Left Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 Are there any fans of Modesitt on here? I've read the first Imager Trilogy, the first trilogy of the Corean chronicles, and the first book in the Order mage series. In his science fiction I have only read Haze, but I really loved that. Thoughts. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briar King Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 I read maybe the 1st 100 pgs of Recluse 1 and set it aside for other books about 3 yrs ago now. Maybe one day I ll finish. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left Posted May 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 Yeah, I never got into Recluse. I love Imager and Corean chronicles though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topomouse Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 I read the first three book of the Corean chronicle almost ten years ago (I actually just now discovered that there are more), and I wan't really impressed. As far as I remeber the books were not exactly bad, but they were dull and boring. At the very least I remember that the protagonist was a really boring character. Also much of the lore and stuff behind the story was never explained, wikipedia tel me that that was amended in the later books, but I still count it as a demerit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left Posted May 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 If I could start over and read the prequels before the first trilogy than I think I would. I tried to read the prequels and I couldn't get into it though. Imager is definitely better in my opinion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 I really tried to get into the Recluse series, read maybe a third of them, but his style was truly painful for me. I just couldn't force myself to finish them - the story was alright enough, but the way he would tell it... I don't think I was ever fully immersed in the writing. The one problem I managed to identify (and so I've been clinging to it) is how he likes to vocalize sounds. If a horse whinnies, Modesitt would try to write the sound phonetically; if somebody coughs, he would do the same thing. Happens a ton of times too. It was really repelling to me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Posted May 14, 2014 Report Share Posted May 14, 2014 Big fan of Modesitt myself. I enjoy coming of age and discovery type themes (also common in Brandon's books, go figure), and I enjoy Modesitt's excellent worldbuilding. His knowledge of military and peacekeeping is quite good as well - so many other authors just lump fantasy warfare into the 'It's really unpleasant' bag, and I think they don't do it justice contextually. It's also always good to get people who have considered the role of magic in warfare, and who actively understand and appreciate how warfare can drive innovation and invention for a variety of reasons. That is something Brandon is actually not good at - he doesn't like warfare much, and most of his societies and cultures do not seem to have the sorts of positions, roles, and uses for magical warfare that you might expect. Mostly he avoids the issue entirely - on Sel, the Elantrians were so strong they didn't need any real military support. On Scadrial, the Lord Ruler suppressed any large standing army, and prevented frequent skirmishing. Warfare was unable to advance. On Nalthis, war is mentioned, frequently. However, we don't really see the unique and novel uses for magic, the various roles and implications, etc. We see the lifeless, and the super lifeless, and that's all. Just big one-size-fits-all trump cards. Roshar is the most interesting in the aspect. Sadly, though, surgebinding has been lost for a looooong time - warfare has evolved to basically regular warfare with a handful of super soldiers. Kind of disappointing how little they've adapted their fabrials to warfare in what is supposed to be an extremely warlike culture. Anyway, Modesitt is an expert at exactly that. And though he has his down points in how he writes, especially in his early Recluse books, I still enjoy them immensely. He's also expert at finding characters whose strengths are flaws. Example: In his latest Imager Portfolio series, the MC is a person who is intelligent and dislikes solving things through violence. However, violence and authority are what he is best at, and when the going gets tough he gets tough. It's an interesting duality, because the explicit theme is very much 'Violence isn't the answer', but the implicit theme is 'Even if you've very smart, you often can't find the other alternative'. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left Posted May 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2014 Big fan of Modesitt myself. I enjoy coming of age and discovery type themes (also common in Brandon's books, go figure), and I enjoy Modesitt's excellent worldbuilding. His knowledge of military and peacekeeping is quite good as well - so many other authors just lump fantasy warfare into the 'It's really unpleasant' bag, and I think they don't do it justice contextually. It's also always good to get people who have considered the role of magic in warfare, and who actively understand and appreciate how warfare can drive innovation and invention for a variety of reasons. That is something Brandon is actually not good at - he doesn't like warfare much, and most of his societies and cultures do not seem to have the sorts of positions, roles, and uses for magical warfare that you might expect. Mostly he avoids the issue entirely - on Sel, the Elantrians were so strong they didn't need any real military support. On Scadrial, the Lord Ruler suppressed any large standing army, and prevented frequent skirmishing. Warfare was unable to advance. On Nalthis, war is mentioned, frequently. However, we don't really see the unique and novel uses for magic, the various roles and implications, etc. We see the lifeless, and the super lifeless, and that's all. Just big one-size-fits-all trump cards. Roshar is the most interesting in the aspect. Sadly, though, surgebinding has been lost for a looooong time - warfare has evolved to basically regular warfare with a handful of super soldiers. Kind of disappointing how little they've adapted their fabrials to warfare in what is supposed to be an extremely warlike culture. Anyway, Modesitt is an expert at exactly that. And though he has his down points in how he writes, especially in his early Recluse books, I still enjoy them immensely. He's also expert at finding characters whose strengths are flaws. Example: In his latest Imager Portfolio series, the MC is a person who is intelligent and dislikes solving things through violence. However, violence and authority are what he is best at, and when the going gets tough he gets tough. It's an interesting duality, because the explicit theme is very much 'Violence isn't the answer', but the implicit theme is 'Even if you've very smart, you often can't find the other alternative'. I think you just summed up every reason I like Modesitt. I'm working on starting the prequel Imager books right now so thanks for not putting any spoilers in there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrim Bloody Cauthon Posted May 20, 2014 Report Share Posted May 20, 2014 I read the first 2 books of recluse but never went past that. I didn't like all of the character switching and the time periods being mixed up. maybe I will finish the series later. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver Posted May 21, 2014 Report Share Posted May 21, 2014 Convenient timing; I was in the library and noticed a book by an L.E Modesitt named Imagers Battallion. Didn't get it out- I have a backlog of epic fantasy doorstops as is- but I'll add him to The List. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouiseSparrow Posted April 11, 2015 Report Share Posted April 11, 2015 I've read the first three books of the Spellsong Cycle and liked it, but I've never got around to trying any others. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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