Soarer's Choice: The Sixth Book of the Corean Chronicles (Mass Market Paperback)

by L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Author)
Key Phrases: regional alector, other alectors, two pteridons, High Alector, Iron Stem, Master Scepter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Modesitt's concluding volume to the Corean Chronicles (after 2005's Cadmian's Choice) brings the fantasy saga to a thunderous, satisfying climax. The High Alector Dainyl is now a Marshal, charged with keeping peace among the infighting alectors on the planet Corus, a world they've settled and developed after exhausting the resources of their home planet, Ifryn. This final episode also continues the story of the Mykel, a human Major who possesses some psychic talent (like the alectors') in addition to his military prowess. The alector leaders have chosen to move the bulk of their population to a planet other than Corus, leaving Corus to chaos, with various human and alector factions fighting it out for survival. But it's the winged native Soarers, or Ancients, who will determine the fate of their planet and all its inhabitants. Modesitt's panoramic, battle-filled final installment ranks among his best work. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* While concluding the second Corean trilogy, Modesitt reveals the origins of some of the social structures and problems that formed the background and plots of the first. The Alectors must move from one planet to another every few millennia because their civilization consumes a world's life force. Corus is one of two worlds prepared for the imminent next move, but the Alectoral government seemingly will choose the other, leaving Corus as a dumping ground for those adjudged unfit for the new world. Those trying to maintain order on Corus face natives chafing at restrictions designed to preserve life force for the Alectors and the High Alectors, with no further goal to achieve, fighting among themselves with lethal weapons. The ancients--the Soarers--decide to act, but no one knows what they can do. The characters have become more fascinating with each novel; moreover, this one includes even more action than either of its predecessors, Alector's Choice (2005) and Cadmian's Choice (2006), which contributes mightily to bringing the adventures of Dainyl, Alector of Corus, and Mykel, an officer in the native military corps, to a stunning conclusion while leaving enough unanswered questions for many more Corean stories. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 558 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765355590
• ISBN-13: 978-0765355591
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,912 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So-so finale, strong intrigues hurt by weak plot resolution, November 24, 2006

By	D. Parvin "dparv" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Soarer's Choice (Corean Chronicles, Book 6) (Hardcover)

Soarer's Choice is an acceptable but not great finale to the Corean Chronicles. Modesitt weaves an interesting tale of political intrigues with his characters but doesn't do a particularly satisfying job of tying that to the world he's created, meaning plot development and resolution leaves something to be desired. I take a star off for the overall plot and a half star for shunting one of his lead protagonists to a secondary role, but I'll round it up to 4 stars as the intrigues were interesting enough the first read through to keep me up past my bedtime.

The basic problem of writing a prequel is that the reader already knows the ending, which means if you're not careful as a writer you end up spending the majority of your plot on things that either don't matter or just seem contrived to get you to the beginning of the next book. (Think the Star Wars prequels: you suffer 8 hours of hell to finally get to the great last 30 minutes, and even then parts of it feel contrived.) Modesitt's actually been both very good (the first few Recluce books) and very bad (the Cyador novels) at walking this line.

Soarer's Choice falls somewhere in between. In this case, the prequel's problem is that at the start of the book we know that something was done to the life-sucking, planet-invading alectors by the ancients, but we're not sure about who, how, when, and what resulted, just that those questions have to be answered by the end of the book. (The why at least is nicely answered over the last couple of books.) The resolution of all these questions would have made a very meaty, intriguing plot.

Instead, we get a political drama surrounding the commander of the alector military forces, Dainyl, and a less-satisfying series of military battles with his native counterpart, Mykel. While Dainyl's ultimate moves are predictable for a Modesitt protagonist - when those above you don't get the problem (in this case keeping the alectors from killing the planet off for selfish personal gain), fix it yourself! - it's still one of Modesitt's better one-man-against-the-world stories in a while and worth the read. On the other hand, Mykel gets shunted off to a series of military battles that may be important to setting up the world of the sequels but have almost nothing to do with the impending ancient vs. alector struggle we know is coming. As a result, his plot line seems largely irrelevant. With character development stunted, even with vastly reduced stage time every time he shows up it feels like he's taking away from the main plot, not adding to it. The two plotlines barely interact, a shame given the effort Modesitt made in developing Mykel in the first two books.

The bigger problem, though, is that while we get answers to the what resulted and when questions we really don't get much of an answer to who and how. Dainyl's struggles end up being a very interesting story that is largely marginal to the bigger overall plot resolution, and Mykel's struggles add almost nothing. This would have been a far better book had both characters been a couple of the main answers to who, the plot focused on how, and Modesitt doing his normal great job with the moral questions that raises for both. Instead, the plot more or less just finishes and we're set up for the original three books.

Still, the Dainyl story is a good read and this is more worth buying than most fantasy books. With a different plot line, though, this could have been one of Modesitt's best, and that's a bit of a let down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW, October 9, 2008

By	James U. Lewis Jr. (Wakefield, Va. USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As Modesitte does we get to see things from the other side. He tell us how we got there. Never saw this coming.

4.0 out of 5 stars Continues to tantalize, January 12, 2008

By	J. E. Farley (Van Alstyne, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Modesitt continues this univers with a terrifig conclusion setting up the original three books. It is amazing how he develops th echaracters, melds the various plots and time lines and always keeps you wanting more.