newer evils.

It was just another diatribe against capitalism wrapped in Modesitt’s scifi universe. Only his Recluce stuff for me now.

Soarer’s Choice

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Soarer’s Choice
Corean Chronicles #6
LE Modesitt, JR
Fantasy
2 stars
540 pages

the end of this trilogy.

The alector and the cadmian become the forbearers of the Talented. Acorus is severed from Efrit and all those linked to it either adapt to Acorus’s lifeforce or die.

I didn’t really enjoy this. For the end of the world as they know it, the characters sure don’t show much panic or haste or any emotion of any kind. I’ve got 1 more Modesitt book on tap and if it doesn’t change drastically, I think I’ll give him up except for Recluce.

Imager

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Imager
Imager Portfolio #1
LE Modesitt, Jr
Fantasy
1 star
432 pages

Another series by Modesitt. I manfully made my way through this, but I don’t plan on reading any more. A world where Imagers exist. People who can “imagine” things into reality, or out of, depending. Follows a young man who is a painter who turns out to be an Imager and his trials and tribulations as he moves up the ranks.
2 things:

1-STOP the confounded preaching! This seemed to be a book on Modesitt’s philosophy and world view. I don’t care! Considering that this has been in other books of his, I decided that I didn’t have to put up with it. It ruins the story and really bogs the plot down with dry boring info that I, the reader, DON’T need to know.

2-I am sick of self-effacing, stoic, perfect people whose only problem seem to be that everybody else is keeping them back. The hero is smarter than everybody, more intelligent, harder working, more ethical, etc, etc and then he goes and says inane things like “well, I’m only trying my best” or such crap. The hero seems like a machine that would do better without people in their world.

So, to end this. Another Modesitt regurgitation that has no really original ideas and is blase and mediocre without the charm that makes Recluce semi-palatable.

Cadmian’s Choice

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Cadmian’s Choice
Corean Chronicles #5
LE Modesitt, Jr
Fantasy
3 stars
510 pages

The second book dealing with Dalyn and Mikel, an Alector and a Cadmian. Rogue Alectors are transferring in and it is up to Dalyn and Mikel to navigate the political hidden agendas and figure out what to do and how to do it semi-safely.

This was annoying. The politics are as confusing to us the reader, probably more so since we don’t have prior experience and knowledge, as to the main characters. Keeping track of what Alector is supposedly supporting which Duarch and Highest and all the military ranking, it is confusing and does not make the read interesting

Alector’s Choice

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Alector’s Choice
Corean Chronicles #4
LE Modesitt, Jr
fantasy
3 stars
510 pages

Set thousands of years before the first trilogy. The ifrit’s are cultivating Corus, and another planet Efron, as possible replacements to their current homeworld. Both are vying to be the home of the Master Scepter. This story deals with the Alector [ifrit] and the Cadmium [human] who have to deal with uprisings, etc that threaten to bias the Archon on their current homeworld against Corus.

Overall this story reminded me a LOT more of a Recluce book. It took me over a week to read it and it just didn’t engage me like the original trilogy. Plodding, that is a good word for this book. The 2 main characters were completely un-engaging. The plot has enough stuff hidden way for the future books that I was constantly trying to figure out if something I didn’t understand would be explained later in this book, in another book, or not at all. Not a good thing for a smooth read.

Natural Ordermage

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Natural Ordermage
Saga of Recluce #14
LE Modesitt, Jr
fantasy
3 stars
496 pages

A young punk is exiled from Recluce to Hamor. He turns out to be a “natural ordermage”, basically someone who can’t learn, just can or can’t, do things with his power. Interesting and better writing than the early Recluce books.

Ordermaster

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Ordermaster
Saga of Recluce #13
LE Modesitt Jr
Fantasy
3 stars
494 pages

Kharl goes back to his homecountry and ends up finding a new consort and killing off a bunch of white mages and Egen, the man responsible for killing his family and driving him from Brysta. I enjoyed this, but nothing special in any way.