Scepters was a decent end to the first trilogy of Corean books, closing off Alucius and Wendra's story, but while I liked the overall story, I also felt that this book had just too much going on. Modesitt had at least two books worth of plot points crammed into a little over 600 pages, and frankly it wore me out with Alucius jumping from one problem to another while the world crumbled down around him. I suppose this wouldn't have been as much of a problem if there had been a real feeling of impending danger, but Modesitt (generally) likes for his heroes to win and I just never felt that there was any chance that Alucius wasn't going to win in the end, so each individual crisis just didn't feel all that threatening and the conclusion foregone. Moreover, one of my favorite things about Modesitt's writing is the clever ways he has his protagonists resolve complicated problems and with Alucius rushing from problem to problem putting out fires, the solutions became increasingly draconian. The end result is a story that feels cramped, rushed, and under-developed as if the author wanted to be done with the characters and move on to something else. On the other hand, the story itself is still quite interesting so it's not as big a train wreck (in my opinion) as The Order War, it just shouldn't have all been crammed into one book.
This was a very good ending for the trilogy. It neatly wrapped up the story & answered most of the important questions, although it leaves enough hanging that a sense of mystery lingers & the trilogy could be extended. The precarious ecological theme runs through this trilogy, as in most of his books. It's presented in a slightly different manner, though. On the downside, Alucius is a little too good & the story is a little too neatly wrapped up. As a romantic, I liked it. If you want gritty reality in your fantasy books, this probably isn't for you. His relationship with his wife is too perfect & she's not a well developed character. Modesitt can't write a sexually charged scene, either. His characters are the same few. Alucius is the same as Lerris or any other of his heroes, but with fewer faults than most. Heinlein only had a few characters & I've liked all his early books, so it doesn't bother me, but might some.All in all, if you like Modesitt, I think you'll like this. If you read the first part of the trilogy, this is a must read.
What do You think about Scepters (2005)?
This is the exciting conclusion of the trilogy. It has the same stock characters and the same recycled plots, but it's familiar and I enjoy reading it. This one also had overlong descriptions of food, lots of repetition, and some preachiness. The Soarers aren't the angels they're made out to be, and the Irfit engender some sympathy. Still, it seems the Irfit are behind all the troubles in the world, for their own selfish needs. The hero and his wife are left to defeat them all on their own.Before that, the hero has to brilliantly take down two separate military threats, root out corruption, and overcome stupidity. He is severely injured several times, but always recovers.
—Kevin
This review is about my impressions after reading this book and the two before it. It may contain some spoilers that are inadvertent.(view spoiler)[So this is the story of a young man who is a herder by trade and is conscripted into the militia. While that is only a small part of what is going on the most interesting part of this series is the way life seems to be tied together by threads. The color of the threads seems to represent where you come from, for example the black/green threads belong to the herders of the the massive night sheep. This story has so many levels of things going on and much not explained about the past that I was a bit bewildered by everything that was going on. (hide spoiler)]
—J.C. Webb
A very exciting end to this trilogy, with plenty of action as is expected of this series, the magic system isn't really taken any further except for a couple of new applications/refinements of older abilities. However the majority of the story is taken up by what I would say was a sideline to the main event, I found myself getting to the last few chapters wondering how on earth this book could be wrapped up so quickly with only a few chapters to go, however I can't say I was disappointed, yes events happened rather quickly, but it didn't feel that rushed to me and ive really liked the characters that have featured in this trilogy.
—Richard
