Praise for Outcasts of Order
“Readers will delight in following [Beltur and Jessyla's] story, from the magical to the mundane, even as they slowly realize that city can never truly be home, either.”—Seattle Book Review
“Through [Beltur's] travels you feel . . . the complexity of relationships, good and bad, that make up a life.”—Booklist
“You can sink slowly into [Outcasts of Order] and for a week or so spend your spare hours vicariously living the life of a fine, admirable young hero.”—SF Crowsnest
“One of the things that makes Recluce special is that mages have to earn a living. . . . It is this relevance and relatability which makes the Recluce series one of the best being published today. It is also why I will nominate it for the Best Series Hugo again this year.”—SF Revu
“One of my favorite books in the Saga of Recluce.”—The Arched Doorway
“In crafting this convincing portrait of a genuinely humble man guided by his clear-cut, innate sense of right and wrong, Modesitt shows how apparent weaknesses can become sources of great strength. And while most of his stories explore complex philosophical issues without pedantry or prejudice, this trilogy is doing so with particular thoroughness. Always a pleasure to abide in Modesitt's universe, if only for a few hours or days.”—Kirkus
Praise for the Saga of Recluce
“Modesitt has established himself with his Recluce series as one of the best 90s writers of fantasy. The fantasies are characterized by a highly developed and consistent system of magic.” —Vector
“L.E. Modesitt Jr., never fails to deserve praise.” —Analog
“My favorite thing about L. E. Modesitt's books is that . . . I enjoy rereading them as much as I enjoy them the first time.” —SF Revu on The Saga of Recluce
2018-04-16
Second part of the trilogy (The Mongrel Mage, 2017) embedded in the Recluce fantasy series in which white chaos magic and black order magic coexist—often violently.Beltur—a black mage of great power, able to blend both chaos and order, an ability not seen for hundreds of years—settles after the war in Elparta, where he polices the streets, learns healing, and assists talented smith Jorhan in crafting rare and beautiful objects from cupridium, an alloy that only a mage such as he can create; the items fetch high prices. He's also hoping to marry the healer Jessyla. But Cohndar, head of the black council, views him as a threat; worse, the black mage Waensyn wants Jessyla for himself, and the pair conspire to destroy Beltur and Jorhan. Clearly a showdown looms, so Beltur prepares to flee, with no guarantee that conditions will be any more tolerable elsewhere. True, the characters may seem somewhat idealized—Beltur, for instance, invariably puts principles and ethics before profit and power, but often his actions are constrained by the backdrop's inexorable logic, which says black mages and healers cannot lie (though they can dissemble) and can detect when others do. Few series, after all, are developed with such remarkable rigor and depth over 20 volumes and millions of words. Neither is Modesitt writing hagiography: Beltur will kill if his life, or those dear to him, is threatened. In crafting this convincing portrait of a genuinely humble man guided by his clear-cut, innate sense of right and wrong, Modesitt shows how apparent weaknesses can become sources of great strength. And while most of his stories explore complex philosophical issues without pedantry or prejudice, this trilogy is doing so with particular thoroughness.Always a pleasure to abide in Modesitt's universe, if only for a few hours or days.
