This is the latest in Modesitt’s Recluce series, and though the pattern is well-worn it’s an interesting outing nevertheless. As so many times before, a young mage, not fully in control of his skills, is ejected from Recluce to make his way in the world. As such, he’s following in the footsteps of Dorrin, Justen, and Lerris, and possibly others I’m forgetting. The tale is set in the time between the founding of the city of Nylan, in Dorrin’s day, and that of Justen. It’s an interesting period of time, when the balance of power in Recluce is shifting from the Council, founded by Creslin, to the Brotherhood which is emerging in the engineers’ city of Nylan.

The book differs from its predecessors in some interesting ways. First, the typical hero in this series is a good-hearted, generally virtuous, though callow, youth. While not understanding everything he should, he usually tries his best, and works for the greater good. Rahl, by contrast, is generally out for himself. He uses his order-skills to charm girls to their detriment, he lies to his parents when he can get away with it, and is hardworking and obedient mostly because it’s the easiest way to get what he wants. On top of that, his order skills are of a sort that the training techniques that have been developed on Recluce don’t work for him, and yet he has to be trained if he’s not to be a loose cannon. Away from Recluce he goes! (There’s some skullduggery involved, to, though it’s not entirely clear why.)

Next, instead of being sent to Candar, like Dorrin, Justen, and Lerris, Rahl is sent off to the Empire of Hamor, a milieu we’ve seen almost nothing of in the series to date. The Empire is devoted to the judicious use of power—if society is stable and prosperous, so is the throne. Order, in the social sense, is maintained by the mage-guards, a police-force of order and chaos mages who work solely for the empire. Any Hamorian citizen who shows any degree of mage skills is immediately co-opted into the guard—or put to hard labor. In fact, any Hamorian citizen who steps out of line is likely to be sentenced to hard labor. Hamor is a pragmatic, strict, and not very forgiving place.

So there’s a lot about this book to like, despite the familiar premise, and I’m quite curious to read the the forthcoming sequel. (In The Magic of Recluce, Lerris is told that the current Emperor of Hamor is the descendant of a Reclucan exile; one has to wonder if Rahl is him.) But it isn’t perfect. In particular, no sooner does Rahl end up in Hamor than he turns into a stock Modesitt hero. He’s given a job at a trading firm operated by Recluce, and almost immediately realizes that his superiors have their hands seriously in the till. The first thing I’d have expected that Rahl to do is figure out how to get in on the deal, but our hero never even considers it. In part, this can be put down to growth; and in part it can be put down to Rahl’s well-honed survival instinct; but neither of these go quite far enough to explain the change in his character. (Later events, on the other hand, do; I’ve no quarrel with where he ends up, only with how rapidly he gets there.)

Anyway, I enjoyed it.