I’m in the middle of The Ethos Effect, and I was wondering if I was the only Modesitt fan here. His books are all fantasy and science fiction, but more fundamentally, they’re about politics, and how an individual’s actions are shaped by the underlying values of their society.
I’ve read Of Tangible Ghosts, which I very much enjoyed. There is at least one sequel which i have not yet taken the opportunity to seek out.
On the strength of that book. I read the first Recluce book, and thought, meh. But, I thought, there’s a whole bunch more…I guess he must have got better in a hurry. So, I read the 2nd one, and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Notwithstanding finding the sequel(s) referred to above, I don’t have much of an urge to read more of his work at this point…
He also has the Soprano Sorceress series. I read the first one, was moderately intrigued, but never read any of the subsequent ones.
I have thought to try him for years and finally read the first Recluse. It was OK, but did not inspire me to read more of him. Perhaps I will try something else of his sometime in the future.
How about some recommendations? What are his best books?
His early Recluce stuff is pretty slow. The series does pick up in the later books, though, and I personally wasn’t a fan of the Soprano Sorceress books, even though I liked the premise.
What would I suggest? Well, the later Recluce books, as I said. Also “The Parafaith War” (of which the book I’m reading now is a sequel), in which a low ranking military officer ends up having to stop the invasion of an aggressive religious empire, and “Archform: Beauty”, which is a detective story set in Denver 400 years from now.
I love the first Recluce book, it’s one of my very favorites. There’s a section of it, which I’d guess to be about 75 pages long (though I don’t have the book in front of me, so that’s a guess) that’s all about the main character essentially taking a break from adventuring and becoming a woodworker in a small town. It has long, detailed descriptions of his woodworking, and also is largely about his making connections and helping people in this small town. It’s a really unusual thing for a sword-and-sorcery type book, and it’s my favorite part. Sometimes I just reread this part of the book as a “short story” unto itself. The series also has a really interesting take on the concept of good and evil, and uses, instead, order and chaos, only it isn’t as clear cut as it first seems.
The second and third Recluce novels are good too, but slightly confusing, as each novel is about a different point in the history of this world, but not in order. So in the first book, you have the main character learning about the history of Recluce, and the founders Creslin and Megheara (sp?). In a later novel, you read the story of Creslin and Megheara.
On the other hand, I think the later Recluce books are not very good. At some point, they take a sudden turn into science fiction, which is one of my major pet peeves in a fantasy book. I’m a big fantasy fan, but not so of science fiction. I hate it when a perfectly good fantasy world is created, and then the author, for no apparent reason, decides that he has to give “depth” to the world by explaining that it’s actually built on the ruins of a technological civilization, and suddenly go into the science fiction realm. Really ticks me off. Anyway, starting with the 6th book (I think) it goes into the history of the technological civilization that preceded the fantasy one. Crapfully crap.
I read the first two Soprano Sorceress books, which were ok, but nothing great. Tried to read the third one, but couldn’t do it. I’ve never read anything else of his, because I think most of his other books are science fiction.
To clarify, the 6th book (Fall of Angels I think it’s called) isn’t just science fiction, but incredibly bad science fiction - quite possibly one of the worst books I’ve ever had the misfortune to accidentally sear my brain with. The first 20 pages tells of a space battle, but it’s so laden with ridiculous and unexplained technobabble that it’s impossible to get a clear picture of what’s happening. I don’t know what happens after that because I stopped reading.
To continue discussion of the Soprano Sorceress series, I did find the concept interesting. Yes, music as magic has been done before, but not with quite the feel that it’s done here. And the utter disgust toward dancing (and percussion music as a corollary) on a bestiality-type-level is unique, I think.
That said, there were quite a few things that didn’t sit right with me. Once she discovers her power, she basically just steps right over the question of ethical usage completely and starts dominating people willy-nilly and generally running roughshod over this whole other world. Gave me, as a former Wiccan of the witchy type, the heebie-jeebies.
And finally, can I just say one word? Jimbob? JIMBOB!? What the hell kind of name is that for a fantasy character?
So, no fans of Of Tangible Ghosts, then?
Interesting…I too am literally halfway through The Ethos Effect as well. While I am enjoying the book so far I am not finding it especially great (I’d recommend Dan Simmons or Peter Hamilton way before this). That said it is a page turner which is good enough. I’ll be interested to follow this and see if any of his other books are considered more worthwhile.
I read the first couple of Recluce books, but one fateful evening, I got fed up with Modesitt’s continual and irritating use of pointless onomatopoeia.
Fsst.
Hsssh.
Flambangledoomarzzle.
Every. Other. Goddamn. Sentence.
I threw the book against the wall, doused it with lighter fluid, lit it and watched it hssssst, then peed on the ashes. Needless to say, I have not been back.
I did very much enjoy Of Tangible Ghosts, however.
Well, I’m not so much a fan, exactly, but an aquaintance. I stayed with him and his wife for a year, renting a bedroom in the basement. His wife, the model for the soprano sorceress, was my voice teacher. Lee is an interesting man and we had some fun conversations about his stories.
My favorite book, by far, is Of Tangible Ghosts, which is based not-so-loosely on real life people and events that happened in Plymouth, NH. I enjoyed the concept, but really got a kick out of the way he handled the characters and the story – having knowledge of some of the “real” events, people and locations.
My (somewhat fuzzy) memory of his explanation for the Recluse series was that it orginated at a sci-fi and fantasy conference during which there was some debate over the ridiculousness of fantasy novels. The objections centered around the economic impossibility of fielding thousands of knights in battle, because of the expense of arming a knight and feeding his horse, etc. Apparently Lee claimed that he could write a fantasy novel that was economically realistic, which is why the hero has to stop and find work, etc.
I’ve read a number of his books (heck, they were sitting right there on the bookshelf in the basement) but have not kept up with his more recent additions. Sci-fi and fantasy don’t do much for me these days, although I was a big fan in my younger days.
rivulus
p.s. He asked me once if I minded being the model for a character (a witch, apparently) in one of his books. Not sure if my character made the cut, though.
I’ve read quite a bit of Modesitt. The Recluce series is pretty inconsistant; it’s got some good and some bad. It’s been a while since I read them, but IIRC, my favorite at the time was The Magic Engineer. I have to see if I can get my hand on it again.
The Ecolitan series wasn’t bad. I liked the Nathaniel books better than the Jimjoy books. The Ecolitan Enigma was the first book I read in that series–when I read the Amazon reviews of it, I found it amusing that more than one person said it should not be the first read of the series. 
I read book one of the Soprano Sorceress. Hated it.
I’ve also read the stand-alone (AFAIK) novel Octagonal Raven and quite liked it.
I also like most of the Recluce books. True they did get a bit off when he went back to the “Fall of Angels” time period…but even then I like the…I guess realism…of the world, and the difficulties faced. Even down to the sanitary facilities.
I like “Timegod” as well. It was an amusing story, although the pre-story “Timediver’s Dawn” wasn’t very good at all.