Book completed
Dec. 23rd, 2021 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeNatural Ordermage, by L.E. Modesitt. I read this years ago and enjoyed it, and I'd been thinking of it lately so I got a copy from the library, mine being packed in a box somewhere. This one's about a Recluce character named Rahl, a young man who is not just an "ordermage" as many from Recluce are, but a "natural ordermage" - one who can't really be trained using standard teaching methods. He has to figure things out for himself. Because he's too powerful yet too unpredictable, the leaders of Recluce send him away - not to the continent of Candar, as they usually do (and where most of the Recluce books are set) but to the continent of Hamor.
Reading it this time, I was surprised to discover that I'd totally forgotten the first 200 pages of the book and how obnoxious young Rahl is before he gets to Hamor. Hamor was interesting, but some of my memories of Hamor must come from the sequel book instead, for which I thought I had only one (fairly boring) memory of soldiers slogging through a forest. Unfortunately, our library doesn't have the sequel, so I guess I'll be going through the boxes!
The other thing about this book is the title. "Natural Ordermage" sounds very clunky to me, something that would only appeal to people who are really into Recluce. Now, however, with the work I've been doing to organize our understanding of ideas that are innately exciting, I can see why it would have appealed to the author. The concepts of "natural," "order," and "mage" each have emotional appeal... I guess it's stringing them together that takes away their emotional resonance and makes them sound rather dull. Somehow they lose their individual impact like that, at least for me.
Reading it this time, I was surprised to discover that I'd totally forgotten the first 200 pages of the book and how obnoxious young Rahl is before he gets to Hamor. Hamor was interesting, but some of my memories of Hamor must come from the sequel book instead, for which I thought I had only one (fairly boring) memory of soldiers slogging through a forest. Unfortunately, our library doesn't have the sequel, so I guess I'll be going through the boxes!
The other thing about this book is the title. "Natural Ordermage" sounds very clunky to me, something that would only appeal to people who are really into Recluce. Now, however, with the work I've been doing to organize our understanding of ideas that are innately exciting, I can see why it would have appealed to the author. The concepts of "natural," "order," and "mage" each have emotional appeal... I guess it's stringing them together that takes away their emotional resonance and makes them sound rather dull. Somehow they lose their individual impact like that, at least for me.