[MrRedBear]

I have been reading this series and enjoy it very much. Has anyone developed a time line of the stories? I know that the books were not writen in time order but it would be nice to know the real order.

[Azurehero]

Mr. Modisett Jr. lives here in the same little college town that I do! One day a friend and me got bored so we looked his adress up in the phone book and then drove over to see what his house looks like.

Look, I said we were bored--didn't I?

[Ravenlock]

MrRedBear- you said that you are enjoying the Recluse books. THat is good to hear. I've been thinking about reading them, but haven't gott around to it yet. I am also from that same little college town and have meet his wife who teaches music at the college. He wrote his other series the spellsong or something like that about his wife or the main character is based on his wife or something like that. She has big posters of the covers of the books on her office door, which is how I first heard of him. I hadn't heard very good things about the series though and wasn't sure if it was worth the time to find out for myself since I had other things I wanted to read more. Maybe I'll check them out when I finish all the books for my English class.

[Cadfael]

Ravenlock... his Recluse books are very good. The two main stumbling block are they do ramble on a bit, with almost obsessional attention to detail, and the sound FX, the books are peppered with italics giving sound, i.e.

creeeeaaakkkkk The door opened.

The Spellsong books could not capture my attention at all. My main gripe is the way the heroine just accepts being taken from our world and placed in another. It is almost as if Modesitt wanted to get the 'crossover' out of the way, in order to get on with the main narrative, if this his the case... he should have made her a native of the book world, and leave crossover books to those who can handle it.

[This message has been edited by dennizm (edited March 09, 2001).]

[MrRedBear]

I think, Ravenlock, that even with the sounds in the text that you would enjoy the series. My only problem is with the sequence. I started reading them in the order they were published not in their time line order. They were still very good. IMHO they are better that the Rand series. I am looking forward the the next two on the list.

[Cadfael]

Mr Red Bear (what a cool name http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif)... don't get me wrong, I most strongly recommend the Recluse books, because the plotline is so good, I can forgive the SoundFX.

[MrRedBear]

Thank you. Its a hangerover from my CB days. It was my CB handle. I have just found this BB and so am not to "with it" what is the difference between a member and a junior member?

[Charles]

After your thirtieth post, you become a member.

[MrRedBear]

Thank you.

[caperjoe]

While I do enjoy the entire Recluse series and the problem solving nature of the characters, my main beef is that the maps provided...suck. Given that the author goes into detail to such an extreme degree you'd think he'd provide the reader with an up-to-date map. The one in "Scion" is the same one used for the first book of the series and now almost completely useless. It doesn't even show the location of the city Cyad. I'm always flipping to the map and trying to figure where a battle is, or a city located - frustrating, because Modesitt emphasizes details like geography etc. My second big beef is that the villains in most of the Recluse books, while well developed, are usually a push-over when the hero finally "puts the boots to 'em". I guess it's more about the journey and not the destination.

New Maps Please!