The Magic of Recluce cover art

The Magic of Recluce

Saga of Recluce, Book 1

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The Magic of Recluce

By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
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About this listen

Young Lerris is dissatisfied with his life and trade, and yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. But in Recluce a change in circumstances means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or braving the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond Recluce, with the aim of learning how the world works and what his place in it might be. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses the dangergeld.

When Lerris is sent into intensive training for his quest, it soon becomes clear that he has a natural talent for magic. And he will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked. Though it goes against all of his instincts, Lerris must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.

©1992 L. E. Modesitt (P)2013 Tantor Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Military Magic Fiction Magic Users

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All stars
Most relevant  
Read this book years ago and remember enjoying it at the time. Easy to read and an engaging story.

Since then I’ve read a lot more in the fantasy / world building genre and still enjoyed coming back to this book

A very flawed main character and a large number of fantasy tropes still provides a great story to get into.

Great story, worth a listen

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I got a lot more out of the second half of the story. The animal sounds were really off putting.

Slowly builds up

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I have loved this story for years - it's a novel take on the standard quest/coming of age high fantasy trope,with a very different magical structure - and thought that Kirby Heyborne did an excellent job of narrating it.

Unfortunately, listening to, rather than reading the story I realised that I have outgrown it slightly. Lerris is arrogant, immature, and his attitude towards women is a horrible mix of boob-obsessed adolescent male and smugly patriarchal elder. His internal monologue veers between self-pity and taking the weight of the world upon himself. The supporting characters are well done, though, with Justen and Krista being favourites of mine.

L.E Modesitt Jr has a horrible habit of referring to people as 'the redhead', 'the grey wizard', etc., which grated. There's also places where a good editor may have made the prose less clunkily ponderous and repetitive. He also uses sound effects...these were okay if weird to read, but poor Kirby Heyborne got stuck impersonating horses, birds, creaky floorboards, swords clashing and more.

All that aside, its still an entertaining story with flashes of excellence, you just need to make allowances for an immature, self-obsessed hero, a LOT of woodwork, and some truly odd authorial quirks.

Excellent narrator

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I mean literally nothing but lots of woodwork. It is becoming more of a chore now

I’m over 6 hours in and nothing has happened!

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Lovely writing, good story but not very action based. Strong Canadian accent will make hard to hear at first.

Immerse yourself in this world

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The book was exceptionally realistic in world building. The characters were realistically limited, no omnipotent evil guys to fight here. Liked the book more than expected, will continue the series.
The book apparently contained descriptions of sound here and there: those were challenging to the narrator, but this did not subtract from enjoyment too much.

Good world building

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very entertaining from start to finish, I loved all the character's and fell in love with the ladies.

unputadownable

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I was really enjoying the story but the constant vocal sound effects eventually got the better of
me and I had to stop listening. A real shame

Narrator stopped me finishing

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Not a bad storyline and it’s your typical fantasy but the main character could do with a little more depth.

One niggle with the story is that you start to wonder how many different things the guy is going to find boring

Never met a main character who gets ‘bored’ so often

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Would you listen to The Magic of Recluce again? Why?

No, because once listened to I cannot listen again as I know what's coming. Will be getting the rest of the series though

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Magic of Recluce?

The first sound effect!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Well read - All the sound effects

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

??

Any additional comments?

The plot is standard fair but well written with the main character and plot good enough to keep me listening at every available opportunity. The only annoying part of the book is the sound effects, bad enough to read but cringe worthy to listen to the poor narrator trying to reproduce them. Would have been better off without them & letting the reader use their imagination.

Good read but horrible sound affects!

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