Customer Reviews

Magi I of Cyador a

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Book 10 in the Saga of Recluce

Even though this is the tenth volume in the Saga of Recluce, it is chronologically the first. Long before Creslin founded Recluce, long before the angels fell and Nylan built Westwind, long before all of the recorded history of Recluse there was the Empire of Cyador. Cyador is an Empire built on the power of Chaos mages and Chaos towers (supplying the Chaos energy required for much of the technology of Cyador). The Empire uses the army (Lancers) to hold back the barbarians from Cyador as well as hold the Accursed Forest (the forest that the Druids are later from) back from spreading into Cyador.

Lorn is a son of a Magi family. He is one of the most talented and proficient students in his classes, but he lacks the love of chaos that is necessary to become a Magi. Lorn can do the work better than perhaps anyone and is capable of being a Chaos Master, but he isnt obsessed with it nor does he truly love Chaos. If you have read other Recluce novels, you know this will lead to Lorns exile from his family and the city of Cyad. This is most similar to Lerris being exiled from Recluse and going on the Dangergeld (The Magic of Recluce). The difference is that Lorn knows why he must leave Cyad, where he is going, and what the risks are. Lorn is made a Lancer undercaptain and must fight on the frontier of Cyad against barbarians. Lancers have a low survival rate, Magi Lancers have an even lower survival rate because they get the most difficult assignments (so that they will be killed. A personal capable of wielding chaos but not a magus is too dangerous to the Empire, or so the higher ups have decided). Lorn knows what he is getting into, but actually becoming a Lancer is the only way that he sees to live.

Lorn is essentially a moral, honest man, but at the same time he is ruthless in protecting himself and his loved ones from threats, both real and perceived. If Lorn sees someone as a threat, he will kill that man but hide the crime in such a way that nobody is sure who committed the murder (and in some cases that a murder even took place). He is a very guarded individual, mostly because he knows that the Magii in Cyad do not want him to live, despite his family connections.

The more you read in Recluce you will begin to see that Modesitt is essentially telling the same type of story over and over again. You can see clear comparisons between Lorn, Creslin, Nylan, and Lerris. There is the recurring theme of exile, and the protagonist trying to find his destiny without quite knowing how he will accomplish it. In one sense, if you have read one Recluce novel you pretty much know how the other ones will work out. Magii of Cyador is slightly different in that Lorn has more knowledge and intent in his actions, but the book still follows the basic pattern that Modesitt set up in the first Recluce novel. That said, this remains one of my favorite fantasy series because of the depth of development in the created world and in the characters. We get to see what the characters are thinking, why they are planning their actions, and what the repercussions are of those actions. Modesitt is not gentle towards the protagonists, they suffer more than any other character in the books, and maybe thats part of why I like the books so much. My one suggestion is to take breaks between the books or you can get tired of the repetition fairly quickly.

A worthy addition to the Recluce Series. Backfills where THE CHAOS BALANCE and FALL OF ANGELS left off..exploring CYAD in all it's glory.

As usual, Modesitt introduces a heady young man, in this case, SMART, HARD-WORKING, but not a highly-motivated young Mage. The kid gets sent to the Lancers, where he learns the Military ways while secretly strengthening his magely ways.

Modesitt provides glimpses into the founding of CYAD, and references to the First Born, i.e., the White Angels.

As usual in the Recluce Series, Modesitt *REALLY* gets into Lorn's head. While not as strong as some of the previous books (Magic Engineer, Recluce, The Order War and The White Order are my faves), it still stands cubits ahead of other fantasy authors or worlds.

I _EAGERLY_ look forward to the next volume!

The cut and dried dialogue and narration that open this story sets the tone of a "rationalist" viewpoint which one quickly sees is both fearful and overtly unemotional simultaneously. The use of the screeing glass by the Magi'i to invade the privacy of the hero and his family is quite chilling for it is a powerful tool for constraint on their behavior and ability to even speak with one another. One learns that the families of the magi'i have no freedom for they can be truth read and spied upon at the whim and will of the magi'i and they are forced to live in a prison of fearful restraint. But, as the story unfolds our hero Lorn begins to evolve into a quietly passionate, deeply intelligent and clever man. He is forced to manipulate and master increasingly hostile environments into which he has been forced to survive the plots against him simply because of his heritage as mage-born. He finds himself uncommitted to the prospect of spending his years trapped within concrete and marble buildings devoted to the boring (to him) future of spending his own life force (chaos) on refuelling energy cells. These energy cells power the firelances of Mirror Lancers and the firewagons used for transportation in the ongoing struggle against the accursed forest and the barbarians. The story is largely spent describing his struggles to overcome the aforesaid barbarians and accursed forest as an outcast magi'i in the role as mirror lancer. However, one has a sense that this is stage setting for his unfolding evolution into the highest echelon of the magi'i. He has acquired wealth and power from that wealth through his own foresight and the skills of his merchanter consort Ryalth. He is destined to become a mover and a shaker in the next part of this saga. The love story is charming even though Lorn is forced to commit multiple murders to protect his lady Ryalth from villans. I would like to know the hero better as a man. He is rather one dimensional, but then this may be part of the plot to separate within the reader's understanding the concept of the cold "rationalists" in contrast to the more passionate and emotionally driven "barbarians". One senses that the author plans a number of "rationalists" novels which will provide, hopefully, a thorough understanding for the reader as to who and how the cold blooded magi'i came to rule Cyad and its people. This is a very good "mirror" to Modesitt's book "Fall of the Angels" in the Recluse series. Hopefully the author will write a book that will enrich this perspective for it is deep territory for intrigue and dark plots. Perhaps more of the machinations within the inner circle of the Magi'i of Cyador and their manipulation of their "dense" Emperor. In any event, the future of Lorn and the city of "Lorn'eth" will unfold in due course.

This book continues to explore the humanity of both camps--the Rationalists and the Angels. When I first read the Magic of Recluce, it seemed that there was a clear demarkation of "good" versus "evil". What Modesitt has continued to explore is the complexity of "what is good? what is evil?" His books such as Colors of Chaos and the new Magi'i of Cyador present the position that the whites are not more or less "evil" than the blacks--they are two sides of the same coin--humanity. I look forward with a great deal of anticipation to the follow-on for which he has prepared us in this newest book. Lorn is an engaging character whose development and advancement are due to a combination of circumstance and deliberation. His choices are like those faced by most of humanity--what can he do that creates the least destructive result for both himself and those he loves.

O.K. Read the other reviews; it is right down the middle of the other Recluce books. It is about Cyador, the home of the white magicians, before it fell. In this book, you will understand the details of why it will fall, but we are not near that point. There are new wrinkles. It is a cliff-hanger. I expect a sequel for the future plans of the protagonist. You won't learn anything new about how Recluce magic works if you have read the other books, but you get a nice gap filled in for history, an interesting good guy, and some thoughtful extensions of things you already knew. I enjoyed this book as a part of the series, but if you are expecting the same buzz as from the first one you read in the series, you will probably have to go find a new series.

This novel started out very strong, however the entire center consisted of a series of events that were just repeated over and over again. When things finally start to happen, and you get excited the book simply ends. The reader is left hanging with no explanation. For a 444 page book, it has relatively very little in it. If this is the beginning of a series, then it seems that it was forced into two books when it should have been one. All in all it was very disapointing.

Magi'i of Cyador is, as usual for Modesitt, an intelligently written, ever-so-slightly distant installment in his expanding saga of Recluce--even though it has moved well beyond Recluce by now.

Presumably the setting is several centuries before the founding of Westwind (if my vauge memories of the time between the establishment of the barrier around the Great Forest and the fall of angels is correct--about 80 generations I think it said) in the empire of Cyador founded by Anglo-Rationalists. The story follows the travails of Lorn, a young man not so devoted to his country as everyone thinks he should be and far more devoted to a young female merchant than anyone in the very patriarchal and strictly hierarchal society feels appropriate for the son of a high ranking Magus. Consequently, Lorn is sent off the Cyandoran version of the army to learn how to fight and kill and maybe be killed.

The rest of the book is more of the same--people plot against him, he comes out on top, more people plot against him and so on. You never really feel like you get to know Lorn, certainly not well enough to guess his rationale for his actions, there is none of the internal struggle that has marked Modesitt's previous heroes, only a cold logic that runs at odds with his feelings for his lady-merchant.

The terribly obvious thing about Magi'i is the fact that when the angels fall, they do so right next to a city-state called "Lorn"th. Hmmm. . .

The Magi'i of Cyador is set in the land of Cyador, where those of the Rationalist Stars created their own country, much the same as the Angels did Westwind. Modesitt explains how their society is set up (class and power systems), the constant and more or less accepted intrigue that seems to be present in positions of power, the left overs of what came from the original rationalists who landed there, and explains how a society besides fairhaven can sustain itself with a philosophy that chaos=good.

The story centers on the son of a powerful mage family, whos name is Lorn('elth at first then 'alt). Lorn is the best student in the beginning magi'i, and he is quite brilliant, but the problem is his inner being isn't chaotic enough (this is explained in the white order, and the colors of chaos). Because of this his father tells him he will have to forgoe the path of a mage because without a chaotic heart, one cannot safely accomplish transferring chaos from the chaos towers the original rationalists left behind. Which is the primary task of the magi'i.

Instead he is sent to become a lancer officer where, unfortunately for him, being a lancer with chaos powers is grounds for attempted assassinations. This is because of a previous figure in history who apparently scared everyone to pieces. Lorn must fight through the dangerous posts he's sent to and the attempts to discredit and kill him by other lancer officers, using his brains, martial talent, and chaos ability.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the character of Lorn who is not afraid to strike first against those he knows are evil, and a threat to him and those he loves. He seems to actually be able to see beyond what's on the surface and into dangerous plots and intrigues, unlike many protagonists who just do nothing until things are so bad that its obvious to everyone that action needs to be taken. He also knows that by keeping his thoughts, abilities, and human ties to himself, he can operate much more freely and keep his enemies underestimating him. Of course he's not all cold and calculating, and does have a love interest in the story.

I would highly recommend this book, it is one of the best in the recluce series.

I have rather enjoyed all of Modesitt's books, but this was one of the hardest to get into. The plot was extremely choppy. Just when the story started to get engrossing, the setting would change, and that plot line would be over with. It very much seemed as if the author was a little bored with the story as well, causing this disjointed thought process. It was a good book, but wait for the paperback.

Allow me to begin by stating that LEM captured me when I first absconded with a copy of _Dawn for a Distant Earth_ from my brother's bookshelves. Afterwards, I found myself keeping a weather-eye on the bookstore (not to mention my brother's) shelves for more from his pen. Having encountered LEM's use of shifts from past to present tense in his writing to delineate action surrounding the protagonist and other plot threads which didn't include the protagonist, I expected a shift in tense once again when we reached the "current" plot line. I was taken by surprise, but not to the extent that it detracted from the story. This story revolves around a young man whose depth we glimpse but may never fully plumb. I think that the prose paints an excellent picture of a man raised in a society in which one is never free from observation. The thought of going through life concerned by the political ramifications of ANYthing you do is (I feel) wonderfully portrayed. While some complain about the length vs. action ratio in this particular novel, I feel gratified by it. With such a complex setting, I am grateful that LEM takes the time to provide such an in-depth foundation for what I am sure will follow.