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

I just had to read the second book of the First Law trilogy. Then I'll read the third, then probably get to the Order War.

 

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.

 

On to book 6, Fall of Angels

1. Instead of sending them abroad, those from outside Nylan often get sent to Nylan (hinted at between the end of Magic Engineer and beginning of Order War, but made much clearer in Natural Ordermage). Nylan is still somewhat separate from the rest of Recluce at this point - look at the council scenes for evidence of that. But yes, obviously Nylan also adopts the practice of the dangergeld, though by the time of Lerris the split between Nylan and the rest of Recluce is gone. Actually, the term dangergeld isn't used until after the time of Order War, IIRC.

2. Lots more about Cerryl yet to come - he gets two whole books (White Order and Colors of Chaos)

 

I fell off the wagon.... But I will return to Recluce.

 

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

Yay, Imp!

 

I've tried to stay slow, but its hard

 

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.

 

To an extent, I agree - Justen's a great character, but its not one of the strongest books of the series. Still love it, though, personally

Have you gotten to Death of Chaos yet?

 

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.

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.

 

So, a couple years later ...

I finally got through the series. I basically stand by what I said before: I love the worldbuilding. I love some of the books. I don't love all of them. I like most of them before Justen, but I didn't really like the Justen, Lerris, and Karl books. So, basically, I like the ones set farther in the past But they have all definitely stuck with me. As a history buff, I love seeing how these in books, set over two thousand years, empires rise and fall and civilizations are created and destroyed. It's fascinating to me.

I've also noticed that after the climax, there isn't much wrap-up. It's all very quick.

I do definitely want to reread them, maybe in a couple years. And I want to go in order (even though my least favorites will be the last 5 and I'll have that ahead all the way ). Overall, I very much enjoy the series! I think the one thing I'm most interested in is the rise of Fairhaven. We saw how it was in Cerryl's books and saw it fall in Justen's, but we don't know anything about what happens in Candar basically for hundreds of years -- we have Cyador falling, the Black Tower rising, and the founding of Sarronyn. And then chronologically we're at the fall of the Tower, but we suddenly have Fairhaven as the biggest power on the continent. There's a lot of potential there! I would also like to see the uniting of Hamor:

Spoiler

I thought it was going to happen in the two most recent books, about Lerial, but it did not. There was a TON of potential with Lerial becoming the heir to one of the four main powers through marriage and his older brother, the only one between him and being the first heir to his home land, being overblown and not a great leader. So. Much. Potential.

I'm very excited for any future books!