Showing results by author "L.E. Modesitt Jr." in All Categories

As the Alector Colonel of Myrmidons, Dainyl is the fourth highest ranking military officer of the Duarchy. Alectors are a race apart from the normal inhabitants of Corus, from another world. But there is a rebellion brewing against them.

Young Lerris yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. In Recluce, this means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses dangergeld. Lerris will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked, and he must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.

Secca, a young sorceress, is thrust into a position of power and responsibility when the legendary Sorceress-Protector of Defalk dies unexpectedly before Secca's training as a master magic wielder is anywhere near complete.

Kharl is the best cooper in Brysta, and his life has been as snug and regular as his barrels. But in the course of just a few days, it's all staved in. When a young blackstaffer from Recluce is mysteriously murdered in his cooperage, Kharl is summarily jailed. Then, in a shocking turnaround at the trial, his innocent consort is blamed for the killing and quickly executed. Kharl ends up destitute and on the run, but he does take the slain woman's black staff and the book "The Basis of Order", which explains the principles of its power.

The deadly White Wizards of Fairhaven, wielding the forces of chaos, have completed their great highway through the Westhorns and now threatened the ancient matriarchy of Sarronnyn, the last bastion of order in Candar. The ruler of Sarronnyn appeals to the Black order wizards of Recluce for help. Justen - a young Black Engineer in the city of Nylan - joins the relief force.

Alastar has settled into his role as the Maitre of the Collegium. Now married with a daughter, he would like nothing better than to focus his efforts on improving Imager Isle and making it more self-sufficient. However, the rise in fortune of the merchant classes in Solidar over the years does not sit well with the High Holders, who see the erosion of their long-enjoyed privileges. Bad harvests and worse weather spark acts of violence and murder.

Thousands of years in the future, Earth is a desolate ruin. The first human ship to return in millennia discovers an abandoned wasteland inhabited by only a few degenerate or mutated human outcasts. But among them is a boy of immense native intelligence and determination who grows up to become the force behind a plan to make Earth flower again.

Six years have passed since the failed uprising of the High Holders, and the man behind the conspiracy is where the rex and Maitre Alastar can keep an eye on him. Charyn has come of age and desperately wants to learn more so that he can become an effective rex after his father - but he's kept at a distance by the rex. So Charyn sets out to educate himself - circumspectly. When Jarolian privateers disrupt Solidar's shipping, someone attempts to kill Charyn's younger brother as an act of protest.

Solidar is in chaos. Charyn, the young and untested ruler of Solidar, has survived assassination, and he struggles to gain control of a realm in the grip of social upheaval, war, and rioting. Solidar cannot be allowed to slide into social and political turmoil that will leave the High Holders with their ancient power and privilege, and the common people with nothing. But the stakes are even higher than he realizes.

The world Corus has been redesigned to become the new home of a superior race from a distant world whose very life depends on drawing sustenance from the biological life force of a planet. Meanwhile their plans are supervised by a staff of Alectors who in effect rule the world. The Alectors alone have access to the huge flying pteridons they have bred, and the superior weapons that underpin their psychic talents.

Secca, foster daughter of the Soprano Sorceress and now her successor as sorceress-protector of Defalk, must deal carefully with her willful master and wield her power to save his kingdom from the armies, fleets, and master sorcerers of the maitre of Sturinn.

Rahl was a young apprentice on the island of Recluce who was sent to the mages' training school for testing, then banished to Hamor. His education now continues under dangerous circumstances. In Hamor, his powers have increased but so has the amount of trouble he attracts. The whole society of Hamor is a new culture for L. E. Modesitt, Jr., to explore, one in which magic is a monopoly of the state. Rahl is a mage now, powerful and still just as dangerous to himself and to others.

Across the Galactic Empire, from planet to planet, the lone Immortal fights. He has a plan, and he has all the time he needs. Gerswin, the Forever Hero, is determined to be the salvation of distant Earth and of humanity. In The Silent Warrior, Gerswin, now out among the worlds of the Empire, pursues his idealistic quest for supplies for Earth through a secret, bold economic war, undermining the very foundations of the Empire.

A bloody coup has made Mykella, the Lord-Protector's daughter, ruler of her land, but it has also left her and her two sisters bereft of family and uncertain of their friends. Worse, their country is almost destitute, and there are rumblings of war along the borders.

Steffan Dekkard is an isolate, one of the small percentage of people who are immune to the projections of empaths. As an isolate, he has been trained as a security specialist, and he and his security partner Avraal Ysella, a highly trained empath, are employed by Axel Obreduur, a senior Craft Minister and the de facto political strategist of his party. When a respected Landor Councilor dies of “heart failure” at a social event, because of his political friendship with Obreduur, Dekkard and Ysella find that not only is their employer a target, but so are they.

Lerris has settled into being a woodworker and building a life with Krystal. But this newfound peace is endangered when both Candar and Recluce come under the threat of invasion from the Empire of Hamor. Despite the imminent possibility of destruction, the lands of Candar will not unite and Recluce will not heed the peril. Lerris is faced with the challenge of becoming the greatest wizard of all time - or seeing his whole world destroyed.

The civilization of the Alectors - which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to produce sustaining life force for their vampiric civilization - must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move.

Four centuries in the future, the world is rich—nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody—but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people: a singing teacher, a news researcher, a police investigator, a politician, and a ruthless businessman.

For over 1,000 years, Order and Chaos have molded the island of Recluce. The Saga of Recluce chronicles the history of this world through 18 books, L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s longest and best-selling fantasy series. Recluce Tales: Stories from the World of Recluce collects 17 new short stories and four popular reprints spanning the thousand-year history of Recluce.

The White Order is the story of Cerryl, a boy orphaned when the powerful white mages killed his father to protect their control of the world's magic. Cerryl, raised by his aunt and uncle, is a curious boy, attracted to mirrors and books, though he is unable to read. When he is old enough, Cerryl is apprenticed to the local miller. The miller's daughter teaches Cerryl to read his father's books, and it seems that the talent for magic has been passed from father to son.