“The Towers of the Sunset” is the second book of the Recluce saga. However, instead of depicting events that occur subsequent to the ending of the first book, it jumps back in time to before the island of Recluce was established. Overall, it's a good read if you liked Modesitt’s first novel. The PlotThere are two kinds of societies in Modesitt's world, ones that respect "The Legend" and ones that don't. What "the Legend" exactly is isn't spelled out in the book, although some "quotes" from the ancient "Book of Ryba" are given. The reader soon realizes that those societies that respect "the Legend" are matriarchies and those that don't are patriarchies. The patriarchies are dominated by the white wizards, who are again the antagonists of this book and of the Recluce saga as a whole so far.Creslin is born into a matriarchy. He is the son of the Marshall of Westwind. He is betrothed, against his will, to the sister of the Tyrant of Sarronyn: a woman named Megaera (Sarronyn is also a matriarchy). Creslin decides that he doesn’t want to get married and flees from Westwind. However, he and Megaera share a bond. This bond they share is potentially fatal to Megaera, so she also sets out to find him, not out of love, but out of self-preservation. Meanwhile, Creslin is being hunted by white Chaos mages, who believe him to be a threat to their empire. The plot goes on from there. The GoodThe characters in this second book of the Recluce saga are more memorable than the ones in the first book. Creslin is pretty well characterized as a young guy who comes into his own over the course of the novel. Megaera is also well done as a conflicted, angsty girl who sorts herself out over the course of the book. The first half of the book, which has Creslin out “on the road” trying to survive, is very well done and he meets some memorable characters, such as Derrild the trader and his family, as well as Hylin, a caravan guard who helps Creslin orient himself to the world beyond Westwind. I found myself really enjoying this section of the book with its chase scenes as well as Creslin’s discovery of the wider world around him. I also enjoyed the relationship between Creslin and Megaera, which was rather well done. The Not-So-GoodI wouldn’t call anything in this book “bad” particularly. When the action moves to the island of Recluce, it sort of shifts to a war between the order and chaos forces as well as Creslin and Megaera’s developing relationship. I didn’t find this quite as interesting as the first part of the book, and I thought that the relationship between Creslin and Megaera, while more complex than a typical fantasy novel male-female relationship, cried out for a little more complexity. Things just sort of resolved themselves on their own, despite repeated mistakes by them both. I guess this is what happens in real life, but it didn’t make for a compelling read. The antagonists of the book, the white wizards, were rather non-descript. They weren’t particularly evil or anything, which is good (I hate it when the bad guys are all like Snidely Whiplash), but I didn’t really feel anything towards them. I think good literature makes the reader feel some kind of empathy for an antagonist, and enables the reader to at least see things from the antagonist’s point of view. This wasn’t done to my satisfaction here.Some complaints have been made that Modesitt’s use of the present tense (e.g.: “Creslin walks quickly through the dry grass.”) throughout the book is distracting. I agree with this to an extent, but I got used to it pretty quickly and it didn’t bother me very much throughout the course of my reading. FeminismI think this topic deserves its own section, because it seems to be the sorest point of discussion regarding this book. The matriarchal societies of “The Towers of the Sunset” are all female versions of patriarchies. That is, take a patriarchy, make all of the men women, and you have a matriarchy. I don’t think this would be true in reality. I think a matriarchy would be entirely different from a patriarchy. However, it certainly wouldn’t be perfect and it would have its own challenges and weaknesses different from a patriarchy’s, as well as different strengths. I think Modesitt really missed the boat here and he could have put out some really fantastic literature exploring the nature and operation of a matriarchy, instead of making the matriarchal women into female versions of “male chauvinists”. For example, Westwind, a matriarchy, has a reputation for having the finest warriors in the world. While the whole Amazon legend theme is not beyond the scope of reason, it really seemed to cement the whole attitude of the novel of feminists being “manly women”. I’d have rather read about a matriarchy that thrived by peacefully and cleverly manipulating the patriarchies around it into becoming economically and culturally dependent upon it. That would have been more interesting, in my opinion. However, it should be noted that the fighting skills of Westwind’s women becomes key in the plot of the novel, so I guess this depiction of Westwind as a warlike society was necessary.Megaera, despite being a high ranking member of a matriarchy, has a feminist sensibility that seems to extend to stamping her foot and shouting “Men!” in an exasperated voice. This became annoying very quickly. I would think that, coming from a matriarchy, as soon as she became infatuated with her eventual husband, she would pursue him or at least manipulate him somehow into pursuing her, instead of waiting to be pursued. I would also think that she would assume the leader role over Creslin and that Creslin would have a tendency to allow her to do this and even be relieved that she was taking charge, seeing as they both were born into matriarchies.I think that Creslin also should have been written differently. As a male growing up in a matriarchal society, he should have had different notions of what is "manly" and what is "womanly". The only way this is depicted is in his general acceptance of women as being good fighters. I don't think that, coming from a matriarchy, Creslin should have taken on a leadership role as readily and confidently as he did. Granted, he was the son of the leader of Westwind, but, as a man in that society, he wouldn't have received any kind of education in war, tactics, or economics. It would have also been inculcated into him at a young age that the woman is the authority figure in any government or household. However, he doesn't defer to Megaera much at all. The women from these matriarchal societies just seem to want to sit there and be led by him, which seems out of character to me. ConclusionI know it sounds like I hated the book, but I really didn't. If you can "forget" that Creslin and Megaera come from matriarchies (which is easy to do since the characters aren't written like they come from matriarchies), there is a very good read here. The relationship between the two protagonists is interesting and sometimes even romantic. The action and plot are well done and not rushed in any way. The magic system is still really cool, logical, and interesting. This book was never dull, in my opinion.If you can overlook the faults listed above, you’ll find, I believe, a better novel here than the first Recluce novel. It still depicts order as being “good” and chaos as being “bad”, but I’ve been assured that this changes throughout the series. If you enjoyed the first novel at all, you should read this one. Just be aware of its faults and try to overlook them. I give it 3 ½ stars.
It's been almost two years since I re-read The Magic of Recluce. I consider the Recluce saga among the "formative fantasy series" of my youth. I associate the word "Recluce" with memories of being curled up in a massive armchair in the living room, rain streaming down the windows outside, cradling a massive 600- or 800-page hardcover book in my hands. That was the life.With The Towers of Sunset, Modesitt returns to the Recluce saga in prequel form: this is the founding of Recluce by Creslin and his somewhat-reluctant partner, Megaera. Creslin is the son of the Marshall of Westwind; Megaera is the sister of the Tyrant of Sarronnyn. Both Westwind and Sarronnyn are western countries of Candar that subscribe to the Legend, which is essentially a garbled creation myth that provides the basis for their matriarchical societies. The Marshall bucked tradition by allowing Creslin to train with the female guards of Westwind, who are among the best in the world. Meanwhile, Megaera is a White witch, a chaos mage, and her sister has had her bound in iron chains since she came of age. Oh, and she's "life-linked" to Creslin, so she feels what he feels and dies if he dies. You can guess how much she loves that.The plot of The Towers of Sunset has many similarities to that of The Magic of Recluce, which will come as no surprise if you are familiar with Modesitt's writing. Just as Lerris is dispatched to Candar for ulterior reasons, Creslin too is manipulated by the Marshall, the Tyrant, and even the White Wizards of Fairhaven to fulfil his "destiny", which is the founding of an order-based haven on Recluce. Instead of the Grey mage Justen for the role model/wise mentor figure, we have Klerris, a Black mage. Notably, Creslin does not have a trade; he is a soldier and a musician seems to try his hand at pretty much everything.Creslin's self-enforced versatility is one of the reasons I didn't like this book. I should probably mention that, unlike The Magic of Recluce, I don't think I've read this one before. I would remember being this annoyed. Self-righteous male protagonists bother in fantasy books. You know the type I mean: they bludgeon their way through the plot like a bulldozer, swiping aside any resistance with the fateful words, "I don't have any choice." It's one of the reasons I skewered Richard and the Sword of Truth series. Creslin is not nearly so extreme, fortunately; yet the last half of the book seems to consist of him whining that his choices come down to "let everyone starve" or "mount an increasingly destructive series of order-based gambits to turn Recluce into a nation at the expense of other countries". Indeed, much like my reservations about the end of The Ringworld Engineers, I don't think I can condone the way Modesitt glosses over the morality of Creslin's actions. In altering the weather patterns to bring more rain to Recluce, he causes floods and droughts elsewhere. We see these results, but we never really see Creslin called to account for them, except for the toll his use of order in the service of destruction takes on his body (blindness), which I would argue is not sufficient here. Creslin is a war criminal!Ironically, my feelings were the opposite for the first half of the book: I was annoyed with Megaera and thought Creslin's feelings were justified. She was contradictory and vague toward him no matter how he treated her. Eventually, however, I came to see his actions from her point of view. They're both stupid and probably deserve each other, but on balance I'll have to give the epic award for stupidity to Creslin, for essentially forcing himself upon Megaera by imposing another life-link on them. She is already linked to him, so he feels that he should make the link reciprocal; he'll feel what she feels. But he does this without even asking her permission, which is … rape. It doesn't matter that "it was going to happen eventually" as a result of her life-link and their mutual order/chaos abilities. The squee factor is definitely there.When Creslin is not forcing his way into the thoughts of his wife or destroying weather patterns for his own gain, he's usually doing something boring, like guarding a trader caravan or singing in a tavern. I am exaggerating, of course, but I want to emphasize how very workaday the Recluce saga seems to be when it comes to adventures. Creslin is just as obsessed with counting coppers and recounting to us the exact meals he orders at inns as Lerris was; once again, Modesitt focuses a lot on the logistics of life. Alone, this might be enough to dissuade some people from reading the book but doesn't particularly bother me. Unfortunately, The Towers of Sunset also seems to miss a lot of dramatic notes. Creslin undergoes a few very important trials, including his escape from the Westwind escort, his confrontation in Fairhaven, and his subsequent recovery of his memory and escape from the road crew. Maybe it's my fault for reading at a baseball game, but the tone and urgency of the writing doesn't always adjust to match the intensity of these moments. Altogether the result is a somewhat flat, albeit very evenly-paced, story.There is nothing truly unique or exciting about The Towers of Sunset to make it stand out. As usual, Modesitt's chaos-order magic system is fun and interesting and stifled by the heavy-handed exposition. The bad guys (in this case, the White Wizards) get their own short chapters of dialogue in which they cackle about their latest gambit to unseat Creslin from Recluce. Modesitt does get two things very right: the epic scale, with Creslin's manipulation of the winds and the destruction of multiple fleets of ships and enemy soldiers; and the toll this takes on Creslin's body. That was a cool price to extract for his unmitigated use of order at the service of destruction. Unfortunately, these two positives do not sufficiently compensate for the dull or even unsavoury parts of this book. It's not a bad book, and to his credit Modesitt attempts to explore issues of gender politics, from his creation of the Legend to the relative roles that Megaera and Creslin play in ruling Recluce. Nevertheless, unless you are on a mission to read the complete saga of Recluce like I am, you might want to skip this one.My reviews of the Recluce saga:← The Magic of Recluce | The Magic Engineer →
What do You think about The Towers Of The Sunset (1993)?
One of my favorite books of all time is The Towers of the Sunset by L.E. Modesitt Jr. First Published in 1992, it was for me a watershed book, introducing me to the world of Recluce. Though it is the second installment in the series, it is a stand alone book and is a prequel to the classic, The Magic of Recluce. I am a huge fan of Modesitt's style. He writes with an economy of words, and yet you are drawn into his world, to the exclusion of everything else. The Blurb:Okay, there is no blurb. This is one of those Big 6 published books where, in their wisdom, they quit putting blurbs on books and instead put glowing comments from Interzone, Publisher's Weekly, and the (now) late Jo Clayton on the back cover instead. I do think a blurb helps to sell a book. This is the only fault I could find with the book, but I bought it for the cover art, because, hey, it's what I always do. The cover art is awesome, and in this case it introduced me to an amazing author. (Of course the cover is awesome--it's published by Tor and they do great covers.)My Review:In the world of Recluce there are two different kinds of magic, White (chaos magic), and Black (order magic). Depending on the book in this series, you find yourself on either side of the magic issue, and in this book it is the Black that is the “good-guys”.Creslin is the unwanted son of the powerful Marshall of Westwind, an all-female military city-state. Creslin has begun to show the signs of being strong in the Black magic of Order. He is betrothed against his will to Megaera, the sister of the Tyrant of Sarronnyn. She is a powerful White Wizard, and is considered an abomination, as the female societies are very much Order based and Sarronnyn is similarly a female military-run country. Creslin flees eastward to the lands where men are free to make their own rules, but where he is captured by the White magicians, and forced to labor building the great highway.He is aided by two Black wizards. He finally forced into a corner and must marry his less-than-thrilled fiancée, Megaera. She has been manipulated by her sister and by magic into the marriage herself. The two are forced into exile and undertake the regency of the desolate isle of Recluce. Although it’s barren, they hope to turn it into a prosperous haven free of the White wizards. Creslin and Megaera bicker constantly, and she is downright cruel to him, but they are tied to each other magically and they must somehow learn to live together, or they will die. The wizards of Fairhaven have other plans, and Creslin must master his own powers, make the desert Recluce bloom, and defeat the Chaos magicians if he hopes to survive.Creslin and Megaera have many ordeals to overcome, not the least of which is Megaera’s horrible treatment of him.This is a big, sweeping epic fantasy and yet it is an intimate story of love and strong women and men learning to coexist when there may be no common ground, no middle for them to meet. This is the real story, for me.I absolutely love Modesitt’s magic system. It is unique, and completely believable His social system is quite detailed and amazing too. Modesitt spends time building the worlds his characters must live in and the world of Recluce is clearly defined and easily visualized as you read any of the many books in this series..Some people have disparaged this particular book because of the way Megaera treats Creslin, and also the way Modesitt builds the first half of the book. Some people don't like the present tense point of view. I liked it for precisely ALL those reasons, even though I am not normally a fan of this p.o.v.. If you are looking for a real fantasy adventure, with a unique world and engaging characters this is it. I am a huge fan of +L.E. Modesitt Jr., not just of his Recluce series, but of ALL his work. Nearly all of Modesitt’s science fiction works, such as the Parafaith War and the Time Diver duology are also books that have become classics in my library.
—Connie Jasperson
All of Modesitt's books are 60% travel, with the protagonist eating dried fruit, hard cheese, and harder biscuits. The first half of this book is no diffeent, but the second half breaks the mold, as the protagonist instead spends his time building a new country from a desert land. Modesitt's books also are characterized by battles that last no more than a paragraph or two, as does this one. Additioally, this book follows the Modesitt pattern of the protagonist getting headaches and worse for using magic.Still, for some reason, I can't put his books down, and crave to read the next. As always, an entertaining story.
—DaveA
Book 2 of the series takes us back to the beginning of the settling of Recluce. It's an enjoyable, nicely written read in general and sets up the conflict between the black and white wizards. But, I did not really like the characters. I found Creslin and Megaera immature and whiny. Megaera (and others) constantly put down men as a species to the point it felt like modern reverse-sexism. Though these main characters had reasons for their behavior and feelings, the results annoyed me. Grow up already. Still I will read the next book published. I do like the world and with the addition of gray wizards, perhaps it will get beyond dualistic thinking. We shall see. I'm think I should have read these books in internal chronological order.
—Kernos
