Nothing much new or original, but utterly absorbing and supremely satisfying for all that.
This 19th entry in the Recluce fantasy series, in which two opposite types of magic work—white, which involves the manipulation of chaos, and black, which uses order—begins a new trilogy set on the continent of Candar.
Young Beltur, a mediocre white mage, assists his uncle Kaerylt, a powerful white mage. Denardre, the Prefect of Gallos, considers neighboring countries his enemies and decides to raise tariffs to fund a war effort. He orders Wyath, his white arms-mage, to conscript all wizards, whites to wield their destructive chaos magic, blacks as healers. Kaerylt rejects this, so Wyath murders him, while an appalled Beltur hurriedly conceals himself and survives. He’s taken in by Kaerylt’s friend, the black mage Athaal. They make their way to Elparta, where there’s a community of black mages and healers. Beltur learns, to his own astonishment, that although he can work with chaos, his real talents are with order: he’s able to blend both magics, an ability not seen for hundreds of years. He also enjoys a budding romance with young healer Jessyla. But soon enough the Prefect invades with armies and mages, and Beltur cannot refuse to help defend his new home. Once again, Modesitt (Assassin’s Price, 2017 etc.) works all the angles offered by the rock-solid backdrop and the remorseless logic of the dual magic system. He portrays a man whose fundamental goodness arises from a seemingly infallible moral awareness and who, when plunged into misfortune not of his own making, must dig deep within to discover his true self. Modesitt’s been doing this sort of thing for many, many books, and no writer does it better. What’s most surprising, perhaps, is that in his hands the formula never grows old.
Nothing much new or original, but utterly absorbing and supremely satisfying for all that.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2017
ISBN: 0-7653-9468-5
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
Satisfying on all levels of the reading experience: thrilling, emotionally resonant, and cerebral. Escape to Witch Mountain...
The product of a long-running alchemical experiment, twins Roger and Dodger struggle to understand their unique circumstances and gain control over them.
In the late 19th century, ambitious young alchemist Asphodel Baker tried to rewrite reality to create a better world. She set in motion a long-range plan to incarnate the alchemical Doctrine of Ethos, encoding her scheme in a series of children’s books destined to become classics. In the present day, the considerably more ruthless James Reed, who is her creation and her killer, breeds twins designed to each incarnate half of the Doctrine; once they have fully matured, united, and manifested as “the living force that holds the universe together,” he will seize their power to control everything. Failed experiments are terminated. Roger Middleton, brilliant with languages, develops a strange telepathic connection with Dodger Cheswich, a math genius living across the country from him. Despite all of Reed’s brutal and covert efforts to keep the pair apart so their abilities will flower fully, they cannot help re-encountering each other and then separating in the wake of tragedy. Their attempts to avoid becoming one of Reed’s failures force them to draw upon their more arcane powers: Roger can persuade people—and reality itself—to bend to his wishes, while Dodger can actually reverse time back to a certain fixed point. With the help of Erin, the living incarnation of Order, they must craft the timeline that allows them to survive long enough to realize their potential. Books that include magic range across a spectrum that puts rules-based, logical magic on one end and serendipitous magic with no obvious cause or structure on the other. This book falls intriguingly far on the logic end; with its experiments and protocols, it redefines what is typically meant by science fantasy. If there’s a flaw in McGuire's (That Ain’t Witchcraft, 2019, etc.) gripping story, it’s that it isn't clear how Reed could really gain complete control over the Doctrine long term, nor why Reed’s followers actually believe that he would cede any of the Doctrine’s power were he to gain it.
Satisfying on all levels of the reading experience: thrilling, emotionally resonant, and cerebral. Escape to Witch Mountain for grown-ups.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-19552-4
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fine addition to a deservedly well-loved body of work.
All your old T-shirts and bumper stickers inscribed “Frodo Lives” may have to be replaced.
Old Hobbits do die hard—but there are none even born yet in this reconstructed tale of Middle Earth during the Elder Days (i.e., thousands of years prior to events immortalized in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy). Begun in 1918, revised several times, never published (though a capsule version of its narrative appears as a chapter in the posthumously published volume The Silmarillion), this appealing yarn is very nearly vintage Tolkien. To be sure, Middle Earth is under siege early in its history. The reigning villain is Dark Lord Morgoth (Sauron is merely one of his lieutenants), a demonic sort who rules a huge northern fortress ringed by mountains and destroys his enemies through the focused power of his malevolent will—more often than not incarnated in the figure of Glaurung, an exceedingly nasty “dragon of fire.” Their vengeful energies seek out two inordinately plucky youngsters—stalwart Túrin and his beautiful sister Nienor—who share the curse pronounced on their father Húrin, an intrepid Elfin warrior who had brazenly defied Morgoth. The episodic narrative takes off when Húrin leaves his sister and their mother Morwen (a veritable Penelope patiently awaiting her Ulysses’s return) to undertake a series of adventures that involve him with a brawling band of outlaws, the memorable Battle of Unnumbered Tears against what seem innumerable hordes of invading Orcs—remember them?), a duplicitous dwarf who offers the “shelter” of his underground stronghold and a terrific climactic encounter with the…uh, inflamed Glaurung. Strong echoes of the Finnish epic Kalevala, the tales of Robin Hood, Homeric epic and the matter of Wagnerian opera charge the text with complexity as well as vigor. And introductory and textual notes provided by the volume’s editor, Tolkien’s son Christopher, add welcome clarification.
A fine addition to a deservedly well-loved body of work.Pub Date: April 17, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-618-89464-2
Page Count: 313
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
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