The Saga of Recluce (L.E. Modesitt, Jr.)

(aka The Magic of Recluce series)

Leland Exton Modesitt, Jr. (Utah, USA, 1943 -- present)

Welcome Notes

March 2005
Welcome, Digital Dangergelder!

I cannot say enough nice things about this series of books by Mr. Modesitt.

At first, I must say that the way the books jumped around through time threw me. As I came to each new book, though, I began to savor the variety that this approach offers -- I never know where, in the time-line, we're going or who we may run into while we're there.

The latest books, "Wellspring of Chaos" and "Ordermaster" illustrate this point poignantly.

I hate reviews because they tend to bias things but I love reviews because they help me evaluate whether or not a book is worth my time.

With that "qualifying statement", I would say this: try the first two books for yourself - that'll give you a taste of his style and you can decide if this History of Recluce is right for you.

To my thinking, if you like a good story with a little magic thrown in -- not hokey parlour-games -- real magic -- you should enjoy this little adventure a great deal.

My brief homage, here, mostly contains bits and pieces of Recluce reference stuff that I've found other places -- but also some content of my own design -- listings of the books by Publish Date, and also (with some SPOILER info) a Chronological Overview.

June 2006
Got some suggestions from a traveler recently ... never caught whether he was a black-staffer or a young white-wizard ... anyway ...

I'll be adding a few entries to the Timeline to show large gaps in time between the various entries -- and fixing a boo-boo with my chronology -- I (somehow) thought Kharl's story occurred at the same time as Lerris' but, apparently, I'm getting my characters confused. Hmmm .. may be time for a re-read. /grin

Thanks for the feedback, Mr. Lambert!

p.s. He also introduced me to a valuable resource that I had somehow missed before -- the Internet Book Database of Fiction. Cool stuff! They even have a forum [link] dedicated to Mr. Modesitt -- where I learned that his name is pronounced *MODD-ess-it*, with the emphasis on the first syllable. ("Modd" sounds like "odd".)

October 2006
I'm toying with the idea of breaking this page up into multiple pages but I'm worried that it'll make things too disconnected.

Fixed a few grammatical errors and am re-doing some of the labels for the sections. For now that, and a little white-space between the sections, will have to do for the re-modeling -- I'm too nervous about trying more.

Planning to add sections for "Who's Who" and "Favorite Quotes". Would really like to do a database/concordance sort of thing where you could look up people, places, and items but haven't quite decided yet if that's going to be more work than it's worth.

Re-reading the series (trying chronological order this time). I've just finished "Fall of Angels". I don't remember nearly as much of the stories as I thought I did -- it's almost like reading them for the first time!

July 2008
I re-did the whole site earlier this year - so this page got an update too. Now I'm fixing a few more things I *somehow* missed before -- spelling is SUCH a chore! I also added the info on the two Rahl books.

However, the *main* update this time is the "Wiki" I'm building for Mr. Modesitt's world. Please take a look at it and let me know what you think ..

Warning! Serious SPOILERS! [World of Recluce Wiki]. Warning! Serious SPOILERS!

It works a bit differently than Wikipedia or other similar projects. I wanted it to be simpler and, hopefully, easier for me to build/maintain. Also, the focus is on the characters in the stories. That being the case, there isn't much other information available except as a means to get you, as quickly as possible, to the person you're looking for.

January 2010
Adding "Arms-Commander" .. It's on the way (I'm a few days late ordering). I'll fill in the other info later. Also trying to sneak the two stories from "Viewpoints Critical" in here ..

Listing of the "Magic of Recluce" books in order of Publication Date

*(and, to my way of thinking, the best order in which to read them -- at least the first time)*
Title	H/C Pub Date	P/B Pub Date	Publ	Main Characters
The Magic of Recluce	May 1991	May 1992	TOR	Lerris
The Towers of Sunset	August 1992	August 1993	TOR	Creslin & Megaera
The Magic Engineer	March 1994	July 1995	TOR	Dorrin
The Order War	January 1995	1996	TOR	Justen & Gunnar
The Death of Chaos	September 1995	1996	TOR	Lerris, Krystal, Justen, etc.
Fall of Angels	June 1996	June 1997	TOR	Nylan, Ryba, Ayrlyn, etc.
The Chaos Balance	September 1997	July 1997	TOR	Nylan, Ayrlyn, Weryl
The White Order	May 1998	May 1999	TOR	young Cerryl, Sterol, Jeslek
Colors of Chaos	January 1999	January 2000	TOR	Cerryl, Sterol, Jeslek, Anya, Leyladin
Magi'i of Cyador	April 2000	May 2001	TOR	Lorn, Ryalth, Kien, etc.
Scion of Cyador	September 2001	December 2001	TOR	Lorn, Ryalth, Kien, etc.
Wellspring of Chaos	April 2004	April 2005	TOR	Kharl, Hagen, Egen, Jeka(t), Justen
Ordermaster	December 2004	December 2005	TOR	Kharl, Hagen, Egen, Jeka(t)
Natural Ordermage	July 2007	April 2008	TOR	Rahl
Mage-Guard of Hamor	July 2008	March 2009	TOR	Rahl
Viewpoints Critical	March 2008	April 2009	TOR	Cassius, Shierra
Arms-Commander	January 2010	-?-	TOR	Saryn

Magic of Recluce - Book Cover Art

*(Thumbnails of the cover-art for the books -- click for a larger picture)*

Cover Art for Books with Recluce-Related Stories

*(Thumbnails of the cover-art for the books -- click for a larger picture)*

Reference Maps

Recluce & Candar

World Map

/// SPOILER WARNING /// SPOILER WARNING /// SPOILER WARNING ///

If you do not wish to know what happens in the books,
do not scroll any farther down this page ...

I have provided some details of what transpires in the books (in summary form)
but those descriptions most likely give away details about the stories that you would
not want to know -- if you haven't already read the books.

If you've already been through the series at least once, read on -- otherwise, enjoy the
suspense & adventure -- and come back here when your journey's ended.

/// SPOILER WARNING /// SPOILER WARNING /// SPOILER WARNING ///

Story Timeline

Below is a list of the books in as close to a chronological order-of-events that I can estimate.

I've "sorted" the chronology into columns based on Order Vs. Chaos: White, Black, and Grey.

To me, this makes the whole of the series easier to "map out" in my mind so that I can see what was
happening in the world, from which angle, and compared to whatever else came before, during, or after.

**Recluce Series Timeline**
*(overview of events in chronological story-order)*
		[#10] Magi'i of Cyador Lorn'elth (magus) becomes Lorn'alt (lancer), moves out of his family home and in with his consort - the lovely trader Ryalth (the Rationalists have been on the planet 8-9 generations)
		[#11] Scion of Cyador Lorn'alt returns to Cyad to become Lorn'elth'alt'mer and discovers the origin of the silver book he got from Ryalth; we discover the identity of The Hand
(400 years^*)
[#6] Fall of Angels Ryba and the crew of the Winterlance land on the planet, defend themselves against indigenous aggressors, and found Westerwind
	[#7] The Chaos Balance Nylan and Ayrlyn leave Westwind with Weryl, ally themselves with Lornth, decimate Cyador, and found Naclos
(10 years^*)
[#16] Arms-Commander Saryn ..
(500 years^*)
[#2] The Towers of Sunset Creslin and Megaera break loose of their families' grip, struggle across Candar, and found Recluce -- Megaera goes from white to black
[#vc2] Viewpoints Critical "Sisters of Sarronnyn, Sisters of Westwind"
(^~300 years^*)
		[#8] The White Order Cerryl loses what family he has left, learns life-skills and trade-skills, trains with the White Brotherhood and becomes a mage
[#3] The Magic Engineer Dorrin resurrects the black-mage class of engineer, defends against Fairhaven, and retreats to Recluce where he starts building the Black fleet		[#9] Colors of Chaos Cerryl struggles to do his best to make Fairhaven great (which occassionally conflicts with the ideas of others) and ascends to the White Tower
(300 years^*)
[#14] Natural Ordermage Rahl slowly learns to stopping asking questions and just try things for himself
[#15] Mage-Guard of Hamor ?
(150 years^*)
	[#4] The Order War Justen and his brother help fight the White Brotherhood's advances across Candar, pull back to Recluce and then launch an all-out attack on Fairhaven
(60 years^*)
[#12] The Wellspring of Chaos Kharl the cooper has to escape from the vengeful Egen and ends up traveling the world and learning that he has a few more skills than he realized
[#13] The Ordermaster Order forces Kharl to right wrongs wherever he finds them -- which is most of the world of Recluce that he might call home
(120 years^*)
[#1] The Magic of Recluce Lerris sets off on a dangergeld, battles his way across Candar from Freetown to Kyphrien (with a little help from Justen, his uncle)
[#vc1] Viewpoints Critical "Black Ordermage"
	[#5] The Death of Chaos Lerris and Krystal battle the Chaos Masters, most of Candar, and a fellow dangergelder leading up to the ultimate battle with Hamor on the shores of Recluce -- Lerris is the sole surviving member of his family -- Recluce is split in half

^*Time calculations are from: http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/recluce/recluce/chronology.html

Favorite Quotes

Character	Quote	Book	Chapter
Lorn'alt	The gelding is what the gelding is, unlike people who change in response to their perceptions of events that may benefit or threaten their power.	Magi'i of Cyador	LXXXII
Nylan	If this were a novel or a trideo thriller, the editors would cut out all the parts about building. That's boring. You know, heroes are supposed to slay the enemy, but no one has to worry about shelter or heat or coins or stables or whether the roads need to be paved or whether you need bridges or culverts to keep them from being impassible. Bathhouses are supposed to build themselves, don't you know? Ryba orders sanitation, and it just happens. No matter that the snow is deep enough to sink a horse without a sign. No matter that most guards would rather stink than use cold water. No matter that poor sanitation kills more people in low-tech cultures than battles. But building is boring. So is making better weapons, I suppose. Using them is respected and glorious and fires the imagination.	Fall of Angels	LXXV
Ayrlyn & Nylan	"We saw our last trideo screens a long time ago," she pointed out, "but you're right. Fictional characters always have one good choice. They just have to find it." "And us?" "The least of terrible choices, and sometimes all choices are bad."	The Chaos Balance	XXIV
Nylan	"Just thinking that everything that got us here seemed to be a good idea at the time. Probably be my epitaph -- 'He thought it was a good idea at the time.'"	The Chaos Balance	LXXXIV
Nylan	He nodded and flicked the mare's reins. Certainly, he was all right. Stuck in the middle of an enemy's land, at the edge of an order-enchanted forest that didn't seem exactly friendly, with almost no ability to defend himself, and little food, and a splitting headache and unreliable vision. Trying to protect his son and keep his word to Istril and keep faith with Ayrlyn, not to mention trying to find a way to stop an invasion by the most powerful nation in Candar. Of course, he was fine. Just fine.	The Chaos Balance	CXV

World of Recluce Wiki

Warning! Serious SPOILERS! [World of Recluce Wiki]. Warning! Serious SPOILERS!

Work in progress .. currently (20 Jul 2008) contains information from "Viewpoints Critical", "The Magic of Recluce" and the first 19 chapters of "The Death of Chaos".

I'd appreciate any helpful comments or error-catches.