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The Order War
The Order War
The Order War
Audiobook22 hours

The Order War

Written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Set after the events of The Magic Engineer (and prior to The Magic of Recluce), The Order War illuminates great figures and major events in the historic war between order and chaos that is the central focus of the saga of Recluce.

The deadly White Wizards of Fairhaven, wielding the forces of chaos, have completed their great highway through the Westhorns and now threatened the ancient matriarchy of Sarronnyn, the last bastion of order in Candar. The ruler of Sarronnyn appeals to the Black order wizards of Recluce for help.

Justen-a young Black Engineer in the city of Nylan-joins the relief force. Despite their success in destroying more than half the White armies, Sarronnyn falls to the White Wizards, and Justen is chased into the most inhospitable desert in Candar. These trials are but the beginning, for the White Wizards have all Candar in their grasp. Justen must fight both Recluce and Fairhaven, as well as the highest powers of order and the forbidden technology to harness chaos itself in his efforts to halt the conquest of the chaos wizards.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 9, 2013
ISBN9781452686806
The Order War
Author

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce, Corean Chronicles, and the Imager Portfolio. His science fiction includes Adiamante, the Ecolitan novels, the Forever Hero Trilogy, and Archform: Beauty. Besides a writer, Modesitt has been a U.S. Navy pilot, a director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer. He lives in Cedar City, Utah.

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Reviews for The Order War

Rating: 3.7521738539130434 out of 5 stars
4/5

230 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the earlier and better Recluce novels. The whole order vs. chaos thing instead of good vs. evil, is well done and the world is well developed. At this point in the series, this is still original and interesting.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Order War is one that I always forget that I do kinda like. Justen is totally a forgettable main character - although he's a great secondary character in later books - but the adventure theme is great, and the working-out of consequences from The Magic Engineer as well as foreshadowing the "modern" books is really interesting. It's not the greatest, but it's pretty solid (and it's also where Modesitt's style starts to settle down a little and get more readable.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
     Good, but the first volume is the best.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is the 4th book in published order, the way Modesitt likes people to read this series. Chronologically, it is very directly linked to the first book & answers a LOT of questions, even though it happens about 200 years earlier. The hero of the "Magic of Recluse" (2d book) is Lerris & he meets a Gray wizard named Justen. This book tells us just who Justin is & a lot about what Lerris saw.One of the neatest things that Modesitt does is garble history slightly in the first book. It is quite recognizable in the 4th, but now we can see how the story & names were changed over 2 centuries. It adds a dash of realism into the fantasy.We also learn a lot more about the Great Forest which is nice to know for several other novels in the series & imperative for the last of the series, chronologically.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I like Modesitt. I hooked into this series with the Magic Engineer, which my brother, an engineer, had laying around. The abstraction on which the fantasy series is based is accessable to my tastes.This fantasy world has magic. The magic system is based on the idea of order and chaos. Gender roles are reversed, with female being dominant in the culture, and male being subordinate. Modesitt also does other reverses, such as the color black being associated with good, and white with evil. At times the culture reversals Modesitt does are thought provoking and entertaining.The main characters tend to eventually have a moment of wisdom, where they realize that their fate is impacted by the forces of chaos and destruction. This particular book carried that on, with the actions of the main characters viewable as side effects of the natural magical flows of that world. I found the forest of the druids to be ungripping, and the whole druid part and romance leaving me unaffected. Something seemed off there. The druid forest developed the idea of absolute "justice" and 'grey magic" and balance. However, the druid land and the druid people seemed to not match the grey idea vividly to me. I thought he could have better pulled it into the rest of the plot, showing more how the mechanism of order/chaos balance is like the absolute justice of the forest. The forest 'magic' just seemed unintegrated, though I knew the druid forest trial was the pivot of the book. The trial was similar to Shea activating the Sword of Truth in the Sword of Shannara.Once Modesitt got back to his usual mode, the book rolled along nicely. An example of the abstraction in the book is the depiction of a radioactive element through the order/chaos viewpoint of the main character, which was interesting.Modesitt tends to add in occasional descriptions of random unplot-related character actions, which lends a sense of realism to the character scenes. He takes the time to occasionally describe the actions of a random character in the book as observed by a main character, which also adds to the involved realism. His books are deeply compassionate.The final scene in this book was a whopper as well. It didn't flow as well as other of Modesitt's books, which is why, along with the druid part, I only gave it four stars. Maybe I need reminding too much, but I kept looking for a marker in the flow of action all through the final climax to pull it more into the ideas of "grey magic" and balance as done in the forest. Maybe I'd drunk too much. It was vividly shown.I did get the tears rolling at the death of a side character in the climax. Modesitt can grip the emotions. I read the book through quick.Modesitt is good reading, wish I had more on hand tonight.