Towers of Sunset by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Modesitt has made a brilliant novel here. I was, of course, confused with the first 5 chapters on what happened to the other characters, but got the hang of it later on.
Modesitt mainly just started off this series with the Present, then the past history, and now this book that is even farther back in time (to the very founding of Recluce). After this book, though, the main characters in the first book will reappear and you will back among the present.
Anyway, this novel teaches a great lesson for both men and women. The novel is about two young children (actually they're somewhere in the 20's maybe) that are forced together by both family and magic. With the girl's soul burned into the boy's, she must constantly save him to preserve her own life, so naturally, she comes to despise his weakness and ignorance. He, however, finds himself lusting after her in more ways than one, and causes the girl to have a terrible fury at him by doing so.
This book teaches how to respect a girl, to restrain from pushing a woman too hard into doing what you want, (even if you don't have any other choice but that option)and what a hot-headed girl feels if you do.
With a dash of love, deception, and conquest, and a lot of magic, this makes a great novel, expecially after you understand how Modesitt put together this series.
5/5 - Brilliant book

In my opinion, I thought this was the best book I've ever read, by far! I must admit I was confused the first few pages, but that didn't last long. I haven't read any of the other books in the series, though I'm definitely going to. It was the perfect example of an romance/adventure novel. Modesitt made sure not to go too far into romance without an adventure interrupting. This kept the storyline exciting.

While the Magic of Recluce was by no means a towering achievement of fantasy fiction, it was overall an enjoyable story of a young man coming of age. And Lerris was compelling enough of a charater that I happily sought out the the second book in Recluce series. Sadly, I was disappointed.

I am broadminded enough to grant an author the pleasure of delivering a narrative in whatever order they deem suitable to their purposes, so I was willing to overlook the fact that this book had nothing to do with Lerris and in fact takes place several centuries (millenia?) before Lerris's adventures. But egad, the gender reversal of the Guards from which our hero must flee is painfully contrived. And the self-doubting protagonist though not actually Lerris is clearly a direct copy of the hero of the first novel. Perhaps worst of all is the tumultuous romance between him (sorry but I have blanked on his name at the moment) and Magera the Chaos wizard is horrific to behold, especially in its inexplicably happy conclusion. While Modesitt provides a lot of dialog about the trauma these two put each other through, none of it rings sincere. It's as if he doesn't have a good understanding of their relationship but he's hoping that we'll come up with our own reasons for it's existence -- much like the uninspired artist who hapahzardly throws paint on a canvas in hopes that the critics will find the genius of it for him.


The primary storyline of the final act of the book is about the founding of the land of Recluce is reasonably well done and the glimpses into the inner workings of the White wizards was a worthy addition to the story.