Scholar

The Fourth Book of the Imager Portfolio

By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Hundreds of years before the time of Imager, the continent of Lydar is fragmented. Years of war have consolidated five nations into three-Bovaria, Telaryn, and Antiago. Quaeryt is a scholar and friend of Bhayar, the young ruler of Telaryn. Worried about his future and the escalating intrigues in Solis, the capital city, Quaeryt persuades Bhayar to send him to Tilbor, conquered ten years earlier by Bhayar's father, in order to see if the number and extent of occupying troops can be reduced so that they can be re-deployed to the border with warlike Bovaria.

Quaeryt has managed to conceal the fact that he is an imager, since the life expectancies of imagers in Lydar is short. Just before Quaeryt departs, Bhayar's youngest sister passes a letter to the scholar-imager, a letter that could well embroil Quaeryt in the welter of court politics he had hoped to leave behind. On top of that, on his voyage and journey to Tilbor he must face pirates, storms, poisonings, attempted murder, as well as discovering the fact that he is not quite who he thought he was. To make it all worse, the order of scholars to which he belongs is jeopardized in more ways than one.

©2011 L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Perhaps the best so far in this consistently fascinating series." ( Kirkus)

Better as an Audio book than as hard copy

I have tried reading L. E. Modesitt's Imager books in hard copy (well, on a Kindle), but found them interminable and boring. They just don't work for me there. BUT, with the excellent reading by William Dufris, they work quite well as audio books. The action still isn't fast and furious, and there are still way too many longish passages about the "Nameless", but somehow one can simply gloss over those in this format. I find all the Imager books to be excellent for reading while exercising.

Scholar is the start of a new story arch in the Imager series, not a continuation from the earlier books. As such, it's a good standalone, and is a pre-cursor to the previously released trilogy. An excellent place to start, and well worth the listen.

great book

I really enjoyed this book! The character development was excellent and the action was gripping.

Great book, interesting and needed for the books

Very good book if you like I.aged you will like this. the series is great, can not wait for more.

Makes me wish I was an Imager

What made the experience of listening to Scholar the most enjoyable?

There is nothing like a book that brings out moral questions without the reader/listener actually realizing it! I enjoyed the unexpected twists and challenges faced by our hero and in comparing myself to his action, find myself lacking and then being the richer for having listen to the narration. Go figure....i enjoyed learning something about myself by listening to a purely "escapism" book. I loved it!

Who was your favorite character and why?

The protaganist, who faces difficult choices, kills without hesitation but with regret is by far the character that I favor. He is the vigilante applauded by the masses. and.....he is a lover and a gentle, well-intentioned spirit. Ah, flawed and admirable.

Which scene was your favorite?

The section in the book where he is governor of a province and takes charge....loved it.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I have great affection for this book and its writer and eagerly await another edition.

Any additional comments?

The narrator is so skilled that you forget he is there and immerse yourself in the story.

Better than the first three.

Just have to say I enjoyed this section better than the first three. To me it seems the pace is faster, the action a little bit more engaging, and the story is tighter. I like the fact that we see how imaging is explored to come up with more tools. In the end though the author comes up with a very powerful magic system, but seems limited in his imagination on how to use it. I like Quaeryt much more, he is more reckless and daring than Rhenn. Quaeryt more roguish by far and little more free and easy. The narrator is still dry to me, but I have come to expect to hear his voice and now associate it with the Imager series.

VERY GOOD! WELL WRITTEN AND WELL NARRATED.

L E Modesitt Jr does it again. Although there are lots of descriptions of the people he meet and lots and action the plot was interesting throughout. William Dufris performed all the character well especially on the main character, Quaeryt. He comes out as a very intelligent young man full of resources. He is admired by many of the soldiers. I like the romance added into the plot which makes it more intriguing. This is a series worth following.

Good Listen

Good listen. a good series. Have listened to it before. waiting for new release from Modesitt

Fantastic Start of a series (chronologically)

Well crafted and showing a great depth of humankind. love the premise and the setting.

I name this book….

3 stars! Now the true fanboys at this point might be saying blasphemy but here is why anyway..

When I first read this novel I was expecting a follow up with the same characters from the first three Imager Portfolio books. This wasn't the case. Modesitt decided to continue with a new character named Quaeryt, a 30 year old scholar imager from Solis, from what I am assuming starts a new trilogy of books. Unfortunately, with my expectations Quaeyt failed to keep me interested going into the first few chapters of the book and I ended up giving up on this one for a time. Finally coming back to this series and giving it a fair chance I came to appreciate the Quaeyt's character more for being an intelligent, fair minded, talented, and humble person. Like the start of the first trilogy Quaeyt is still coming into his imaging powers so its like taking a step back from what we expected from our hero in book 3. Too bad for Quaeyt there is no school or teachers here and he must be self taught. So, I felt off and on about this book. At times the story dragged on and some of it seemed unnecessary. Like before I think Modesitt executes a fair cloak and dagger sort of character. My main issue, if you haven't guessed from the title, is this religion that Modesitt has created. If you are like me and had enough of it in the last book, well, get ready for an earful of sermons in this one. Perhaps Modesitt thinks much of this is clever but a lot comes off as agonizingly contrived to the point where the constant references of the namer loses a star for me. The narrator also loses a star because he didn't really move me into believing in the nameless. Personally I think a different narrator should have been picked for this new trilogy with this different set of characters. His voices are hard to tell apart and like before its quite obvious when our hero is injured (which occurs quite a lot in the story) by the distinct pausing and groaning tone the author puts to his voice. It just gets old.

Overall, I loved the characters. The story does get better as it goes on and the scholar comes into his new powers and talents. I think some events could have been edited out and less read about the religion. There is no doubt I will get the next book in this series but like before It may be some time until I get around to it.

Boring addition to a fine series

I enjoyed the first 3 books of the Imager Portfolio so I eagerly picked up the 4th. Unfortunately, this is a weak story with way too many long sequences of boring material. I never grew attached to the main character and never became invested in the outcome. I stuck it out to the end and it did pick up a little, but not enough to give it more than 2 stars.

William Dufris narrates again and he does as well as could be expected with the material he had to work with. If a 5th book in the series is ever released I will certainly pause before picking it up.