The Magic of Recluce

Saga of Recluce, Book 1

By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Young Lerris is dissatisfied with his life and trade, and yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. But in Recluce a change in circumstances means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or braving the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce, with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses the dangergeld.

When Lerris is sent into intensive training for his quest, it soon becomes clear that he has a natural talent for magic. And he will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked. Though it goes against all of his instincts, Lerris must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.

©1992 L. E. Modesitt (P)2013 Tantor

Thoroughly enjoyable.

I couldn't put it down. It was riviting. I would recomend this book as a good listen.

Great opener for a new series.

Liked the book. Didn't spend too much time with unnecessary prose as many books these days seem to do. I've read a few of the other books that can be read it of order and i they are just as good. Recommended for an easy and entertaining listen.

"click clack clickty clack" goes the keys

What did you like best about The Magic of Recluce? What did you like least?

I enjoyed the chapters the most where Lerris worked as a craft master. He felt like a well rounded character that had well thought out plans, desires, and life. I least liked the end and the beginning of the book. They were relatively short in comparison to the middle and just sort of tumbled along to a pre planned destination.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

two things: first cut a majority of the first couple chapters out. "I was deported because I was bored" is a bit silly of a premise. In fact the fake back story that Lerris makes up was actually more intriguing than his real origin story. The second thing I would change would be the lack of information imparted to the reader. Its a bit cliched but its a good point when there is someone who knows nothing of anything about the world. It allows the writer to impart information to the reader that allows them to learn without breaking the scene. This happened the most with instances concerning Recluse as a nation. Lerris is supposed to have been raised in ignorance of his standing as the son of a high magister yet as soon as it is mentioned, he was like "huh yeah that figures." What is a high magister? What do they do? How does inaction to help others as a nation impart upon the entire world to fear and hate that nation and anyone who carries a black staff? These issues carry on into action scenes as well, though I'm not sure if the author was trying to be novel. We get the one thing books throughout the ages have been missing...sound effects! These lovely Onomatopoeias allow us to jump from nothing to the end of a sequence learning little to nothing along the way. Overall this is the way in which a majority of the books info was related to the reader and in fact the beginning Lerris is a good representation for how I felt at times. Why is he in love? Because he's in love? How did he live for 18 years or so and then reading a book gives him magic. What is "order?" order is not chaos, it is creation. Yeah great but what does that entail because as far as I can tell burning people is not very creative.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Lerris became a craft master

Was The Magic of Recluce worth the listening time?

For the most part I would say the book is decent and fine if you want to have something to kill time with. However, an experience that grabbed me by the ears and made me forsake all else to finish it? This book is not.

Any additional comments?

Pseudo 3rd person where we can get the character's thoughts but be completely blinded sided about other things..."she's a b@#CH...I think I love her"

good but slow start

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

On the whole it does set the scene well, although I was prepared for the slow pace as I had listened to other books by the same author. But the editor needed to have culled the word "boring" by at least 50%. The story does meander at times as well
The narrator could change his tones more

Good Book!

Great book, narrators animal sounds need some serious dubbing but he's good on the rest

Nice

Although the sound effects were annoying the story was more than adequate to carry me along! Witty and clever and a lot of fun.

A good experience overall

I originally read this book when I was in high school and found it just as enjoyable then. I liked the different magic system that L.E. Modesitt Jr. envisioned and worked out. The only thing that kept this from being a 5/5 performance was the very distracting sound effects the narrator produced. They could have been mitigated by good editing but when listening to this on my phone the effects were very loud and distracting. I came to dread them throughout the book.

All in all I enjoyed the experience and would recommend this as a good novel.

That was... *NOT* boring! Just Awesome!

So much snark and self-deprecation, Lerris is obtuse in many ways, though also quick to interpret and understand some things, yet remain oblivious and even ignorant because he refuses to see the pieces that need to be put together. I can totally relate.
Great characters and a great quest.

Heyborne's narration was excellent and definitely helped me to imagine each character as an individual when they spoke, not just as a straight-up reading of the book.

Devil's in the details

the focus on the mundane woodworking gave context to the larger forces at work in the world, it was a nice perspective to have around fantasy starting with Wizards and knights. The narrator was a bit monotone, and hearing whinnies and creaks spoken aloud was a tad strange. Overall an excellent adventure coming of age story for a young bored lad.

monotone lacking effort

could not get into it. it is almost as if I'm listening to tts