The Order War (Saga of Recluce Book 4)

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It does not improve my opinion of Modesitt as a writer by much. Yet considered as part of the larger series, this book contributes a lot to the ongoing mythology, and I actually managed to stay interested for most of it. My reviews of the Recluce Saga: Mar 17, Mark rated it it was ok Recommends it for: The Order War is the fourth book in Modesitt's Recluce series. The events in this book take place subsequent to the events in the previous book, The Magic Engineer, but before the events in the first book, The Magic of Recluce.

To sum this book up, it has a lot of good information regarding the nature of the balance between order and chaos and it introduces a philosophical element extoling the virtues of balance and the evils of extreme order or extreme chaos. The problem with this book is that it doesn't have much else. His brother, Gunnar, is a weather wizard, like Creslin. Gunnar and Justen are tasked to go to Candar to act as advisors in helping a country fight off the ever-increasing white hordes of chaos from taking over all of the continent. After this mission, Justen is separated from the rest of the Recluce task force and wanders into Naclos, a place of perfect balance.

It is there that he becomes the first gray wizard the world has seen in ages. His new mission is to reduce both Order and Chaos in the world and restore balance, so that the world is not torn asunder between the two extremes. The Good As far as the magic system of Recluce goes, this book finally addresses a lot of questions I have had. Is chaos always evil and order always good? Wouldn't some kind of maintained balance be the best situation? These questions are satisfactorily answered in this book. First of all, evil or at least corrupt leaders are introduced into Recluce, making at more realistic place.

The Chaos wizards are still mostly evil, but at least some individuals exist who seem to wistfully question the morality of destroying large numbers of people instead of rubbing their hands together in delight at the prospect of so much destruction. The concept of gray magic is also very intriguing and it seems to be more powerful than either Order or Chaos alone. The idea of sealing chaos within order to create a gray balance in things is very interesting and, like all of the magic in the Recluce series, makes a lot of sense.

The action scenes in the novel are well done and capture the attention of the reader, as they should. The technological aspects and advances depicted over the course of the novel are very interesting also. The answer is that, even though the book depicts the virtues of balance, the novel itself lacks balance. More specifically, the characterizations of the novel are dry and not very compelling.

The character of Justen was the most interesting and he was rather dull. He wasn't written to be all that different from any other main character I've read in a Recluce novel. The only effect of him being a gray wizard instead of a black wizard had on his personality was that he drank beer and had a bit of a happy go lucky attitude that quickly disappeared as the novel's plot progressed. Over the course of the novel he gets falsely accused of being "order-mad".

If he were "balance-mad" the book would have been a whole lot more interesting. He would have been a much more compelling character if he got some kind of strange glee out of destroying both chaos and order. There was a romance in the novel, as there has been in most of the Recluce novels, but it was rather dull. There was no conflict or romantic tension that would make a literary romance interesting. The two people concerned just meet and fall in love.

While this is perhaps more true-to-life, it doesn't make for a good read. The romantic aspects of a novel should match the scope of the roles of the characters in the fictional world.

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Naclos This deserves its own section, because I feel that Modesitt's description of Naclos may have been the "point" of the book. Naclos is a place of pure balance. The inhabitants of Naclos follow a pattern of complete balance. Basically it works like this: If someone consumes a produced good, a service, or a natural resource, they balance out their consumption deficit by providing a produced good, service, or resource in turn. No actual currency changes hands. On the surface it seems very similar to Thomas More's "Utopia", and it also seems to have the same flaw: What if someone consumes without replacing or in any way compensating for their consumption?

If someone consumes without compensating for it, the land "takes them" or "gets rid of them". They'll get eaten by a forest beast or killed by a man eating tree or something like that. This suggests some kind of intelligence that must exist behind the maintenance of balance, keeping tabs. However, this is sort of shrugged off and not addressed.

It's a little too convenient. Also, why is it this way in Naclos alone and not in any other area of the world? I can only hope these questions and criticisms would be addressed in a later book, but I doubt it.

Saga of Recluce

The world of Recluce seems blissfully absent of any kind of organized Religion other than order- or chaos- based expletives Demons of Light! Conclusion I can only hope that the series gets better. I kind of doubt it, though, and I'm toying with leaving it altogether This book was a tough read. For non-Recluce fans I say avoid like the plague. For fans of Recluce, I say know what you're getting into. For fans of the Recluce series' magic system, I say prepare to have a lot of your questions answered If you're still on the fence about the series, I say you can probably end your involvement with this book.

Jun 12, Bryan Brown rated it it was ok Shelves: This book was much harder to get through than most of the others, and that has sunk my rating a bit. At times reading this story even felt a bit like a chore, which was funny because this story is a pivotal point in the history of this world, one that changed both Recluse, and Fairhaven and all the lands on the planet.

I am pleased to say that it picked up towards the end of the book. First of all the hero of the book, Justin, starts out This book was much harder to get through than most of the others, and that has sunk my rating a bit. First of all the hero of the book, Justin, starts out friend zoned whiney. I hate the whole friend zoned character. I recognize that most of us go through a period in our lives where we are in a situation like that but most people grow out of it pretty quickly by facing reality and from this story it looks like Justin has been this way a long time and manages to stay in it for most of the story.

In fact this bothered me even more when later on in the book he goes home and we are introduced to his family. They are practical, intelligent and caring. That would have really been all that was needed and he would have grown up a bit and moved on.

The Order War (Recluce, book 4) by L E Modesitt Jr

Second, I was really bothered by the relationship that was forced upon Justen. About midway through the story he is rescued by a druid from Naclos, Dayala or something like that, who has been chosen for him by person or persons or forces unknown. This was never explained, but it was stated that neither he nor she had any choice in the matter. It was similar to the pair bonding that Creslin and Maggie remember I just call her Maggie because the name in the book is silly were forced into.

The Magic of Recluce

Third, the concept of balance was a principle part of this story and not in the same way that it was important to what I have been calling grey mages throughout all these reviews. The grey mages were usually primarily either black or white, but were able to sense and use the opposite power in order to strengthen their primary power. This story posits that the true masters of balance are the druids of Naclos.

The real druids have the power to live for nearly forever a wildly unbalanced power I think , and can see both white chaos and black order and can in same way use these abilities simultaneously to do magical things like talk to the animals, or make trees grow into boxes without any seams. They are ruled by a collection of ancients who seek to preserve the balance between order and chaos. They seek to preserve it so much that they force Justin unto an unasked for alliance, and then condition him through that link to pursue his conflict against the whites of Fairhaven.

Justin becomes a druid in the process learning how to use chaos as well as order and then after a brief excursion dabbling in what could only be uranium, decides to build a focused light weapon, a rudimentary tank and then proceeded to destroy Fairhaven. This is one of the first four recluse books written in external chronological order and so may be a weaker effort by Modesitt Jr. In fact I think for the next four books I have to read in internal chronological order they are mostly the older books in the series. I will be curious to see if the other older books are as hard to read as this one was.

It does make me long for the latest Imager book. Feb 07, Kathi rated it it was amazing Shelves: Romance, magic, subterfuge, war, characters that were not quite as stubbornly naive or dense as in some of the other books. I like the Recluse books and got sucked into the series as soon as I read the first. They unfortunately tend to run a little hot and cold and while this one didn't "pull me in" as much as some others, it's a good read in it's way. The rating fluctuates as I think of it, so maybe 3. Jul 20, Thor Arne rated it liked it. Strong finish, but most of the book was dragging on a fair bit.

Feb 21, Ken Weeks rated it it was amazing. I absolutely LOVE this series. Jun 07, USOM rated it really liked it. I received this free book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest. Whenever I read epic fantasy I am always floored by the sheer size of plots and characters who have to come together. It includes a forethought and mastery of elements I just have no clue about. But what I loved about The Order War is just how epic it is. Not only does this occur as part of a series, which you can seriously still jump into because I had absolutely no problem, Disclaimer: Not only does this occur as part of a series, which you can seriously still jump into because I had absolutely no problem, but the sheer scale is epic.

All of these perspectives are inching together in an unhurried way. It never feels slow, it just feels like we're taking the time to mature. I think true good epic fantasy doesn't feel slow or hurried. Mar 05, Anne rated it really liked it Shelves: This appears to be the first book in the saga chronologically -- which may be why the airport bookstore had this one and not book 1 on their shelves. The downside of starting here is that there's a lot of stuff from book 1 The Magic of Recluce which is assumed knowledge in this one.

I was continually disoriented by missing information and that made it hard to really suspend my disbelief. It also made me question some of the blurbs on the cover which universally proclaim it to be innovative an This appears to be the first book in the saga chronologically -- which may be why the airport bookstore had this one and not book 1 on their shelves. It also made me question some of the blurbs on the cover which universally proclaim it to be innovative and deeply thought provoking.

It was not until I read book 1 that I understood that the title is a pun from the perspective of the world itself. How could "Order" start a war? How could it pursue one? What would that look like? I enjoyed the book. The characters were well drawn and the story was engaging fantasy which does not rely on routine tropes to drive the plot.

Jul 08, Zach rated it really liked it. A much better book in this series, I feel like L. The book still started out painfully slow and I contemplated giving up the series as I have on most of the books thus far but eventually the story really got roiling. Elements of Homer's the Odyssey and dashed with a bit of philosophy under bedding the story really held my interest. I guess this will be a short review because that's really all I have to say. I am looking forward A much better book in this series, I feel like L.

I am looking forward to the next book! Apr 06, Darryl rated it really liked it. Another enjoyable book in the Saga of Recluse.

I made the mistake of accidentally reading book 5 The Death of Chaos before reading this one - so it ruined much of the suspense of this novel. I think one of the problems with this series is that some of the characters are starting to have the same traits as characters from previous novels and that the female characters are often secondary to the story.

Aug 30, Matt rated it really liked it. It's another fun romp in the world of Recluce and the over-narrative is definitely taking shape at this juncture.

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I'm excited to see how things shake out for the descendants and long-lived in future installments. May 11, Kerry rated it it was ok. Really had to slog thru this one to get to some action and actual movement of the characters. Last one in the series I'll read. Dec 15, Debra Meyer rated it it was ok.

I want to say it was a really good book except that the extremely short chapters and the phenomenal amount of verbal sound effects had me cussing so much that it made it difficult to totally enjoy it.

Nov 04, Sylvia McIvers rated it it was ok Shelves: At one point, I loved this series. Now, can't even finish it. Oh well, tastes change.

Oct 07, Bernard Campbell rated it really liked it. Another good book in the Recluce series. Order and chaos locked in balance I tried but just couldn't finish. Sep 28, M. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Again I reach into the gift box and draw out a book. Seeing that it is fourth in a series, I checked to see if there were any others by the same author, and moved a few books around to group some together, but it appears that this is the only one of these there.

It is evident that the series offers a world with some sort of blend of technology and magic, which is intriguing. My problems with this book fall generally into three categories. One category is that I kept wondering whether I did not un Again I reach into the gift box and draw out a book. One category is that I kept wondering whether I did not understand references because they were recalling previous books in the series. The biggest of these is "the Legend", often referenced in relation to several nations but never defined, and so I couldn't be certain whether I was supposed to know what the Legend is from previous books or whether it is always left vague that way.

I also wondered what people and places were already familiar and which were new, but there was no way to know. The second category is something of Chekov's Shotgun: In one case, there was a girl who was obviously very interested in the older brother, who seemed oblivious to her, while the younger brother, to whom she was never more than friendly, was clearly attracted. About a third of the way into the book, she gets killed, and nothing more really comes of that.

Similarly, in the first few chapters we see that the younger brother, an "engineer" combining machines with magic , has a natural talent with hand-held weapons; this never matters despite the fact that he is involved in combat quite a bit. The position of the books druids is exalted, and an effort is made to conform the world to those concepts, but in both ways they strike me as implausible. The view of good and evil is what I've labeled oblivious neutrality, that the druids deny there is any such thing as good or evil, only what is; I find this silly, as we all inherently recognize good actions versus evil actions, good outcomes versus evil outcomes, good people versus evil people.

Certainly the argument, that no one believes himself to be evil, is correct; but evil does not work that way--people are evil if they believe that it is good and right for them to put their own interests above those of everyone else, and the outworking of that attitude is harm to others. Concerning law and chaos, it is more complicated: Logically, then, if you build a bridge or a building, or form a government, or write a book, somewhere you have simultaneously created something chaotic or random, because you have taken order from something and left unbound chaos behind.

Even if the idea were not in itself patently absurd, it is obvious that those who are representing chaos use order a great deal, in creating their cities and running their armies and ruling their people. I tend to believe in a balance of order and chaos, in the sense that individual rights and community order must be kept in balance with each other; I find the conceptualization in this story absurd. It had its moments--points where the author made me smile, once perhaps even laugh, insights into people, well-structured dialogue, credible action.

I liked the characters and had concern for them. Since it is here I will undoubtedly read it again one day. However, I am unlikely to hand it to anyone else and recommend that he read it. In this, the fourth book in the Recluce saga, Modesitt finally gets back around to Justen the gray wizard from the first book; frankly, it just didn't interest me. A lot of what goes on in The Order War is repetitious, the Chaotic White Wizards are still building their westward road and steamrolling any kingdom that gets in their way, the Order-bound Black Wizards of Recluce are still well Worse, a lot of the book's t In this, the fourth book in the Recluce saga, Modesitt finally gets back around to Justen the gray wizard from the first book; frankly, it just didn't interest me.

Worse, a lot of the book's themes were already touched upon in Magic of Recluce so the theoretical elements aren't any more riveting than the repetitive plot and recycled characters. Don't get me wrong, I like Modesitt's writing, I love his Imager series, I've enjoyed what I've read of the Corean books, and I liked the previous Recluce books, but I just couldn't get into The Order War and after starting it, I dropped it multiple times to read other things including Legacies from his Corean Chronicles and at the end didn't really care how things would end especially since Magic of Recluce had already told me.

Part of the problem is that Modesitt tries to create a more rounded cast of Chaos Wizards this time around, giving them more humanity, but by doing so he slows the story down and takes away the mystery of wondering what the villains will do next since they describe their plans in detail. Similarly, the book contains three distinct phases, Justen and the Engineers fighting the Whites in Saronnyn, Justen on the Run and in Naclos, and Justen's return to Recluce. Each of these phases has its own plot arc and characters and none of them flow particularly well into the others.

For instance, I enjoyed the initial story but not only did it seem to be a repetition of the events of the Magic Engineer, it also contained a lot of characters who you assume you need to know that either get killed off or disappear for the rest of the book. The Naclos arc is easily the strongest part of the book, as Modesitt shakes off his rut of repetition and actually gets to describe a place that's new and interesting with a twist on his magic system that we haven't seen before and another group of interesting new characters. At that point I began to get legitimately interested in the story and then abruptly we shift back to Recluce, we drop most of the cast of the Naclos arc, and the story slows down into political quarreling and Justen's accelerated course on doomsday machine development before the breakneck bloodshed and chaos of the finale.

In short, the Order War had some good moments and it is a useful companion to Magic of Recluce, providing background to that book's events, but it just doesn't stand on its own as well as previous Recluce books and doesn't exactly inspire me to pick up the next in the series, especially when I'm enjoying the Imager and Corean books so much more. Feb 21, C. Zahn rated it it was amazing.

This is effective in combat but large actions backlash on the wielder because death itself releases chaos. The unleashed chaos harms the mage. It can cause disorientation, even sensory deprivation, for timespans proportional to the amount of destruction. Most wielders of magic were marooned onto the world of Recluce from another universe. The new arrivals were not magical before arriving. The influx of magic from the other universe occurred twice. The ancestors of the people who wield white chaos were stranded first.

The ancestors of those who wield black order were marooned years later. Offspring can usually inherit magical abilities. The native people have medieval technology. Both groups of newcomers were space-farers but, in time, descend to the level of the locals. Most of the novels take place long after these arrivals. The reader discovers these matters through quotes and legends peppered throughout the series.

Fall of Angels provides a brief glimpse into that other universe. Wizards descend from Rationalists "Rats", "Demons". Mages descend from Angels. The Rationalists and Angels were separate cultures of a space-faring people in another universe. The cultures were engaged in a war that spanned generations. The technology, weaponry, and ideology of each culture is reflected in the magical abilities, hair colour, and world views of their descendants in the Recluce universe. The arrival of the Angels is described in Fall of Angels: The Angels are losing. During the battle, an exceptional event occurs: The result is surprising: From various evidence, the crew concludes that they are in an alternate universe, ruled by different physical laws.

The ship no longer functions but it is close to a habitable planet, and the crew crash lands there. Soon, individuals discover strange talents and physical changes such as hair colour that will ultimately become linked to order magic. Upon contacting the planet's locals, they discover that Rationalists are also present on the planet. Using their manifest chaos powers as well as their advanced technology, these people create an empire called Cyador, on the continent of Candar. While the series is named after Recluce, that island is uninhabited for the first millennium of the story.

The first two books, chronologically, are Magi'i of Cyador and Scion of Cyador , which describe the operation of the Cyador army and its battles against the natives of Candar. These novels primarily serve to flesh out a formerly unknown part of the history of the universe. The story does establish one key element in the history of Cyador: Initially, upon landing on a mostly-uninhabited part of one of the world's continents, the Rationalists later known as Demons managed to create a number of advanced mechanical devices, powered by chaos.

They also erected a number of collection towers that were used to focus chaos into these devices. By the time of the first novel, these towers are failing, and the empire is losing the ability to maintain its advanced technology. The opening of Magi'i of Cyador is usually considered "Year 1" in the history of Recluce.

Unlike the Demons, the Angels manipulate order. Of note are two specific angels, Nylan and Ryba, who would become legendary figures in coming novels. Ryba develops a talent for prophecy. Her extensive writings are quoted by future generations as The Book of Ryba , while Nylan develops the foundations of order magic. Nylan also fathers the child Weryl. By this time, the fire-wagons and fire-lances that were once central to the empire have vanished, and the empire is fully dependent on its chaos wizards.

The ultimate result of this confrontation is the founding of the Druids, which take up residence in a magically active forest called The Accursed Forest by the natives, but The Great Forest of Naclos in later generations. She tries to protect Westwind, as political and military problems build in the surrounding countries of Gallos, Lornth, and Suthya. In this novel, characters indicate that almost 10 generations have passed since the reign of Lorn in Cyador. Decades after the fall of Cyador, Cyador's Heirs finds its survivors have reestablished themselves in Cigoerne, a fertile country coveted by hostile neighbors in less hospitable lands.

Young Lerial, the second son of Duke Kiedron, lives in the shadow of his older brother Lephi, the heir to their father's realm. Lerial's future seems preordained: He will one day command his brother's forces in defense of Cigoerne, serving at his older sibling's pleasure and no more. But when Lerial is sent abroad to be fostered by Major Altyrn to learn the skills and wisdom he will need to fulfill his future duties, he begins a journey into a much larger world that brings out his true potential. Lerial has talents that few, as yet, suspect: And as war finally engulfs the fringes of Cigoerne, Lerial's growing mastery of Order and Chaos is tested to its limits and his own.

Generations after the Angels reshaped the political climate in central Candar, the Prefect of Gallos seeks for an excuse to start another war with Westwind in the opening of The Mongrel Mage. The Prefect sends three white mages with an escort to investigate 'raids' in the bordering plains between the two powers. Those mages are Beltur, his prominent white mage uncle, and his uncle's apprentice. After their findings displease the Prefect and his high mages, Beltur's uncle sacrifices himself so the young man can flee.

With the aid of Jesslya, a young healer, Beltur travels to Elparta in Spidlar alongside a black mage named Athaal. Beltur, always considered weak as a white mage, is revealed to be a black, or possibly gray, mage. In Elparta he increases his skills in order magic, finds works serving in the city patrol and helping a coppersmith forge cupridium, and strives to recover from the turmoil of Gallos.

Soon, however, he discovers he cannot escape his past, as the Prefect and his white mages decide to conquer Elparta with their powerful army. Recruited into Elparta's defense, Beltur excels as an arms-mage, bolstered by his desire to defend his new home and its people which now includes Jesslya, her mother, and many other recent friends. The victory of Elparta is marred by the loss of Athaal who Beltur was unable to save in battle. In Outcasts of Order Beltur attempts to return to his daily routine immediately after the war with Gallos but intrigue among the Trader's Council and the local group of black mages removes any chance he has to make Elparta his permanent home.

He begins to train the young daughter of a black mage who is destined to be a powerful chaos wielder. Forced to flee after defending himself and his coppersmith partner from two murderous black mages, Beltur travels to Axalt as the request of the smith and with Jesslya as his new consort. Adjusting to a new life in Axalt grows increasingly complicated as once again the powerful are threatened by his presence.

When his white mage apprentice and her family are exiled from Elparta they seek refuge with Beltur in Axalt. Despite assistance from the coppersmith's family Beltur, Jesslya and their guests are barely able to secure permission to stay. When he is unable to prevent a murder, Beltur tries to enact some justice for it, but ultimately is forced out of another city. Remembering an invitation from a mysterious trader in Montgren, Beltur and Jesslya travel with the young white mage and her family to the small duchy to seek a better life.

Surviving bandit raids and surveying local power structures along the way, Beltur's followers arrive in Montgren to find themselves not only welcome, but expected. The Duchess offers them an enticing prospect - they can become the new council for a practically abandoned town, making it a home shaped in their own image.

Beltur accepts and pledges to manage the town, Haven, as a place where mages of both chaos and order will be welcome. But, half-way across the continent of Candar, towards the East, is Fairhaven: Their prejudices and their written history imply that Fairhaven was founded by descendants of Cyador. Westwind is the bulwark of the matriarchal societies of Western Candar which hold to the Legend of Ryba. Westwind is under threat from the white wizards of the city of Fairhaven, which exerts a great deal of influence over the male-dominated lands of Eastern Candar.

A very strong order mage, Creslin, who is suggested to be the son of Weryl and grandson of the first "black mage" Nylan, flees female-dominated Westwind prior to an arranged marriage, only to be pursued by the white wizards who fear his strength. He ultimately escapes Candar, having married a chaos wizard in the process, and sails to the uninhabited island of Recluce. Here, Creslin begins a society based entirely on order magic. We also begin to learn the dangers of widespread order or chaos magic, as Creslin's unskilled efforts to make Recluce habitable cause severe weather elsewhere in the world, including massive storms, hurricanes, floods and droughts.

Several hundred years later, the chaos wizards in Candar have managed to conquer almost the entire continent. Beginning in the year , The White Order and Colors of Chaos depict the progress of a young chaos wizard named Cerryl as he rises in the ranks of the white wizards. He is constantly fending off attempts on his life from the extremely powerful wizard Jeslek, who has begun to literally raise mountains from the ground to protect the paved highways the chaos wizards have been creating across Candar.

At the same time, in the year , The Magic Engineer details the journey of Dorrin, an order mage from Recluce. This is the point, both chronologically and to the reader, where the importance of balance between chaos and order starts to become apparent. There are some hints in this regard in the first novel, but here the underlying causes are explained more fully.

Creslin's attempts to focus order around Recluce have led to an abundance of "free chaos" elsewhere in the world. This has led to increasingly stronger chaos wizards, ultimately leading to the formation of a 'chaos-focus' in the wizard Jeslek, granting him extraordinary strength. This, in turn, is allowing more order to be focused in Recluce, until something catastrophic happens to reset the balance.

Dorrin begins using order magic with his innate engineering talent to create steam-powered machines from order-infused wood and metal. These are capable of containing large amounts of chaos energy. Of particular note are the extremely fast and powerful warships that Recluce begins to build, after Dorrin demonstrates their usefulness.

The Order War

The vast amount of order concentrated in these ships will accelerate the growth of chaos in the world. Dorrin spends some time in Candar fighting off the white wizards, then returns to Recluce to become the first "order engineer" and founds what later becomes the major city on Recluce, named after Nylan from "The Fall of Angels". Meanwhile, Jeslek is ultimately destroyed in his confrontation with Dorrin, leading to Cerryl becoming High Wizard and attempting some measure of truce with Recluce.

The switch which is a Modesitt trademark from a pro-Recluce viewpoint to one inside the heretofore vilified Hamorian empire provides a probing look at prejudice, and also lays bare the conflict and corruption within the Recluce society and organizations at that time.

Rahl, an apprentice scrivener with no taste for responsibility or accountability, is discovered by the magisters of Recluce to have an inordinately strong grasp of certain order abilities.

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