The Magic of Recluce

I really enjoyed the beginning. His descriptive world building had me hooked. It's told in first person which I also love. The main character was on a quest to figure out what kind of wizard he wanted to be and he had an old wizard companion for part of the story. All of these things I love but this guy writes so slow. Ridiculously slow with little pay off. This is a long series so it obviously gets better but it's such a commitment that I don't even want to continue. I feel the same way about Ursula K Le Guin's writing as I do this guy so if you enjoy her then I say give this guy a shot.

I've been trying to find the first book of this series for more than a decade. After seeing Modesitt's books in libraries, used bookstores, featured at B&N, and in the bargain bin at Staples (true story). He's written a ton, but seems absent from Booktube or any other discussion of the history of fantasy. People mention Terry Brooks, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, but not L.E. Modesitt. Weird. Especially because he's still alive and still producing work regularly. There must be something wrong with his books...

Of course not. This book is great. It follows a young man with burgeoning power, prone to boredom, who's being shifted around by the authority figures in his life. Given his last choice, he ends up in a magic school with similar youth. There's some making out, and then he and the rest are exiled from their home island. Fantasy hijinx ensue.

This is a medium-length story, spanning a few years, in which our main character grows up and faces some serious challenges. The narrator is humorous, self-deprecating, and intelligent. And it's a good old fantasy coming of age tale. Nothing wrong with it unless you're in the “I hate farmboys” camp. But if you are, why not give it a chance?

An oldie but a goodie. Read these back in high school, and decided to pick it back up. It starts a little slow, and it's fairly simplistic (no crazy twists, very straight forward), but there's something very satisfying about the story as it unfolds.

Meh.

If you look at the reviews for this book, you will see that folks either fall into the love it or hate it crowd. I didn't hate it, but I really, really didn't love it. While I agree there are same languid points in the book, my biggest problems were that I felt nothing for the main character, and was frankly a little disturbed that every woman he met was either sexy or a shrew. I realize the main character is in his late teens, presumably his world view being skewed by hormones - but we have no real feel for the other characters outside the cardboard shadows they cast.

I might give another book in the series a shot - I liked the magic system, thought the world had some potential - but it's not on my TBR list any time soon.

Painful is the nicest way to describe this book.