This is the second book in Modesitt’s long-running Recluce series; I
picked it up the other night when I was tired and felt like reading
something pleasant and familiar.

Young Creslin has a problem. He’s a young man of position, the son of
the Commander of the Fortress of Westwind, a fortress established near
the peaks of the Westhorns which controls all trade through the
mountains. As such, he’s the eldest son of a head of state.
Unfortunately for Creslin, Westwind is one of the countries of the
Legend, which are ruled and run by women. His sister will inherit
the command of Westwind; and he himself will be married into the family
of some other eastern ruler for the usual diplomatic reasons.

Creslin doesn’t much fancy being a pawn, and one can hardly blame him;
there are many who dislike Westwind, and Westwind’s control of trade, and
anywhere outside of Westwind itself there are those who will attempt to
use him to get at his mother, the Commander of Westwind–and chief among
them are the white wizards of Fairhaven, who are busily conquering the
eastern half of the continent.

But there’s more to Creslin than meets the eye. Trained by the
armsmaster of Westwind, he’s a demon swordsman–and though he doesn’t
know it yet, he’s a budding order-master with a knack for controlling the
weather. His enemies don’t know it yet, but they’ll find out.

One of the peculiar aspects of the Recluce series is that it’s written
backwards. In the first book, The Magic of Recluce, we meet a
young lad named Lerris, born when Recluce is at its height. In this book
we travel back some centuries to the founding of Recluce, a nation born
out of the ashes of Westwind and out of Creslin’s determination to control
his own destiny. Subsequent books fill in the middle of the story; and
then Modesitt goes back even further, and the process repeats.

I don’t intend to re-read the whole series at this point, but I might
very well re-read one or two of the other books.