L E Modesitt Jr

Perpetual Man

Perpetual Man

Tim James
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Having just finished another of his books, and once again enjoyed it I thought I'd just start a thread about this very prolific author as there does not seem to be that many. Check out what the general opinion is etc.

Although I would make no pretence that he is the greatest writer, I have to admit that i really enjoy his work and have yet to find a novel I have not enjoyed - so saying I have not read any of his stand alone stuff yet - only the Saga of Recluce, The Spellsong Cycle and am two books into the Corean Chronicles but between them that little lot wrack up nearly 25 books (so far).

I started reading them a few years back because I was looking for somethign different and saw the Robert Jordan recommendation on the first, The Magic of Recluce and was inspired to pick it up.

I found it something a little different and the more I read - although the style was a bit odd in places - I accelerated through it and began picking up the others. Although the first story arc ended in book 5, I thought the first 5 books were phenominal, especially the dramatic and explosive ending of the Death of Chaos.

Following the Recluce books I tried The Spellsong series and thought the first three were superb, although the last two were slightly weaker, still very good though.

And now reading through the Corean Chronicles, which I am enjoying immensely.

All the worlds are different with different magic systems, different worlds and different characters, although from these series there is a recurring theme - the central character always seems to be someone with a little magical ability who does not really understand it, then learns and grow until they become the most powerful leading to climaxes that are more spectacular book by book, something that he nevver fails to deliver on.

As a whol an enjoyable writer with a good solid back library and he does deliver - if you get bored waiting between books for the next Jordan or Martin Modesitt is averaging something like three - four books a year (or seems like it)

This is offered as a general thread for all works of L E Modesitt, thoughts etc, because as noted there does not seem to be that many around concerning him - or I was being lazy when I looked for them!

Is anyone else reading them? Are they being enjoyed or am I missing a major point somewhere and Modesitt should be avoided at all costs!
 
I bought a few of his books at a yard sale (they were in mint condition) and put them up on the bookshelve for later reading. A friend took them... a month later she finished the whole series (she's an avid reader once she gets into a great series). It was the Saga of Recluce. She loved the series but especially enjoyed his writing talent.
 
Yes, I'm a fan of Modesitt also. Like a lot of authors, I find his later works inferior and formulaic and have mostly lost interest in reading them. The earlier Recluse books are great.

My favorite book of his, however, is one called The Hammer of Darkness. Long unavailable, I'm glad to see this has been re-issued this year. It's more abstract and SF than F; the kind of book you have to re-read from the beginning after you've finished it to figure out all the nuances.
 
I kind of enjoyed the Recluse books and thier memory has stayed with me, but another part of me got really annoyed with the style after a while.

The main men all seemed to be whimps and the main women all seemed to be bad tempered. I can't remember who was who now but I know I found a lot of samenesss about the characters.

They were certainly differnt however and I'm glad I read them.
 
His official website:
http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/recluce/

His books:

Bibliography

Novels

The Saga of Recluce
The Spellsong Cycle
The Corean Chronicles
The Ecolitan Matter
Ghosts
The Forever Hero
Timegods
Other titles
Short Stories

Book Reviews

  • "A Thriller Built on Quicksand" [Review of The Quiet Pools by Michael Kube-McDowell] SCIENCE FICTION August 1992
  • "Brin as the Eternal Optimist" [Review of Earth by David Brin] SCIENCE FICTION November 1991
  • "Neither Blind Nor Just" [Review of Blind Justice by S. N. Lewitt] SCIENCE FICTION October 1991
  • "The Ragged World" [Review of The Ragged World by Judith Moffett] SCIENCE FICTION May 1991
  • "Penterra" [Review of Penterra by Judith Moffett] SCIENCE FICTION April 1990
 
Many thanks for the link and bilbiography, Alia, think it's slightly more comprehensicve than the one I had!
 
I'm a fan as well, although I enjoyed his earlier work best. I've read the Recluse saga, some of the Spellsong, and his Ghost novels. He does tend to reuse some ideas, especially the themes, which make some of the later works a bit flat, IMO of course.
 
Lunatic said:
I'm a fan as well, although I enjoyed his earlier work best. I've read the Recluse saga, some of the Spellsong, and his Ghost novels. He does tend to reuse some ideas, especially the themes, which make some of the later works a bit flat, IMO of course.
Click to expand...

I think I agree with you, he might create some totally different forms of magic, which seem original, but the outcome is often the same - a small unassuming hero with a small amount of talent, learns to use magic to a level that has not been seen before.

I wonder if I would have enjoyed the Recluce books as much if I'd read some of his other material before?
 
I just finished the Magic Engineer. I really loved the first book in the Recluce series. The second book seemed very slow, and third just bored me. First off was the horrendous editing job. Just 10 pages in, an entire page long section had been used twice. Surely a decent editor would have caught that! But there were typos, grammar mistakes, etc. all throughout my copy. Maybe I picked up an early edition. It was paperback though so you'd think they'd have caught all that by then.

But on top of it the book is just so slow. The boy takes hundreds of pages to become a smith and build a few machines. I do like his world, his take on magic, and the first book was very original. I don't think I'll read any further in the series though.
 
I've tried a few of his books. Fall of Angels was okay, but the others were very formulaic and somewhat boring. I'd probably have enjoyed him more if I'd gotten into him younger or earlier.
 
He is definitely my favorite author. I probably enjoyed one of his sci-fi books, Flash, the most. On second place I would put two of the books from the recluce series, Mag'I of Cyador and Scion of Cyador.

I love his writing style, the slow beginnings is just part of that.
 
I enjoyed the first few Recluse books, the main characters being tradesmen was a nice change from soldiers and wizards and I liked seeing the history of the place in the prequel books but it did seem to repeat itself and I never really got into following the chaos side. I think it was either The White Order or Colors of Chaos that was the last one I read.
 
The Spellsong Cycle was probably one of the first fantasy books I read, and really got me into fantasy. I loved it, though it's a long time since I read them. I also read the first 3 books of Recluce but I think I got distracted before I read more. And they were probably a tad complicated for my young self, with the storylines jumping backwards & forwards in time with hints of how the people in one book effected the people in another. I'm probably not making much sense; it was a while ago.

I've been meaning to re-read the Spellsong Cycle for a long time, but my library must have sold them off at some time due to misrepair, which is a pity because I'm having trouble getting hold of them. Plan to re-read them once I find them on Ebay.
 
I was going to make my own Recluce thread, but seeing as you've done it for me, Pep, I'll use this one. :p

The first Recluce book I read was The Towers of Sunset about four years ago, since then I've read (not in this order): Fall of Angels, The White Order, Colours of Chaos and Ordermaster. Well, I say "since then", and I mean "from then up to May", as in May I bought the first 11 Recluce books off eBay (I now have the other two on order, as well as the one coming out this year). I'm currently halfway through The Order War (reading the series in publication order), and I'm still enjoying every minute of Recluce. :)
 
You should check out some of his other books as well then, I can honestly say that all of his books has been a joy for me to read. I never seem to tire of his style of writing. :)
 
I picked up Magic of Recluse for £1 and thoroughly enjoyed it, but, can never seem to find anymore of his work in bookshops! is this common? Might have to make an internet foray to pick up some more. Loved the way he wrote about woodwork, some superb stuff.
 
I have noticed that a lot of his material is unavailable in bookshops, it's generally only his more recent books that turn up there. I've been slowly picking up loads from ebay and amazon, but generally find his Recluce stuff to be the best
(Although it is a different style I have been enjoying his Ghosts series)
 
That was one of the problems I had with all of the Recluce series - I decided I was going to buy them about a year ago, but I could find nowhere that sold the early ones. Distraught, I was. :(

I eventually got extremely lucky and found 11 going in a single auction on eBay - a couple of hours later and I'd have missed them!

A quarter of the way through The Death of Chaos, now. At this point is Modesitt going through some sort of change with his writing styles? The first book was first person in a past tense, two and three were third person in the present tense, and then the fourth (which took some real getting used to) was third person in the past tense. It makes sense for him to go back to first person past tense with a return to Lerris, but it does ones head in when you go straight from one back to another to be met with a different style. :rolleyes:
 
It's a long while since I read them Lenny, but I felt very much the same thing, although I did read other books in between, which prbably helped a little bit.

If you are enjoyed them though, you are in for a real treat - I thought the end of DOC was magnificent!
 
I have all of the recluce books in hardback, so I'm not complaining.. :D
 
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