Heritage Of Cyador’ is the latest volume in L.E. Modesitt, Jr.‘s best selling ‘The Saga Of Recluce’. This now runs to eighteen volumes but they are generally separate stories covering different regions or time periods of the world imagined and most can be read individually or as pairs. It would be wise to read ‘Cyador’s Heirs’ before this one as it introduces our hero, Lerial, second son of Duke Kiedron of Cigoerne.

In that book, he became a soldier and is proficient enough to slaughter an entire battalion of opposition by himself, using his mastery of Order and Chaos. The energy Chaos is kept in line by Order and Lerial can separate the two, virtually on the sub-atomic level, it seems. Substantial damage ensues. That happens in the prologue, so I’m not giving much away. A while later, he is dispatched with a small force to help the neighbouring land of Afrit fight off an attack by the other neighbouring land of Heldya. As the battalion Lerial killed was from Afrit, he is not sure of a warm welcome there, even though he’s come to help. It is in Cigoerne’s interests to stop Heldya conquering Afrit for the same reason it was in France’s interest to stop Germany conquering Poland. They would be next.

Duke Atroyan rules Afrit, not well, but fortunately, his competent brother, Rhamuel, is in charge of the armed forces and that is the man with whom Lerial must deal with, at first. Following a small battle, there is a lull in the fighting and the story turns to more courtly proceedings, balls and dinners and the like. In the hands of another writer, this might have become dull but Modesitt manages to make the personalities intriguing and the conversations interesting. Then the Heldyans attack again and there are several other developments before this long book draws near its conclusion.

As I’ve mentioned before, Modesitt shows great respect for soldiers and responsible leaders and also speaks highly of decent artisans and farmers but he has a very un-American attitude to business people or Merchanters as they are called in this one. For some reason, possibly based in real life today, the author seems to think that ‘Merchanters’ are only interested in gold and care little about anything or anyone else. He makes them seem almost selfish; even greedy. Our hero Lerial gets quite incensed about the fact that Afrit, more wealthy than Cigoerne and with a greater population, has been allowed to fall into a highly fragile and vulnerable state because its weak ruler, Duke Atroyan, listens only to one vested interest: Merchanters! The concentration of wealth into the hands of a few who thereby seek to control the government and make it serve their interests is perhaps relevant to the real world today. I couldn’t possibly comment.

Uncle Geoff did a review on SFcrowsnest last month of ‘The Politics Of Big Fantasy’, an interesting idea for a book but it focused on ‘Star Wars’ (fair enough: republic versus empire is a political issue), ‘The Matrix’ and, rather weirdly, ‘The Avengers’ of Marvel Comics fame. The politics of the Avengers? It sounds like the subject of a dissertation by a particularly desperate sociology student. However, a sensible and interesting work could be made out of analysing the politics of Modesitt’s fantasy for politics, in the broader sense of how a society works, is often a rich theme in his work.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this is the best volume I’ve read so far by Modesitt and I’ve read quite a few. His prose is always lucid and he has the knack of creating likeable heroes and dastardly villains while still being perfectly realistic. He never really hooks you on the first page but, after about a hundred pages, you are beset by a strong urge to keep reading. I have some criticisms of his moral position at times with regard to ruthlessness and ends justifying means, but I’m not at all sure he’s wrong in a hard, cruel world, especially lately. You really do have to read ‘Cyador’s Heirs’ before tackling this sequel but it’s good and this one is terrific. Recommended.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/

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This one goes back in time a bit before the founding of Hamor, after Cyador's fall. A last remnant of Cyador society exists as a dukedom on the continent of Hamor, and one of its mage-wizards must defend a nearby duchy against another. This is very typical of a Recluse novel, its the second book about a mage/wizard with a somewhat unique spin on the usual powers who must fight a war against multiple chaos-wizards nearly single handed. While this is fairly well written, its its from the point of view of just one character. Unfortunately, the author uses the limited self- and situation knowledge of the character to good extent, which means the characters always seem to blunder from situation to situation, rather than doing so in any kind of informed way. This works for a while, then just seems to feel like the character is being dragged around by the story, not that the character is creating the story. The emphasis on limited self-knowledge also makes the characters still and two dimensional. ( )

The ending was not what I expected (in a good way). I thought at first this was going to be more than a 2 book hero story in the recluse series. Enjoyed it as always. ( )

The second part of the duology in the Recluce series. It gives us a conclusion to what our hero has trained for and learned in the first, and what his parents generation has been maneuvering for politically as well. It is a great way to put this mini history, as Modesitt likes to give us, of what has happened in his fantasy world. The 18th book I believe and if you like to see how these tales come together, this is one of the ones that works.

Provided you have read the first book. I am not sure how well they all stand alone, but this and its predecessor, Cyador's Heirs, work very well together. The first, in a country that has a couple of very heavy handed neighbors, has forced our hero to grow beyond his years, which we often find in a Recluce tale. Our hero seems far more equipped for the life of a soldier and a fighter, than men twice his age in a kingdom with ten times the military, but with wars on Recluce and Chaos and Order magic pairing off, hundreds and thousands can die in the course of a battle.

Knowing that, one should expect every army to prepare, and yet always, there are armies that do not. So our hero, a precious resource in such battles emerges as ever more important having the lacking skill of his allies. And of course, there is also the princess we first met in a prologue in book one.

By the Epilogue of book 2, this makes for a part of the series that is worth that reread. ( )