My relationship with Modesitt's "Recluce" series began several years ago with the first book, "The Magic of Recluce". It was a good read. Since then I have slogged my way through numerous sequels, prequels, spin-offs, or whatever else they might be called. None of them were read in order of publication or in order according to the stories' chronology, and I have no idea if this helped or hindered their readability. All of them seem to have a male engineer/mage/smith and a female warrior/mage/healer trying to build a civilization against all odds in a world that hates them for who they are. This book is no exception. It also follows the other stories' trend of recounting about five hundred pages of day-to-day life, followed by about one hundred pages of action ending the tale. You need to really enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of growing potatoes and building roads if you want to get through this book. That being said, Modesitt doesn't make it hard to read about such things. He writes excellent descriptions, and pays attention to detail in such a way that the world- though it is not the most exciting world- comes alive for the reader. You find yourself relating to the difficulties of finding enough wood to make charcoal for the forge, and really wishing that they could catch some better game- because ,damn it, you're just as tired of them eating rabbit every day as they are. If you've read one of the "Recluce" books- or at least read one of the five that I had read- then you pretty much know what's going to happen in this book. But, like me, you may find yourself enjoying it anyway.
If reading this book in publication order, this is the sixth book in the Recluse Saga. I've read these early books a few times, and in this re-read, I find that I like "Fall of Angels" the best. It fills in the back story of some of how the legendary (in Recluse) figures arrived on the world, and how their legends began. Nylan is the primary character - a man who finds this new world exerts new abilities and insights on him.The world already has a patriarchal and feudal population, and they view these newcomers as enemies to their culture. Women are subjugated, mostly pawns for politics, and brood mares for new generations. The Angels are matriarchal, believing that women would do a better job of running the world. It's a fight for survival for the Angels, with Nylan engineering weapons, buildings, furniture, most of the things these warrior-women need. But he is not comfortable with their endless expectations and manipulations. I found that this book ends rather abruptly, and I think there must be more to Nylan's story, since I vaguely remember him doing other things. This book was narrated by Kirby Heyborne; he is reading all the Recluse books as far as I can tell. He does a good job with the pacing of the story, and is pretty good at signifying different characters by manner of speaking and tones.
What do You think about Fall Of Angels (1997)?
If you've come this far it's obvious you like his style and aren't as concerned with pace as you are with character development and disappearing into another world completely removed from your own. That being said, I had a hard time getting into this one. Unlike the others in the series, this one had an element of sci-fi which I wasn't expecting, and frankly for me didn't work. This felt like a fantasy author trying something new and I feel he should stick with fantasy strictly. I had to force myself to trooper on through the beginning but at the mid way point I was hooked and loved it. My last complaint was that their wasn't much resolution in the end. I was invested in the characters and story and then climactic battle and poof, over. That was a bit disappointing. Overall, if your this far keep going its worth it overall. So trooper on and you won't be disappointed.
—Jesse
Tantor is releasing all the books on Audio so I am "re-reading" these books as they are released. This is my second, third, fifth, who knows how many times to read these books. This series is absolutely one of my favorites and deserves a high spot on everyone's book shelf. Fall of Angels and The Chaos Balance are a pairing within the series, they are books 6 and 7 in release chronological order and books 3 and 4 in date chronological order. This book details the arrival of the Angels to the Roof of the World and the beginning of "The Legend of Ryba" (aka The Legend).
—Kivutar
Fall of Angels is the only explicitly sci-fi book in the series (although, granted, the magic system may as well be sci-fi throughout, as rigorous as it is) and it's definitely more interesting for it. It sets up the female-dominated societies portrayed in later books as well as the background behind Westwind, which is critical later (earlier?) on.That said, I'm only mildly fond of it. The lasers and spaceships don't really take up enough of the story to differentiate it, and while it has lots of the crafting porn I so inexplicably enjoy, it's not really enough to make this better than a middling Recluce adventure.
—Jeremy Preacher
