Natural Ordermage, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr

Natural Ordermage
L. E. Modesitt, Jr
Tor: 2007


After fourteen Recluse novels a fair criticism that can be leveled at Modesitt is that he repeats himself. There is a certain amount of formula to his novel length fiction. A young man, apprenticed to some trade, finds out that he has some sort of talent with Order Magic (it is almost always Order), is brought to the rulers of his land, and ends up exiled to another land. Sound familiar? In this case the young man in question is named Rahl. He is an apprentice scrivener (a scribe, he copies books by hand because printing has not caught on yet) and while he knows he has some Order skills, he does not think he has many. He uses his talents to seduce a woman and this gets him in trouble and brought to the attention of the magisters of Recluse at Land’s End. They send him to Nylan where Rahl is told that he is a Natural Ordermage. Meaning he is skilled with Order Magic but he feels his way through the magic, rather than being able to learn through books or lecture.

The twist here is that unlike, say, Lerris, Rahl believes that nothing is ever his fault and he is angry that nobody explains things to him even though he doesn’t understand when people try to explain. So, basically, he’s something of a typical teenager, though I picture Rahl as being somewhat older than that. What this accomplishes is that Rahl is moderately unlikeable from the start because the reader (or just me) wants him to just take responsibility and he doesn’t.

He is sent to Hamor to work as a clerk in a trading company for a year (or a season, I can’t remember which) and then he is on his own and will be welcome back in Recluse whenever he is able to demonstrate control of his Order talent. He quickly discovers that the leading factor at the Nylan Mercantile Exchange is dishonest and cheating and while he does not act against the factor he is attacked and wakes up a season later with no memory and on a work gang.

Having the novel set in Hamor is nice change of pace because Hamor has always been the Evil Empire of the series and not at all understood. This gives the reader a chance to see and learn something new about this world of Modesitt’s. I understand that Modesitt wanted or needed to get Rahl from simply being a clerk with limited understanding of his talent to eventually work for Hamor in their Mage-Guards. The next novel is called, after all, The Mage-Guard of Hamor. That’s fine. But was it absolutely necessary to use the memory loss / work gang plot device again? Modesitt did this in either The Magic of Recluse or The Towers of the Sunset. I’m almost positive it was in The Towers of the Sunset and while it worked at that time, now it feels like a complete rehash. Basically Modesitt opens Natural Ordermage with a dash of The Magic of Recluse and follows it with a plot device of The Towers of the Sunset and it becomes frustrating that the author is cribbing wholesale from his earlier novels. The two freshest things Modesitt has done in the entire series was to have a couple of novels told from the perspective of a Chaos Mage (who is later revealed to be a Grey Mage and not strictly white) and to have the guy from The Wellspring of Chaos to be an adult and not be an immature young man. Sometimes I wished Rahl would get hit with a Chaos bolt when he wasn’t paying attention.

From reading over the last four paragraphs I can see how one get the perspective that I didn’t like Natural Ordermage and that I would think it is not worth the time. Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed Natural Ordermage quite a bit. Yes, Modesitt repeats himself (and this has nothing to do with there being a limited number of basic plots, Modesitt uses the same techniques from book to book and they feel like the same novel. Pawn of Prophecy from David Eddings may use the same basic plotline as other novels, but we can tell that it was Eddings and not Modesitt who told that story). See, I’m doing it again. I read The Towers of the Sunset years and years ago and loved it and have since enjoyed the other Recluse novels. If you read too many of them back to back they will start to all run together, but give a year or so in between Recluse novels and what you are left with is an enjoyable yet familiar feeling novel where bad things happen to some good people and trying to do good can be as punishing as doing evil, but in the end the moral thing wins out at great cost.

Natural Ordermage is not very different from other Recluse novels, but if you liked the other ones you’ll like this one. If you haven’t read Recluse, start with either The Magic of Recluse or The Towers of the Sunset and work your way gradually to this one. Natural Ordermage is a decent Recluse novel, and it helps to fill in some gaps of understanding, but outside of setting foot on Hamor, this novel doesn’t do anything that the first thirteen didn’t do first.

Quick Takes: Lucius Shepard, Roy Morris Jr, Elaine Cunningham

The Golden, by Lucius Shepard: I find it very interesting to see what various authors do with well worn story ideas. Here Lucius Shepard takes on the "Vampire Novel", but Shepard does it in the form of a 19th Century novel with some of the form and restraint found in that era. Set in 186-, The Golden is something of a mystery. We are introduced to Michael Beheim, once a Chief of Detectives in Paris, now a vampire, a member of The Family. The Family has a breeding program which leads to a mortal having such perfect, exquisite blood that the individual is called The Golden. There is a Decanting Ceremony for the clans. Before the Decanting can take place, however, The Golden is murdered and drained of her blood. Beheim is chosen by the Patriarch to investigate the murder. He has three days, otherwise there will be serious repercussions and he must investigate other vampires who will not take kindly to this intrusion. The Golden is a mystery, a romance, a vampire novel, and a well told tale. Shepard seldom disappoints with his fiction and while there is a bit of rigidity in the prose (fitting the style and setting, but rigidity all the same), The Golden is an excellent work of fiction and another example of what else can be done within the vampire subgenre. The Golden is nothing like the contemporary vampire fiction being published today, or even like Stephen King or Richard Matheson's take. If anything, it harks closer to George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream, but in an entirely different setting. The bottom line is that The Golden is worth the read, as is most of what is published by Golden Gryphon.



Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876, by Roy Morris, Jr: Remember the George Bush / Al Gore Election of 2000 with all the voter fraud, the contested state of Florida, accusations, and overall mess the election was? It's happened before. Same states, different players, potentially worse fraud. Remember, this is not long after the Civil War and the Southern states are only just being admitted back into the Union and the Republicans (the forerunners of the modern Democratic party) have had control for some time now. The Democrats are itching to gain control of their own Southern states and of the Presidency. Both Hayes and Tilden are nobody’s first choice for the nominees, but that's the way it goes. Roy Morris, Jr, takes us through the nominations and how these two men took center stage in the 1876 election. This is probably the largest issue I have with Fraud of the Century. After the introduction where Morris compares the 2000 election to the 1876 election and shows how they were similar Morris takes a step back and spends time introducing the players and their political worlds. It's important, I know, to understand Hayes and Tilden, but it's dry. Very dry. By the time we hit the real Presidential Intrigue, vote theft, disenfranchising, electoral manipulation, and all the other illegality of the election it is difficult to really maintain interest. Morris tells the whole thing in a very dry tone that runs through even the darkest dishonesty on the whole thing. Great subject and puts a historical perspective on 2000, and Morris does speculate on what might have been different with Tilden at the helm (very little), but overall the 250 page book is a bit of a let down due to the dry prose of the narrative.



Dark Journey, by Elaine Cunningham: With Dark Journey we hit the midpoint in the 19 volume New Jedi Order series dealing with the invasion of the galaxy by the Vong. The Vong has hit Coruscant and the evacuation has begun. Anakin Solo is dead, Jacen is captured, and Jaina is on the run. This is a bleak time for the New Republic...and I think the only thing that Cunningham really accomplished here was pointing the characters in the right direction for the second half of the NJO. Underwhelming to say the least. The writing is blah, the story does not move at nearly as quick a pace as previous NJO efforts, and honestly, I can't say that enough happened here to warrant an entire book.