Subject: _The Order War_, by L. E. Modesitt Jr. (SPOILERS)

From: [email-masked] (Sean Eric Fagan)
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 02:12:25 GMT

[ This is not posted to rec.arts.sf.reviews because the moderators for that
group have lost or delayed every single posting I've made over the past year
or so, and I am fed up with them. -- sef ]

_The Order War_ is Modesitt's fourth book about Recluce; the first three
were (in order of publication) _The Magic of Recluce_, _The Towers of
Sunset_, and _The Magic Engineer_.

tOW is my least favorite of them all.  My main problem with it, really, is
that too much of it seems *forced* -- especially some bits that seem done
largely for continuity with tMoR.

For those unfamiliar with it, well, you shouldn't buy the book, but should
go out and read _The Magic of Recluce_ -- it is a good book, and I'll
probably go reread it after I finish this.  The series takes place somewhere
where entropy is a lot more flexible than it is here, and can be influenced
by humans as much or more than natural forces.  There is a pretty solid past
referenced in tMoR, and the other three books take place before it, and fill
out some of it.

I've read tOW twice now, once as a readers' copy a couple of months ago, and
just now with the copy I bought.  The fact that I was willing to reread it
does say something about it -- however, it has taken me nearly all week to
reread it, since it didn't grab my attention the way other books have.

Some of the problems I had with it, continuity problems, I've included
below, after the control-L, as they could be spoilers, so I'll just jump
ahead to my two-sentence review of the book:

As a hardcover book, it is probably not worth your buy unless you absolutely
loved any of the Recluce books.  If you can find it used, or at a library,
I'd recommend going that route first.  (Note, though, that I *did* buy it,
and, having read it before, I knew what I was in for.)

As an aside, after I read _The Magic Engineer_, I was pretty certain this
book would come out, and predicted one or two others in the series when I
posted a review of it.  Now, I'll predict one or two more books in the
series again -- one book which would take place after tMoR (it is hinted at
in a prophecy in one of the books, I forget which one), and *maybe* a book
taking place even before tToS.

Spoilers below.

In both tMoR and tToS, it is made fairly clear that Black magicians live
longer -- sometimes a *lot* longer -- than other people (and, in fact, it's
hinted at that White magicians tend to live fast, die young, and not even
leave a corpse).  One line in tMoR supports this, something like, "I could
keep her young the way my father kept my mother young."  Yet Modesitt blows
this completely, having this longevity done through immortality, not just a
natural characteristic of the Black magicians.

The major character of this book, Justen, appeared significantly in tMoR.
But I just absolutely cannot reconcile *this* Justen with the one in tMoR.
They are completely different characters, and some of the things Justen does
in this book should have shown up in the first one.  Obviously, Modesitt
changed his mind about things, but internal inconsistency bugs me a lot.