The Magic of Recluce (Recluce series, Book 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1992 | Series: Saga of Recluce (Book 1)

With The Magic of Recluce, L.E. Modesitt made his impressive hardcover debut, breaking out in wide scope and grand scale with a novel in the great tradition of the war between good and evil in a wonderful fantasy world. Modesitt had been producing fast-paced, slickly-written novels of SF adventure, often compared to the work of Keith Laumer and Gordon R. Dickson. Then, in his biggest and best book yet, he broadened his canvas and turned to fantasy and magic, stepping immediately into the front rank of contemporary fantasy writers.

The Magic of Recluce is a carefully-plotted fantasy novel of character about the growth and education of a young magician. In it, Modesitt confronts real moral issues with gripping force, builds atmosphere slowly and convincingly and gives his central character, Lerris, real intellectual challenges. This is the kind of highly-rationalized fantasy that Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson write when they write fantasy, colorful and detailed.

He is given the standard two options: permanent exile from Recluce or the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. He chooses dangergeld.

Though magic is rarely discussed openly in Recluce, it becomes clear, when Lerris is sent into intensive training for his quest, that he has a natural talent for it during his weapons lessons. And he will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked. He must learn to use his powers in an orderly way or fall prey to Chaos.

Lerris may resent order, but he has no difficulty choosing good over evil. As he begins his lonely journey, he falls into the company of a gray magician, once of Recluce, who tutors him in the use of magic and shows him some of the devastation caused by the Chaos Wizards in the great wars between Chaos and Order of past times.

Lerris pursues a quest for knowledge and power that leads him across strange lands, through the ghostly ruins of the old capitol of Chaos, down the white roads of the Chaos Wizards to a final battle with the archenemy of Order, discovering in the end true control of magic, true love, and the beginning of true wisdom. An epic adventure, The Magic of Recluce0, is a triumph of fantasy.

The Magic of Recluce is the first book of the saga of Recluce.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The battle between good, denoted by order, and evil, represented by chaos, underlies this promising coming-of-age fantasy. The youth Lerris, a skeptical misfit, is sent on a journey designed to determine whether he will ever be capable of serving his native land, Recluce, a haven of perfection surrounded by chaos. During training, Lerris is told he is a potential order-master, a possible high-level wizard, who must probe his inner self and discover his powers before he can return home. In war-torn Candar, he finds himself hunted as a rogue wizard and narrowly escapes destruction at the hands of the evil wizard Antonin. Apprenticed to a woodworking genius, Lerris comes to the aid of his ailing master, rebuilding his business and arranging the future of the family. Lerris's acceptance of responsibility and respect for order enable the development of his powers, and his use of order-magic against Antonin leads to a confrontation between the two. Modesitt ( The Ecolitan Matter ) creates a complex world based on a plausible system of magic and peopled with engaging and realistic characters.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- An allegorical fantasy whose central character is a 15-year-old misfit in an oddly isolated Utopian society. Lerris, constantly bored and perpetually questioning, is considered a threat to the order of Wandernaught. Despite his youth, he is asked to choose between exile or undergoing a dangergeld, a journey of discovery and exposure to all the world's wonders and threats. He opts for the latter and is instantly off on a high adventure where he easily recognizes that the real question is whether to choose good or evil, and then which is which. The quest leads Lerris to self-awareness and the beginnings of real wisdom. A good, meaningful read. --Joan L. Reynolds, West Potomac High School, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy (May 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812505182
• ISBN-13: 978-0812505184
• Product Dimensions: 4.7 x 1.4 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After spending years writing poetry, political speeches and analyses, as well as economic and technical reports on extraordinarily detailed and often boring subjects, I finally got around to writing my first short story, which was published in 1973. I kept submitting and occasionally having published stories until an editor indicated he'd refuse to buy any more until I wrote a novel. So I did, and it was published in 1982, and I've been writing novels -- along with a few short stories -- ever since.

If you want to know more, you can visit my website at www.lemodesittjr.com.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#63 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#72 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#63 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#72 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great story. May 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The Magic of Recluce is the start of a classic epic and an epic The Saga of Recluce is. This being my 3rd book (I've read Fall of Angels and The Chaos Balance) I cannot wait to pickup Towers of the Sunset (book 2). This book is not fast paced and does not take you on an emotional roller coaster. That is not what these books are about (at least the 3 I've read anyway). These books are still special. They are told from the perspective of the main character, in this case Lerris, who we come to know very well. We travel with him, we eat with him, we fight with him, we feel with him, we fear with him, we learn with him and we grow up with him. This allows for the slow pacing in some places as the author allows us to mature with Lerris, to introspect, to experience things on a day to day basis in the world of Recluce. We learn about Recluce, we meet the people who inhabit it, we smell the air, we sleep in it's inns. Lerris's adventure becomes our adventure, became my adventure and I did not want to put the book down. Thats why these books are special, because you become the character, you live the adventure. The adventure is alot more than hacking and slashing. It is a sojourn of sorts. The character has choices to make. Simply put those choices are between good and evil, order and chaos. In the best tradition of Luke Skywalker / Darth Vader, our hero must decide, we must decide.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad October 18, 2000

By "jduhe12345"

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is good stuff. This is not a great epic journey with twenty characters to follow (not that there's anything wrong with that), or killer dragons, or shadow spawn. Lerris, the main character is unhappy with his life in the, as he puts it, mundane dull world of Recluce. At the urgings of his parents, he becomes an apprentice for his uncle, a woodworker. He turns out to be an adequate craftsman, but has no interest in his work. Recluce is a society based on order, any discontentment is a foot Chaos puts through their door. Recluce relies solely on Order, which is kept by the Order (black) wizards. Because of their shunning of Chaos, Recluce is a peaceful place. People like Lerris are given the choice to leave Recluce at an early age. They are offered banishment, or the position of Dangergeld, which gives a chance to return to Recluce at the completion of a quest. Lerris chooses Dangergeld, and enters training with 6 other people. After his training, Lerris and his fellow Dangergelds are taken by ship to Freetown on the continent of Candar. When Lerris parts company with the other dangergelds, he blunders around the Southern half of the continent for a few months. He meets a Neutral (gray) wizard and studies with him for a while. They part ways too soon, and Lerris is left wondering if he has the potential to be a wizard. From there he crosses a mountain rage, pays too much for an Inn, and basically freezes himself half to death. Soon after he comes to a city, and takes on the position of journeyman at a lowly woodworking shop, and turns the shop into a profitable business. After leaving woodworking for good, he gets into some big trouble with a very powerful White (chaos) wizard. He goes on to save the day and get his girl. A unique, touching fantasy, destined to become a classic.... Though nowhere near as hard on the brain as the Wheel of Time, it is still a very enjoyable, well-crafted fantasy. Highly Recommended. Read more ›

60 of 77 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars "Holy cheeze, Batman!" May 20, 2002

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The Recluse series seems to be one of those fantasy serieses that you either loathe or love. I found the first book "Magic of Recluse" to be moderately entertaining, if overlong and full of annoying little quirks.

The hero, Lerris, is bored. In general. Living on the hyper-ordered isle of Recluse is not the best enviroment for a talented young man who wants a little more variety in his life. The dictatorial Masters insist on perfect order, as Order is the only way to defeat destructive Chaos -- and in their eyes, boredom and lack of direction are prime openings for future chaos. After a brief stint as a woodworker, Lerris is given a choice: either be exiled from Recluse, or the dangergeld, a complex jaunt in the outside world that allows him to learn more about it. He chooses the dangergeld, and trains for a while under the masters. Two of the people he meets are Krystal, a giggling swordmaster, and Tamra, a very proud man-hater.

Lerris sets out to learn more, with only his pony as his companion. Along the way, he encounters the gray wizard Justen (normally they come either as black/good, or white/bad). As he becomes enmeshed in the local politics and is hounded by whitecloaks (and does more woodworking), he learns that a white wizard named Antonin is trying to spread chaos for his own gain.

I wanted to enjoy this book, but found myself rolling my eyes too often. Modesitt has an intriguing idea concerning magic, order and chaos, but he often seems to be a little confused about how it could work. (One wonders if he had it plotted out when he began) It's also nice to finally find a book series that does not have a parade of ripoff Tolkien creations, but bothers to just add some "differentness" to human cultures, even if they are mildly generic in their inception.... I also found it very amusing that Modesitt took the care to explain why Recluse and the surrounding lands are living in a medieval enviroment, rather than having more modern technology.

The hero, Lerris, is a nice piece of work. A bored teen is hardly a new idea, but Modesitt manages to make him sympathetic by emphasizing the stifling nature of Recluse's culture, not being too ham-handed as he does so. And while Lerris is somewhat short-sighted and self-pitying at the beginning, he is no longer at the end of the book. The surrounding characters, except for the crabby woodworker and Justen, are pretty 2-D. There is some mild hormone-related incidents, including a bunch of hookers beckoning to Lerris and a friend, but this book would be fine for young adults.

One annoying detail is sound effects. "Cheezy" is the best way to describe these; fans of the old Batman TV series will probably be giggling whenever Modesitt inserts one of his sound effects. He doesn't seem to believe that the readers will be able to imagine for themselves what creaking floorboards, whinnying horses, and the sound of clattering mugs sound like. The sound effects aren't even accurate. I have never heard thunder "thrum," horses "whee...ee," or a door "itttcccchhh." The repetition will also annoy some people, as horses don't "whee...ee" just once, but dozens of times.

Another annoying detail is that Modesitt doesn't bother to describe the fight scenes. He gives us a string of sound-effects, and then refers to one of the people involved dying. It's very hard to visualize, which is doubly odd because of the effort expended giving us the sound effects. One of the last pages also has the weirdest, most obliquely-written love scene I have ever read. I literally did not know what was happening until I had read it several times. (What am I supposed to think when I read about "her hands didn't stop at my fingertips"?)

Was a nice light read, but could have been much better if someone had attacked it with editing shears. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming of Age for the hero and the reader July 22, 2000

By "letah"

Format:Paperback

This is one of those books you read and immediately run out for for its sequel. The sequel is good, but not nearly the book that The Magic of Recluce is. I have had this book near my bedside table for at least 6 years. I can pick it up and flip it open to any section and find entertaining, thought provoking prose that truly leads you to personal growth. It is a must-read for adolescents. Lerris is far from an every-man and yet who cannot understand the feeling that every adult is in on a Secret that they will not share? Who does not understand what it is to feel like an outsider everywhere, but most of all at home? Thrown out of his home for reasons determined before he was ever born; told that if he would only change who he is he could stay, Lerris must go to a place unlike anything he's experienced in his short life. We follow him and his fellow exiles through civil war, personal struggle, and the throes of young love. I like best that the story is in the first person -truly. Lerris practices self-deception and so the reader must read between the lines and decipher for herself, or himself what the truth of his narration is. I cannot say enough good things about this book. I freely recommend it to men and women and teenagers equally. You will enjoy it. The hometown boy makes good, but satisfyingly realizes that you can't ever go home again.