Customer Reviews

Cadmian's Choice (Corean Chronicles, Book 5)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not sure what to make of Modesitt. On the one hand, he invents brilliantly imagined worlds. Corus, the setting for this tale, is his best yet. His battle scenes are very well written. But in his trilogies, the second volume has consistently been the weakest. He really only has one plot, although his variations on that basic plot can be interesting. And he remains purely incapable of writing a love scene.

"Cadmian's Choice" is the second novel in this extended prequel to the previously written Corean Trilogy ("Legacies," "Darknesses" and "Scepters"). It's mostly a political story. Modesitt is great at inventing complex political situations, and concealing the true motives of the characters, but he's not so hot at keeping it all interesting. The story drags until the final third, when Dainyl - the alien Alector - and Mykel - the human but Talented Cadmian soldier - finally get into battle. Fantasy writers need to understand that any time they devote more than a sentence to characters' clothing the inevitable comparisons to Robert Jordan will start. We already know Alectors wear shimmersilk. And I don't think the first thing Mykel noticed on regaining consciousness was the color of his girl's outfit.

The second volume of a trilogy is always hard to make compelling. It's a transition between the introduction in the first volume and the conclusion in the third. In a prequel, where you know how it is eventually going to turn out, it's even harder. There's a certain amount of interest in watching characters develop, but that can be thin across 768 pages.

A Cadmian's Choice, if I understand the story, is getting an apparent enemy to voluntarily accept a curse. Mykel, who may or may not be a Dagger of the Ancients, confronts such a choice. You, as the reader, face a Hobson's Choice. Modesitt's third volumes in his trilogies are usually his best. If you want to understand the events in that future third book, you'll have to make your way through this one. This middle volume isn't bad; it's just not very good. It's not up to Modesitt's usual standards and it is considerably below his best work.

Cadmian's Choice (2006) is the fifth Fantasy novel of the Corean Chronicles and the second in the prequel trilogy, following Alector's Choice. In the previous volume, Dainyl returns to Elcien to find that his wife is pregnant with a girl child. The next day, Dainyl arrives at headquarters only to be told that more pteridons have been lost while he was gone. Later, Dainyl briefs the Duarch of Elcien on the professed reasons for the rebellion, but both remain puzzled.

As Mykel delivers Rachyla to her father's estate, she tries once again to persuade him to rebel against the alectors. He refuses, but does accept the invitation to have his men stay on the estate overnight. When Mykel returns to Elcien, he is confirmed as Majer of the Third Cadmian Battalion.

In this novel, Colonel Herolt assigns the battalion to duty in Hyalt to suppress armed groups in the hills to the west of the town. The Third Battalion will be shipped by sea to Southgate. There the battalion will take over training of two locally recruited companies and will accompany them to Hyalt. Mykel is also charged with rebuilding the Cadmian compound outside Hyalt for the local companies.

When the Third Cadmian and the local companies arrive in Hyalt, Mykel has them camp on the site of the old compound. After talking to the local townsmen, Mykel begins to suspect that there are not any local bandits. He learns that the regional administrator has new weapons and uniformed troops to operate them. He suspects that the massacred Cadmian troops had been murdered by these uniformed alectors.

Submarshall Dainyl is sent on an inspection tour of the Eastern region. He meets Submarshall Alcyna and High Elector Brekylt and is convinced that they are plotting against Duarch Khelaryt. As Dainyl travels via the Tables, various Recorder try to kill him within the system or at his destination; everyone underestimates the strength of his shields. With all the deaths following his travels, Dainyl is getting a reputation, but the murder attempts keep coming his way.

In this story, both Mykel and Dainyl have further contacts with the Ancients. Both are told to try harder to accommodate themselves to Acorus. Dainyl is told to start drawing his power from Acorus, but he hasn't yet learned how. Mykel, of course, is already gaining power from the planet, but he discovers how to draw power locally rather than from his birthplace. Both are becoming much more powerful than their enemies believe possible.

The Ancients -- or Soarers -- do not seem to be particularly interested in either Dainyl or Mykel. They provide specific advice, but in a vague manner. Mykel seems to understand the point better than Dainyl, but then the Submarshall started with more power than Mykel.

Since Dainyl knows that Mykel is a rogue talent, at various times he considers turning in the Cadmian, but always sees reasons to protect the lander. Indeed, Majer Mykel is a good leader of men, often accomplishing things that were thought to be impossible. With all the enemies that he has acquired, Dainyl sees the value of having a talented Cadmian officer indebted to him.

This story builds momentum slowly, but erupts in open warfare in the last third of the novel. The author has a habit of starting slowly and increasing the pace until violence flares. Then he tapers down for the epilogue. He leaves plenty of unattached threads for the sequel: Soarer's Choice. Don't miss it.

Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of close combat, political intrigue and creative use of talents.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I love all books by L.E. Modesitt.

However, this book is very slow.

Not much happens for the first 250pages. Just a lot of setup and slow character development. The only major action happens at the very end and the entire plot of the series is only slightly advanced.

I would still buy it because I like the series but you may be a bit dissapointed.

I've enjoyed the other books in this series thus far even though I don't usually like military/political intrigue. However this one just totally bogged down to a stop within the first several hundred pages. The characters were uninteresting and the military minutae became too much to overcome.

This is the 5th book of a series but was initially written as the 2nd with books four, five and six coming out first. I found books four through six to be among the more enjoyable reads I've come across. The stories like all of Modesitt stories have too much pondering, preaching and pedantic musings but the story line is excellent, with great character development and the ability to expose human hopes, feeling and fears while giving the dominant players just enough extra skills to survive a number of challenges. I couldn't put them down and found myself irritated that I couldn't have the whole series at once. As it was I did only minimal eating and sleeping while seeking to satisfy my desire to consume the novels.

Short and Sweet: This book was so boring I couldn't finish it. I have enjoyed other books by this author - specifically the "Saga of Recluse" series.

Reading a Modesitt book is like having a really good hamburger at a restaurant. It's not gourmet food. You feel like you could make it yourself at home but it's too much trouble. You've had a dozen of them in the last year but you aren't sick of them. Sometimes they are a little tastier than others, but generally, you get what you pay for.

I feel like that with Modesitt, and that's not a criticism. I really like hamburgers.

He is so formula in his writing it's almost like you could write the plot outline just from looking at the cover picture:

Male character is up-and-coming minor officer, who climbs the ranks after being smarter and more powerful than his superiors believe, and on the way, is a little unorthodox but ultimately does nothing surprising. Along the way, you get to enjoy nice desciptions of politics, magic, or some sort of craftmaking (whether sheep shearing or wood working), and the entire novel ends in a too-quick rush of action in the last twenty pages that makes you wish the book had a little more action earlier and a little less towards the end.

That formula in mind, this book deviates little. But what makes Modesitt work, and this book in particular, is that his writing is just very....readable. I can't tell you how much I have wanted to enjoy other authors but found the writing too dense (Thomas Covenant series) or too simplistic (David Eddings comes to mind). Sometimes the writing is just bad (a lot of D&D RPG novels are like that). A really good writer can make a technical manual about editing database structure readable (I'm not saying interesting, I'm saying readable). Modesitt is a really good writer.

I won't go over the plot. Other people have. I found it interesting and fun, though hard to follow at times with the various political intrigue and the fact that the names are all so similar among the various players and their locations/interests undefined enough that it's impossible to keep track. But I still enjoyed it.

It's the middle of what's really a six book series with the first three set thousands of years after the last three. But it's a fun new world that isn't dominated by discussions of law and chaos, so I've enjoyed it.

My suggestion: If you like Modesitt there's no reason you won't like this book. If you don't like him, don't bother. If you don't know him, start with the Magic of Recluse. If you can't put that book down, jump into this new world head first.

The Fifth book in Modesitt's Corean Chronicles series is a good read, if sometimes a bit tedious with detail. No one writes like Modesitt. His books always capture my interest and the moment I'm finished with one of them, I'm ready to read another. He's one of my favorite authors.

The book arrived fast, in excellent condition as promised and well packaged to protect it during the shipment. I'd read the library version of the book but wanted a copy for myself as I am a Modesitt fan and like that series.

I will not rehash the plot (a la Harriet Klausner) given you can read the editorial reviews for that.

This book has some of the strengths and most of the flaws of Modesitt's other books. As always, the heroes are identical in all important respects to every other Modesitt hero, though this time there are two of them.

I have found Modesitt best when he is writing coming-of-age stories (eg. the Cyador duology, White Order, Colors of Chaos) and this is not one of them.

If you have not read its prequel Alector's Choice,I would definitely not recommend starting with this book, as I did. There are a number of invented unexplained terms which made it more difficult initially for me to follow the plot. The first 3 books in the series are set in the distant future, and are not required reading.