This, the sixth in Modesitt’s Corean Chronicles series and the climax of the series’ second three-book sequence, was seriously disappointing, and the more so as I liked the fourth and fifth books better than the first three.

I find that I can’t explain my disappointment without spoilers; if you want to know why I disliked it, click on through.

The first three volumes were set in a politically fragmented milieu, centuries after some kind of catastrophe that destroyed a high civilization, the Duarchy. Our hero, Alucius, is a “herder”, as in sheepherder; but what he herds are “nightsheep”, black sheep-like creatures that eat siliconoid plants and produce a wool that, properly treated, produces a silk-like fabric that will stop bullets. The trick is, herding nightsheep requires “Talent”, the magic power some folks in Corus are heir to. Talent frightens most residents of Corus, and those who have it keep quiet about it. The herder families also often have dark gray hair, which is rare in the general population.

As Alucius explores the various lands that make up Corus, we begin to get an inkling of what the Duarchy was all about, and that it was largely based on the use of Talent. We also learn something about the “Ancients”, the original residents of Corus, who had something to do with destroying the Duarchy. And we learn that representatives of the Duarchy are trying to come back to Corus from another world, and that Corus will be destroyed if they aren’t stopped. How Alucius deals with this threat is the subject matter of the third book in the series.

Modesitt likes to start the history of his worlds at the end, and the works backwards. The second set of three, therefore, covers the final years of the Duarchy through the eyes of two particular characters, both soldiers. Dainyl is an “alector”, a member of the ruling elite. Alectors are few in number, white of skin, and have purplish dark hair. Not native to Corus, they came there from another planet, Ifryn, to which their life force remains linked. The race of Alectors has produced a high and cultured civilization; but their civilization consumes the life force any world on which they live. As each world is consumed, they plant a colony on another and prepare it to receive their best and brightest. Corus is one of these colony worlds, one of two that are currently in preparation. Dainyl begins the story as an officer in the Myrmidons, a force of alectors dedicated to keeping order on Corus. The Myrmidons ride flying Talent-beasts called pteridons, and use immensely powerful beam weapons called skylances.

The second character is Mykel, a lander, a member of the underclass. Landers do most of the work, and are not generally Talented; and those who develop Talent are usually killed as soon as they are detected. Landers are not alectors, but they are not native to Corus, either; they were bred in some way by the first alectors to come to Corus to provide the base population. Mykel is a captain in the Cadmian rifles, a lander cavalry force under the command of the Marshal of Myrmidons; he also has considerable Talent.

The fourth, fifth and sixth books follow Dainyl and Mykel in alternate chapters, as they learn more about their world, deal with various conflicts, and generally learn how to use their respective Talents. In addition, each has numerous concepts with the Ancients, who find them interesting for some reason. It begins to appear as though Dainyl and Mykel are being groomed for a role in the eventual downfall of the Duarchy.

So what happens? The sixth book comes out, and I’m ready for some neat stuff. Instead, I get a long book in which Mykel does a great deal of not-very-interesting to-ing and fro-ing that advances neither the plot nor his character, while Dainyl grows enormously, advances to the rank of High Alector of Justice, takes great measures to prevent alectors from Ifryn, fleeing that worlds final collapse, from ruining Corus, takes great measures to keep his fellow High Alectors from ruining Corus, and generally seems to be destined for great things.

And then, without any help from our two heros, in the most egregious deus ex machina I’ve encountered in ages, the Ancients cause the demise of virtually all of the alectors on Corus, except for a very few who manage to break their life force link to Ifryn and link directly to Corus, Dainyl being one of them.

Dainyl, no longer an alector, now has the complexion and dark gray hair of a herder, which I’d seen coming for most of the book. The Ancients more or less order him to go to the region around the town of Iron Stem, there to herd nightsheep; and they give him the secret of processing nightsheep wool. Mykel, equally at the Ancients’ behest, takes the remains of his battalion to Tempre, where lives the woman he loves. With the Alectors gone there is no government to speak of, and Mykel sets himself up as “Protector” of Tempre and marries his lady.

There are some weasel-words about how Dainyl and Mykel have been maneuvered into these positions by the Ancients, so that their descendants can preserve Corus at a later time (that is, the time of the first three books); but the ending dovetails too nicely with the setup of the first three books, and takes on the aspect (and raises up the attribute) of a plot contrivance.*

And there you have it. Mykel’s story could have been omitted completely without harming the book in any way, and Dainyl’s story, interesting though it was, is rendered nearly pointless by the deus ex machina ending. Humph. Double-humph.

* As the book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction once said, in homage to Roger Zelazny.