This books chronicles the fall of Cyador and the rise of Naclos. Even though the history and information about chaos/order relationships contained in this one are important for a reader wanting to understand the world of Recluce, I was somewhat disapointed by the fact that this book reads almost exactly like the others in the series. Basically, Nylan, your typical smith/order-mage, spends most of the book struggling to understand and master his powers. The book ends in the same way most of the others have- Nylan destroying a huge White army at the last possible second and being punished for it just like all the other heroes have been, by going blind and aging. I did like the characters in this one, good and bad, but I felt like I knew what was going to happen the entire time (which it turns out I did) so I didn't really get caught up in the suspense very much, just tried to get through it in a hurry to more on to the next one, which doesn't make for enjoyable reading. Hopefully in future books, Modesitt will change up the general story outline, maybe detailing the colonization of the planet by the Rats.

This was first Modesitt book in which i was bored from start to finish. seemed to be mainly a repeat of hi sother works, mainly "The MAgic Engineer" using the charactors from "Fall of Angels". Even the ending comes as completely predictable to anyone who has read the rest of the series. Unrecommended. Try his first in the series, best in the series, "The magic of Recluse" instead.

L.E. Modesitt jr's Recluse series is a world of magic and balance. a world that will grab you and make you loss track of time as you are unable to put his Recluse books down. The author, recommends that you read his book in the order of they were published. If you are the person who likes to read the last 50 pages of a book first, and then skip around to different areas of the book as you read it through, then by all means, read the Recluse series in the order of publish. WAIT!..... If you are a reader who truly enjoys finding yourself part of the on going story, as read a series from the start of he story to its end. Then the Recluse series will grab you and not let you go until the conclusion of the series. L.E. Modesitt, jr. has written an 11 books series of the Recluse world so far. This author wrote the Magic of Recluse first. As be has published books, he has jumped around throughout the story time line of the world of Recluse, and put together books of set, and other single books, which he may add another book to that part of the story in a future published book. This author has written the story in books of set, that is the first three book of story: 1st book) "Fall of Angels", 2rd) "The Chaos Balance" & 3rd) "The Tower of the Sunset". Tells the birth and the destruction of kingdom of highly skilled warriors, with the third book leading into the creation of a new kingdom, (Recluse). Then the next book is, 4th book of the World of Recluse) "The Magic Engineer". Then Modesitt, jr. switches to the side of Chaos, and tells a story where the character's of Chaos will became heroes in your eyes too. So with time, you will gain a better understanding of the World of Recluse through the following books: 5th book) "The White Order", & 6th book) "the Color of Chaos". The next set of books that go together in the World of Recluse, are: 7th book) "The Order War", 8th book) "The Magic of Recluse", & the 9th book) "The Death of Chaos". As for the last two book that the author has written, he has drifted into the life of some of the troops found in the World of Recluse. My $0.02 worth.

This book is an exelent follow up on The Fall of Angel. Nylan the engineer of the angel war ship Winterlance in the previous book fell to a world and built a tower of which Ryba the leader clamed the title Marshill of Westwind and brought the power of the Legend unto the world creating a feministic rule on the Roof of the World.

In the Chaos Balance Nylan and his consort Ayrlyn and Nylan's son fled the roof of the world to Lornth where he agreed to help them fight the empire of the white demons Cyador.

Nylan leaves a while to the great forest Naclos and learns alot about Order Magic and goes back to the battle and uses his power with the help of the forest to destroy the white army and all of Cyador. After doing so he settles down with his consort in Naclos while the Forest reclames its original boundaries.

It was excellent, as is the whole Recluse Series. If you have read any of the the series you'll want this one. If you haven't read any of the series you had better get started and catch up with the rest of us. Modesitt has given us a very believeable and logical system of magic as well as characters you can enjoy reading about. His delve into the history behind the land and his attention to details is superb. I couldn't put it down. Heck I haven't been able to put any of them down.