Customer Reviews

The Towers of the Sunset

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I consider this to be the best of Modesitt's works. It is not easy to get into--I suggest skipping the first three or so chapters the first time you read it--but once you delve in, you should be trapped by the travails of the protagonist, Creslin.

Perhaps the most distracting part of this book is that it's written in present tense. Some people simply cannot handle it, but I managed to disregard it after a couple of pages. It's well worth the effort, I promise.

The world here is not your typical fantasy setting. Creslin is a male in a female-dominated society, and in an ironic twist of the willful-princess-tale, flees an arranged marriage and manages to get into trouble on his own. He is wry and earnest, in some ways too young to handle the world--but it's watching him overcome those hurdles that makes this story so remarkable.

Modesitt thoroughly explores his characters. They have flaws, like all humans: Creslin can be insensitive; Megaera has a temper. Yet we can understand what they're going through and even though I didn't expect the dramatic acts a perfect hero would give us, what they do manage to accomplish is much more meaningful. Some may believe that a great deal of the story is meaningless wandering, but I was too fascinated by the process rather than the actual resolution. This is not a book you rush: it is a thoughtful piece of work.

His system of magic is based on order and chaos, and is eminently logical. These are not simple substitute-in synonyms for "good" and "evil", simplistic alignments which I've always had trouble swallowing. Much of what Creslin learns is the relationship between the two and the need for balance between them.

Short chapters might seem to ruin the flow, but instead I found them more helpful because they helped Modesitt cut straight to the meat of the scenes.

The writing itself I found quiet and smooth, well-suited for both description and action. I would've re-read it for that alone (but there was also the matter of *finally* understanding the first several chapters). And the end is simply gorgeous. I remained on the last page, letting my eyes scan in that final line over and over. But the beauty of it is that the last line would be meaningless without the entire preceding novel.

In The Towers of the Sunset by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., there was one thing that really leapt out at me from the absolute beginning: the book was written in the present tense. Obviously, my first reaction was one of confusion. It was strange seeing a book written so after I had been so long reading traditional novels in the past tense. It kept throwing me off to be reading it like that for the first twenty-five pages or so. But soon I developed a keen liking for it. I thought that using the present tense made the book much more exciting, putting you in the action instead of making the reader a bored spectator to the book. I truly admire Modesitt for going out on a limb like this. I think that it takes a lot of guts for an author to do something like this, especially in today's overly confined and narrow-minded society. Also, it did a great job of making this book stand out above all others. I read this book a while ago, but it's still vivid in my memory due to its radical and noteworthy style of writing. Chances are that I will remember this book for years to come, both as the absolutely excellent narrative that it was and the exquisite and daring foray into the present tense. Overall, this was a truly excellent book that I would recommend without any hesitation.

While The Magic Engineer is the best book of the series, objectively speaking, The Towers of the Sunset is still my personal favorite. Modesitt doesn't write Creslin in a manner that makes you love him or despise him, but simply respect him for what he can do. Yes the book can be excessively confusing, and it's true that the reader simply knows that Creslin can't be beaten. Nevertheless, Creslin's growth from naive pawn to master of his world is superbly entertaining and real. As usual, Modesitt makes the reader question what is right and what is wrong. The difference is that Creslin, unlike most of Modesitt's other Order Mages, rarely questions his decisions and motivations. He's arrogant and authoritative, and does what he needs to do to suceed. There is also an interesting look at the the sacrifices that must be made, in this case by both Creslin and Fairhaven, for a life safe and secure.

With the possible exception of Fall of Angels this is the best book to read stand alone from the series. If you enjoy harsh and real portrayals of powerful figures, then this is the book for you.

Reviewers who have derided this book for its 2nd-person point of view should avoid anything else they find written in the 2nd-person. I will continue to love this style because it puts you right in the driver's seat. It gives you a sense of immediacy that, when used properly, contributes to the sense that the book you are reading is a "page turner". Towers Of Sunset is a page turner, in my opinion.

Good points:
1) As with all of Modesitt's main characters, he is smart, dangerous, and a good person. And best of all - he doesn't know it. He's a hero, plain and simple. His biggest weaknesses are ignorance and uncertainty. I kind of like this because we the reader discover things with him, and overcome obstacles with him (or that's how it feels at any rate).
2) I'm a sucker for romance in a novel, and he has it in this one. It wasn't perfectly executed, but I don't mind filling in the blanks.
3) This should have been the first point, and if I'd written a review for the first book it would have, but here goes: the whole order/chaos thing is PERFECT. I'm sick of good vs. evil. Its an amazing and amazingly executed concept. I might write a review of the first book and go more into this.
4) I'm sort of a sucker for a story-writing-trick that Modesitt uses (in all his books), which is: he likes to have his main characters overhearing other people going "oooh!" and "ahh!" about him when they think he can't hear. This is how we learn how amazing the character is. That and/or they say to him, "What manner of wizard are you...?" Sure, its a little transparant, but its cool. Creslin CAN throw storms around, after all, so its not entirely unbelievable.
5) Actually, this point should have been put first (heh): the book, and his others too, show incredible detail on the objects with which humans interact. That is, if there's a table in the room, its not just a table - its a "better-than-average white-oak table with an attempt at a design on the top and which has seen some rough use." This goes for people's clothes, saddle-bags, buckets, etc. etc. The first book started this trend - Lerris was a wood-worker as well as a wizard (which was reason enough to buy the first book - totally different take on a fantasy character).

Bad points (my policy is to write negative comments on all books, despite how much I loved them):
1) Modesitt is fascinated with matriarchal societies, men vs. women, femenism here, machismo there....and its sometimes distracting. The larger powers in this book - the nations - each have different ideas on a woman's role, a man's role, etc., and I just found it to be a distraction. Not major, but still a distraction. It worked better in his novels of the world of "Corus" for some reason.
2) Sometimes I'm not sure who is talking, who is feeling what, etc., in this book. He just needed to re-work the structure of some of the paragraphs a little, but that's about it.
3) This isn't a bad point so much as a wish list to be fulfilled as I read the rest of the series: I want more to be revealed about the spiritual world. We hear of angels and demons in this story, but they don't make any cameos. I just wonder if its mythology, if magic's the only supernatural thing, etc.

Mr. Modesitt, I'm sorry.
I'm a big fan of Mr. Modessitt's style, and a bigger fan of the Recluce series in particular. I own, and have read and re-read this book several times. I know it's importance to the series; I cannot argue that it is not entertaining to follow Creslin as he wields powers no-one has ever seen and he is only aware of, while never thinking of the consequences or ramifications.

In this book, written in the present tense, it seems too often that the author wrote facts a bit 'vague' or 'obtuse' so that you have to STOP reading to re-read some part to try to figure out what exactly was going on, and then you'll never *quite* get it all tied together (at least I didn't). White assasins _sneaked_ into Westwind? An exploding cake? The singer was the father of Creslin? Was the singer an Angel? Simply put, it's frustrating to read and forgettable once put down.

It is a good story, but I just don't enjoy it; and isn't that what reading a book is all about?

I disliked the first book, "Magic of Recluce" so much I wasn't going to read this book. The only reason I did was because I had already bought it before I read the first one. This book is so much better than the first one, I was amazed.

The Towers of the Sunset is the "prequel" to Magic of Recluce, but was released after the first one. I've read that the author prefers them to be read in the order that they were released. Towers of the Sunset fills in the history behind the Island of Recluce. The story revolves around Creslin and Maegara. Creslin was raised in a very matriarchal society, and when it was arranged for him to marry Maegara he ran away rather than being bargained into what he sees as virtual slavery. Creslin has some latent powers to control the weather, and when the Chaos wizards find him, they take him into slavery and clear his memory. When he is found by an Order healer, she helps him by setting him on his way to recovering his memory. Creslin then escapes from the Chaos wizards and finds a temporary place to stay with a family on their farm. When Maegara finally finds Creslin, they are forced into the very marriage Creslin was trying to escape from in order to rule the Island of Recluce.

All in all I enjoyed this book, although at some points I think that Modesitt has no idea whatsoever what women think, or that he made Maegara very unstable. Maegara gets made at Creslin for every reason and for no reason. While this seems to make perfect sense to her, it doesn't to Creslin, and I personally, am more inclined to agree with Creslin. I had no idea why Maegara was angry with him all the time. Also, I really dislike the way the books don't seem to come in any logical order. It seems like you can pick up any book in the series and read and it doesn't matter which one you read before or after it. Some people that are not fond of series' might like this however.

This is the first book of Modesitt that I have read. The first of many. The style grasped me from the first word. A storytelling style with shards of information that you had to pull together. I found myself rereading parts as I had missed them in the rush to get to the more powerful scenes. Another thing I enjoyed was the many chapter breaks which allowed me to pickup much eaier than most books where I left off. Modesitt's hero is continually sickened by the depths that he must plunged for the sake of a stable future. Giving up more than he could have imagined. Hi dualistic magick system also caught my attention. I only wish I could write a review on par with he style I read in the book. A must read for any fantasy enthusiast.

The author of the Magic of Recluse books tells his story in a bit of an odd way, he starts you out in the present day, and each successive book in the series takes you further back in time (with a few exceptions where you go back into previously told story lines and see it from the white wizard's point of view.) I think it is a refreshing way to tell a story (not that it hasn't been done before - but it isn't done as often . . .) by starting out in present time and working your way backwards to explain all the heros that are mentioned in the present time, and then the heros of times gone past and so on. The author does a very good job of creating believable characters that have depth that you care about, and also varies the story each time that you don't get bored with it. If you like RPG, Fantasy, Sci-Fi stuff, then you should love this book series.

Creslin journeys towards Fairhaven, a city a long way from where he begins. He has some difficulties at Fairhaven but escapes to find a woman that he is mentally conected to by sorcery. She doesn't like him much, but to save both of their lives, they have to get married and travel to a city called Reluce to become its rulers. The Towers of the Sunset is a great book because it has an interesting plot, it has a lot of action, and you get to know the characters so well, it might seem that they are real. The plot was very interesting. With all the new places Creslin goes and all the new people he meets the plot keeps you wondering what happens next. During the troubles Creslin has at Fairhaven I couldn't stop reading it because he gets enslaved and you want him to escape, but don't know how he will. There was also a lot of action. During the battle was involved in at Reluce, the book was hard to put down because he was riding on a horse and swinging his sword around trying to eliminate as many enemies as he can. Through all of his actions, you get to know Creslin a lot. He has a kind personality, like when the woman he is mentally connected to is upset he will hold her, but he can be brutal when he needs to be, like when he was in the battle at Reluce and was killing people. You end up caring what happens to him along with the other people he meets. This book was great and anyone who likes getting into a book and a lot of action would think so too. You should definitely getb this book.

As much as I enjoyed 'Magic,' I was eager to read this one which purpoted to explain the origin of the society of Recluce. The book was very confusing to me in the beginning; some people in the past somehow talking about Creslin or involved in the history of Candar, but it was difficult at first for me to tie it together. I had to re-read the first several pages of the book several times to "get" what the author was writing about. Once I passed this, I started to enjoy the book, especially where young Creslin was running for his life and in danger. Once rescued from the slave-work on the Wizard Road, the story went downhill for me. I never really felt after this that Creslin was ever really in any danger, and that took a lot of the suspense out of it for me. He was just so powerful that you knew no one could touch him. Megaera's disgusting and shameful treatment of him irritated the heck out of me, too, and I was left wishing that Creslin would just zap her and put her out of my misery. It seems that the author did not really put much effort into fleshing out the world as he cold have. Despite these criticisms, I didn't regret reading the book, as I'm sure it will be important in future books. I never was really quite sure what the Towers of the Sunset were.