From Library Journal
Unable to conform to the rigid laws of perfection and order that govern the land of Recluce, a young carpenter's apprentice undertakes a perilous "dangergeld" journey at the command of the ruling Brotherhood as a test of his right to call Recluce his home. The eternal war between Law and Chaos finds a fresh treatment in Modesitt's latest novel, a fantasy featuring an enterprising hero and a new look at magic. For most fantasy collections.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Modesitt's first venture into fantasy (and hard-cover) is an interesting variation on some traditional fantasy themes, with a touch of his own science-fictional outlook. A boy's growth into manhood forms the center of the tale, and Modesitt's portrayal of that process is on the whole believable and insightful. The youthful Lerris, bored with the simple, orderly life of the island of Recluce, is forced by its rulers to undertake a temporary exile. (Young citizens who cannot accept the lifestyle of Recluce must spend time abroad to come to terms with themselves.) His journey carries him through his exile's training, on to the company of a mentoring gray wizard (who straddles the line between white Chaos and black Order), and finally into the path of the great chaos-master Antonin, who schemes to foster disorder and thus increase his own power. A slow start--Lerris's continual complaints of boredom grow tedious, and his dogged obtuseness in the face of evidence is frustrating--but the pace picks up once Lerris leaves Recluce, and the highly rationalized, scientific approach to magic is refreshing in a field full of pure mysticism. Modesitt also avoids the simple equation of order with good and chaos with evil--in Lerris's world, as in ours, a good balance is the best formula--and this more mature insight distinguishes his novel from the run-of-the-mill fantasies. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Fascinating! A big, exciting novel of the battle between good and evil, and the path between." --Gordon R. Dickson
"A complex world based on a plausible system of magic and peopled with engaging and realistic characters." --Publishers Weekly
"Entwining issues of magic with maturation, Modesitt's thoughtful coming-of-age tale is adorned with a finely drawn, down-to-earth yet dangerous world, and an intriguingly ambiguous view of how good and evil interact." --Carole Nelson Douglas, author of Probe
"Extremely interesting...unique...I would say that this is a refreshing use of the traditional fantasy elements. Thank you for the chance to read it." --Andre Norton, author of The Witch World series
"An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world, with characters who catch you up. Modesitt presents and interesting study of Chaos versus Order, Good versus Evil...and the attractions each of them has for all of us." --Robert Jordan, author of The Eye of the World
From the Inside Flap
The Magic of Recluce is, on one level, the coming-of-age story of the young magician Lerris. Apprenticed as a teenager to his uncle Sardit, a master woodworker, the bright and impatient Lerris soon finds he is unsuited for the patient precision required for woodworking, or, indeed, for life on the order-ruled isle of Recluce. The requirement for order bores Lerris, especially since he rejects all the explanations offered for why it's necessary, and before long he finds himself packed off to the capital city of Nylan to be trained for an exile that will either make him, or destroy him. Even in Nylan, where he discovers he has a talent for order-magery, Lerris finds more questions than answers, especially about the magic surrounding order and chaos, and the answers he does receive are even less satisfactory than the ones he got from his parents and his uncle, especially when he begins to realize that, regardless of what he is being taught, order does not necessarily equate to good. When Lerris finally arrives in Freetown, on the continent of Candar, once ruled by the mightiest chaos wizards in history, his education truly begins, as he finds himself without friends and allies, and still trying to understand who he is and why he was exiled.
About the Author
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce, Corean Chronicles, and the Imager Portfolio. His science fiction includes Adiamante, the Ecolitan novels, the Forever Hero Trilogy, and Archform: Beauty. Besides a writer, Modesitt has been a U.S. Navy pilot, a director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer. He lives in Cedar City, Utah.
