Amph The Saga of Recluce and other series: the L.E. Modesitt, Jr Thread

RJ, I can see why you reread these so often. After a few weeks, I already want to reread Towers of the Sunset and The Magic Engineer

I started the fourth book. I haven't gotten very far, but I find two things very interesting:

1. Recluse stopped sending its "malcontents" abroad. Obviously, the practise returns. My current theory is that they stopped because of what happened when Dorrin was there (they got swept up into a war and targeted and killed for being from Recluse).

2. Cerryl the White, who was kind of a voice of reason (at least, compared to Jeslik and Anya) and who was pretty much content to leave Recluse alone and spend his time and effort subduing Candar, is now Cerryl the Great. His legacy is better than that of those who tried to attack Recluse and failed (e.g., Jenred the Traitor). But of course, the Whites didn't take that as a lesson.

Wow, RJ, I didn't realize you'd gotten so far!

Yay, Imp!

I just need to get ,oving

Just finished The Order War (#4).

Much as I've always liked Justen, I didn't like the book as much as I liked Towers or Engineer. Not sure why--maybe because this one seems a bit sadder, for some reason. Anyway, I like the older stuff better, and am more excited about the books about Ryba and Nylan than anything else.

Nevertheless, Justen and Gunnar were great, and I'm excited to see them again in #5.

Yep! 50 pages in (just started it this morning). Lerris is fun, but I like the other three better, so right now my favorite parts are the ones with Gunnar and Justen

I'm reading these more slowly than I'd like, but I got through The Death of Chaos, the two Nylan books, and the two Cerryl books. Brief thoughts:

The Lerris books are actually some of my least favorites.

Nylan's fun. The second book was less interesting. I'd hoped he and Ayrlyn would do more in the Great Forest that we would see, but I guess not.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

So, Creslin is Nylan's grandson. Interesting. I also find it interesting that Ayrlyn and Weryl are alive in The Death of Chaos, but Nylan doesn't appear to be. Is that ever explained?

Cerryl is a badass. I loved his books, especially the second.

I think next time I read these (it won't be every year, but I'm sure I will again in a few years), I'm going to try reading them in chronological order.

I'm about a hundred pages into the first Lorn book, but I find that I don't care much. I'm not sure why. Lorn is less interesting to me than Cerryl and Nylan, certainly. Maybe it's because I'd already heard of them and wanted to see their stories; maybe because Cyador fell so far before most of the books that it doesn't matter to me; maybe I just need a break because I've torn through the last four so rapidly.

And a year and a half later, I just finished the second Lorn book. (This is taking me a while ) And I take back what I said; I love Lorn, and I ended up REALLY enjoying these two books. IMO the series is kinda hit or miss (some of the books are great; some are a struggle to get through), but I'm glad I finally got back into the series here.

I don't have a ton of thoughts, just that having read the (timeline-wise) first and last books, and hit a bunch of spots in the middle, I find the worldbuilding really amazing. Cyador and Lorn's world seem completely different than Recluce and Lerris's; it almost seems like they don't belong in the same series at all. And it's kinda sad (with these books, and with Nylan and the Black Tower, and Cerryl and Fairhaven) to know that these great places are defeated and crumble into dust, and the characters turn into legend and then myth (and even forgotten -- like Lorn) but it's also very realistic.

I know it's been a long time, but is anyone else reading/has anyone else read these books? I'm going to keep making my way through them (probably slowly). And after I get through them all, I think I really will start again at some point and try them chronologically rather than in published order.