Customer Reviews

Scepters (Corean Chronicles, Book 3)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy begun in "Darknesses" and "Legacies." Modesitt's writing continues to improve (although there are some appalling typos) and some mysteries from the first two books are answered. There's also enough unresolved issues and mysteries - several of the bad guy Ifrits and Efrans are still on the loose - to leave room for sequels.

But there are sour notes, too. And while this is, overall, the best book Modesitt has produced since the earliest Recluce novels, some of those sour notes detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

Sure this is fantasy, and as long as we are fantasizing, we might as well have a perfect love interest, but the relationship between Alucius and Wendra is just too perfect. They never fight, quarrel or disagree. These two would be a lot more compelling if they and their relationship was just a little more real. Especially since Modesitt purely cannot write a sexually charged scene.

The faint hints in "Darknesses" that Alucius might be at least partially a creation of the Soarers is never developed or explained. For me, there are faint echos of E.E. Smith's "Lensmen" series here. The prefix "a" means "in" and "lucius" means "light." The first pages of "Darknesses" have the infant Alucius bathed in the Soarer's green-gold light. Tantalizing ideas. But we never find out.

And then there is the "Superman effect." What makes the comic book character Superman starkly incredible is that he is darn near all-powerful and yet he never is anything but selfless. He's never greedy, selfish or even faintly immoral. He may kill entire regiments of enemies but he fells bad about it afterwards, and anyway he has no choice if he is to save the world (or at least Lois Lane). Look, we *crucified* the last perfect human being, and there haven't been any since. In the last few chapters of this book, Alucius has powers that Superman would envy. And he doesn't abuse or misue them. Not once.

In the somewhat similar Recluce series, the Wizard Lerris at least acts human from time to time; he can be stupid, short-sighted and blind to the obvious. Alucius isn't any of those things. He is immensely more powerful, and his power isn't constrained. Alucius is a much less interesting character as a result. Perfect and nearly omnipotent just isn't that interesting.

Finally, the quasi-ecological theme of "Scepters" is just a little too heavy handed for me. If the Ifrits' and Efrans' life-destroying habits aren't a metaphor for our own culture, then I'm a Soarer. And the implication of "Scepters" - that it is all right to obliterate and extirpate the other guy if you are protecting your own ecology - might just be a little extreme. Analogy, in Heinlein's phrase, is "more slippery than logic," but by analogy it is okay to annihilate that oil industry because of what it does to the environment. Sorry. The ends don't justify the means.

The book is fun, it's well-paced and Talent is an interesting idea. The book is a nice wrap to the trilogy. But it's not Moedesitt's best book. Readers new to the series should read the books in order.

Good, but not great.

Scepters is the third novel in the Corean Chronicles, following Darknesses. In the previous volume, Iron Valleys became a province of Lanachrona and the militia was transferred to Lanachronan control as the Northern Guard. Alucius led four companies of the Northern Guard into Deforya to defend against invading Illegean nomads. After defeating various human and nonhuman enemies -- including legendary yet real pteridons -- and barely surviving his experiences, Alucious was summoned to Tempre to meet the Lord Protector.

Encountering an ifrit who had possessed the Recorder of Deeds, he was forced to flee through the Tables network and found his way to the hidden city of the Soarers. There Alucius was taught much more about his Talents and then returned to the Table network to defeat two of the ifrits. Afterwards, Alucius was finally allowed to return to Iron Valleys, was presented with his discharge papers, and, with only a small delay, set off for the family stead. However, on the way he encountered an ambush obviously intended for him and just barely managed to kill all the assassins before they quite finished killing him. After a minimal recovery time and with an escort of Northern Guard horse troopers, Alucius finally returned home to Wendra.

In this novel, Alucius and Wendra have been enjoying their time together. However, the situation has gotten worse in the Iron Valleys and in Lanachrona; prices are still rising and the war against the Matrites is not going well. The Lord Protector has been forced to spread his forces too thinly in order to protect against a variety of threats while simultaneously prosecuting the Matrial war. At the request of the Lord Protector, Alucius returns to duty as a Majer and leads an expedition of Northern and Southern Guard companies to put down a duarchist revolt in Hyalt. After that mission, he is requested to lead a special operation against the Matrial crystal-spear throwers.

The Lord Protector is careful not to offend Alucius; he appeals mostly to his sense of civic duties, but he also offers command of the Northern Guard to Alucius upon return from the mission, replacing Colonel Weslyn. This combination leaves Alucious without an acceptable alternative and he rides out once more in command of the Fifth Northern Guard company and the Eighth Southern Guard company and with Feran as his second in command. Later, he acquires another two companies of newly trained Southern Guards. In Hyalt, he finds that someone is using Talent to produce total fanatics, so more than military action is required. Afterwards, in Southgate, he spends more time defending himself against senior Lanachronan officers than fighting the Matrites.

In this story, Alucius is repeatedly attacked by Talent-beasts sent by the ifrits, who are using the Tables against him. However, he begins to learn more about the ifrits themselves as well as the true history of Corus. He also begins to learns how to use more that his own lifeforce, including the lifeforce of the world itself.

Alucius is truly becoming a lamaial, destined to be powerful enough to prevent the return of the duarchists as rulers over Corus. As his powers grow, so does his responsibilities; a goodly amount of the novel is devoted to the ethics of such power. Of course, he also gets to travel more along the worldlines, enjoying encounters with new and more powerful enemies.

Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of magical powers and speculations on responsibilities and ethical restraints.

-Arthur W. Jordin

With their own world disintegrating, the ifrit are desperate to complete the conquest of the Corean planet. Once they succeed, they will create a world of beauty, art, and glorious architecture. True, it's a world that will burn out fairly soon--that beauty can only be sustained at a cost to the planet's life force. Still, for the ifrit, it is a sacrifice they are willing to make--have, in fact made with their native world.

Faced with an ifrit-inspired rebellion, the Lord Protector calls Alucius back into service. Alucius wants nothing but to be left to his herds and his pregnant wife, but the Lord Protector's request is compelling. If Alucius does nothing, the world will plunge into the chaos that the ifrit need to succeed in their invasion. But even military success only puts Alucius on a path for destruction. Putting down a rebellion means killing citizens, and eternal hatred.

Alucius relies on his 'talent sense' (or magic) to face first the rebellion, then an invasion in the south fueled by terrible ancient weapons, and finally the ultimate threat in his own homeland where the ifrit have carved out a powerful base and are rapidly gaining control over the world's life-forces. Even assisted by a crack group of Northern Guard lancers, Alucius knows that he lacks the power to succeed on his own--but the ancient ones are dying and unable to offer him the assistance he needs.

Author L. E. Modesitt, Jr. combines magic, military action, and a bit of moral ambiguity to provide a compelling adventure. SCEPTERS isn't the tale of good against evil, but rather a battle between different conceptions of good. Even if he is successful, Alucius cannot know that he has done the right thing, fought for the right cause. And the price to pay for a mistake is large, indeed.

Modesitt is a strong writer with the power to draw the reader into a believable and fascinating world. Although SCEPTERS is part of a series, it can be read as stand-alone, although readers are likely to enjoy it even more if they read the earlier novels first.

If you are reading this review, you should have already read the first two volumes of Modesitt's Corean Chronicles, DARKNESSES and SCEPTERS. If not, you really will have to do so before you continue.

Protagonist Alucius is back. dealing with otherworldly creatures on his ranch, and retired from the Northern Guard. But things are not going well for the Lord Protector of Lanachrona. There are revolts, external threats, and the evil Ifrits. Alucius is maneovered back into active duty, promoted and sent forth to deal with brush fires, fire drills and raging fires that threaten the Iron Valleys and the rest of his expanded country.

Alucius is as successful, clever, and selfless as ever. In selflessness, he resembles the generic "good boy" young male characters that populate the Recluse novels, yet he also has a touch of the ruthlessness of Professor Esbach in the GHOSTS series. However, the plot structure-- progression through military ranks, identification of domestic friends and foes, clever strategy, bravery in opposition to all enemies foreign and domestic, the series is much more like the CYADOR books.

SCEPTERS moves along at a solid, stolid pace though an imaginary world full of tantalizing hints of an fascinating past. In other words, it is classic Modesitt. If you like his writing, you will like this latest volume and be looking forward to the next, ALECTOR'S CHOICE.

If you are aggravated by Modesitt's style--altruistic leading men, too many details of meteorology and dining, sound effects, even pacing, well, you shouldn't have gotten this far. For those who don't mind, this is a good, solid continuance.

A fabulous followup to the first two books in this series!

The story deals with the ongoing adventures of Alucius in his struggles to save his homeland. This book follows the same pattern of the previous two, with short chapters, lots of action; all done with great storytelling skills. You just have to read one more chapter!

I initially thought that this series was to be a trilogy*, but apparently there is a 4th and 5th book to come(according to the book legend in the front of this book).

In my opinion, this book is the best of the three so far, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

* P.S.
The fourth book "Alector's Choice" uses a completely new set of characters and although taking place on Corus, occurs in a time far before Alucius's story.

Scepters is a satisfactory wrapup to Modesitt's Corean Chronicles, with the series' reluctant hero Alucius using both steel and magic to defeat the Efran menace to Corus. Modesitt does a nice job in tying up most mysteries explored in Legacies and Darknesses, but the book loses a star given a number of new and ultimately irrelevant plot lines and a hero that seems just a bit too noble. Still, a good read in itself and a worthwile end to the three best fantasy novels Modesitt has penned since the first three books of the Recluce series.

The plot here is familiar. Alucius gets called away from his simple life as a herder and soon-to-be-father to beat back the Matrial's troops. (And like any good sequel, they now have twice the firepower - two spear throwers - than they did before.) While he does his usual spectacular military command job and comes home to take command of the Northern Guard, it turns out his callup is part of a plan by his enemies to distract him from the true threat to Corus. The cultured, relativistically amoral, and lifesucking ifrits Alucius fought in Darknesses are about to win their eternal battle against the agrarian soarers, and both he and his wife must master their herder Talent to become their planet's saviors.

Modesitt makes it work, as usual, with characters that aren't cookie-cutter villains or heroes and a world that begs to be explained. Unfortunately, much of the explaining doesn't really get done until the second half of the book. This slows the pace down as the first half ends up a redux of battles that are largely indistinguishable from Legacies and Darknesses, along with new plot lines from ifrit plots in eastern lands that have nothing to do with main plot resolution. It's the same writing mistake Modesitt made in parts of the Spellsong Cycle and detracts from a basically good story.

The other slight negative is Alucius, who goes from a very believable teen who has make some hard decisions in Legacies to Scepters' morally grounded 30-something superpower. Modesitt himself has written of his protagonists that "the real triumph is when a character can put aside personal gain and do the right thing -- but it's never easy and it's never without a tremendous personal cost." The cost to Alucius is never really made clear, and neither is his decision to walk away from using power that would let him dominate the planet. As he did in the Ethos Effect, it feels like Modesitt's new conclusion is that sometimes good has no choice but to completely exterminate evil - the first half fight in Scepters against the brainwashed Dualist religion rebels especially stands out - and character flaws in a protagonist may not fit in that framework.

Still, a good read and a satisfying conclusion.

Scepters is the third volume in Modesitt's Corean Chronicles. Alucius is back on his nightsheep ranch and is herding the sheep with his wife Wendra and has a baby on the way. In the last volume, Darknessess, Alucius was promised by the Lord-Protector that he would not be called back up into military service. But the danger to Lanachrona is increasing and there are powers behind the scenes manipulating things so that Alucius will not be involved in their main power play. At first this is to keep Alucius back on the stead, but later it is to get him militarily involved but only so long as he is far away from the front. Ultimately Alucius is not ordered to rejoin the military, but he is requested and the request is made in such a manner that declining would put his entire community in jeopardy. A choice that is no choice.

In many ways Alucius is a typical Modesitt hero. Alucius is reluctant to become involved but is of such a high moral code that he understands that he needs to because it is the right thing to do, and also because he knows that not acting will cause a greater evil. When Alucius acts he acts in such a way that whomever or whatever is opposing him will never be able to rise up. He leads from the front and will kill with extreme prejudice when it becomes necessary. Around Alucius it often becomes necessary.

Modesitt spins a story of Alucius confronting an ancient evil trying to overthrow the world. A standard fantasy theme, but the heart of the novel, as is the case with much of Modesitt's work, is of the day to day struggles of Alucius in finding out what is really going on. Alucius is frequently in the dark as to the real nature of the threat and as a soldier he must go where he is sent. But due to extreme skill, Alucius is frequently promoted.

So, is it good?

Reading the two previous novels in this sequence are necessary because Modesitt only references things we learn in those novels. The novel is decent enough, but is a standard Modesitt novel and I get the feeling that if the author set the events in his Recluse setting, we would not know the difference.

The story is really a simple one, and we have a protagonist who unfortunately has something of a Superman complex. A very moral man who gets unbelievable power and never once slips the Dark Side.

You know, Scepters is a decent novel but nothing to make one stand up and cheer the genre. It's fine, but simple and predictable (does Alucius ever fail? Can he?). If a reader likes other stuff by Modesitt that reader will most likely enjoy this as well. So much of what Modesitt writes has the same feel and tone and in some cases, storyline. But, if a reader spaces out Modesitt's work and doesn't read it all back to back to back, that sameness will not be overbearing.

-Joe Sherry

I would just like to say this is a fast read. As always L. E. Modesitt puts all the pieces into place to make a plasible, yet out-there fantasy story. I would recomend this series to anyone who like fantasy with some logic.

I was pleasantly surprised that this book actually completed the story. Too many authors promise a "trilogy" that continues endlessly. This was a great read. Question in my own mind about how everybody had standardized rifles with black-powder cartridges, but no artillery, not even rockets or mortars.

The fantasy assumptions are consistent; the society believable; the characters interesting.

Very nicely developed.

When his country needed him, Alucius joined the army with the rank of overcaptain and almost single handily won the battle facing overwhelming arms. As soon as he was no long needed, he left the army and returned to Iron Stem where he and his wife Wendra herded sheep and had a baby.

The Ifriti, beings from another world who drains the life force of a planet and eventually destroys it, are back. They have stirred up enough unrest so that Lanchrona is besieged on all sides.

The Lord Protector asks Alucius to lead Northern and Southern Guards to put down the revolt in Hyalt. He finds the prophet who is leading the revolt is Ifriti-possessed; Alucius cuts off its life force. H next goes to Stronghold to prevent the troops of the Regent from overpowering loyal troops and taking more Lanachrona land. Alucius and his troops are to destroy the deadly spear throwers while the regular army deals with the enemy force. Alucius is victorious and is rewarded by becoming the colonel of the Northern Guard but he learns that the Ifriti are setting up portals to drain and destroy his world's lifeforce. Alucius and his wife have the talent to stop them if they can find and destroy the scepters that enables travel between the two worlds.

This is the third and final book of the Corean Chronicles and it is a powerful, enthralling and exciting fantasy epic. All the questions of the previous two books (LEGACIES and DARKNESS) are finally answered and all the loose ends are tied up. The protagonist is a hero for going into battle against an enemy that is more powerful than he is. His love for his wife adds a romantic dimension that humanizes the larger than life champion. Scepters is an outstanding fantasy.

Harriet Klausner