Somehow, I enjoy reading this book. Somehow, I want to keep reading. But at least once a page, I wonder why.

The book is broken down into nearly two hundred chapters, most of which are brief character sketches (of the same few characters!) or "a day in the life of..." static stories. Some of the chapters touch on world events in a very loose sort of way. Most, though, are full of details about what the main character has for lunch and in what order he eats it, which unimportant side-characters he speaks to about unimportant matters, and the steps involved in forging this or that object out of iron. I'd estimate that fully a quarter of the book is a list of steps in iron-smithing, and the steps aren't even given in a way that helps me visualize it. I really don't need to know.

You'd think that, with scores and scores of character sketches, the reader would at least become attached to the characters. Nope. The characters are inconsistent and uninteresting, with unbelievable dialogue. Even Dorrin, the main and most interesting (or only interesting) character in the book, so frequently breaks character that I have trouble believing he's a real person.

The prose bothers me even more than the uninteresting characters and slow-paced story. The author is incredibly repetitive, predicting an event, mentioning it several times (often in the exact same words from different characters' mouths), and then reiterating it. Contradictions abound. Characters or narrative will say one thing, and then a few chapters, pages, paragraphs, sentences or even words later, the opposite will be said. Many times while reading this book, I found myself looking up at the sky and shouting, "Why! You just said X two sentences ago!"

I feel like I'm reading a story written by a high-school student. Mistakes I'd think any author would know to avoid are made every page -- repeating the same word many times in the same sentence, narrating an observation and immediately having a character make the same observation, having characters "begin to do" things instead of actually do them, saying things "look as if" or "are almost as if" instead of just straight out saying how they are. Ellipses are used profusely, for no apparent reason. Am I really to believe that the character heard every word of a dialogue except for "I" and "and?" Characters are called "young" without any real indication of their age. The main character's physical description is limited to "a wiry, red-headed youth." I've met many people, including writers, who make these kinds of mistakes their whole lives. They're usually people who don't seek out criticism and can't take it when it's given.

And finally, there's the central love story. Two characters barely speak to each other. Every six months or so, they have a page or so of dialog before the woman has to ride across the country again, and we're given no reason to believe they have more contact than that. Then, suddenly, they're in love and have their hands all over each other. No explanation. No transition.

So why do I enjoy reading this book? Maybe I just like torturing myself. Maybe I'm attracted by the loose but somewhat interesting plot, and hope from chapter to chapter that I might get just _one_ more detail that has any relevance to the story. The main character, despite his inconsistencies, makes use of an interesting set of abilities, and gets headaches when he lies, which I find amusing. Those few things are enough to merit two stars instead of one.

The Magic Engineer is the third book (in order of publication) in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Saga of Recluse. This book takes place some two hundred years after the events chronicled in The Towers of the Sunset. In many ways this book is similar to the first in the series, The Magic of Recluse. Young, Black (Order-based) mage gets sent out into the world to (seemingly) figure out his role in the constant struggle between Order and Chaos. In this book, the role of young cats-off is filled by Dorrin, a descendant of Creslin from the prior book. One word of warning here, for the first part of the book, Dorrin is an extremely annoying character. Once he settles in as an apprentice blacksmith in part two, his character starts to mature and he becomes much more likable.

Like the first two books in the series, Modesitt enjoys showing us virtually every detail of everyday life. It is through these details that Modesitt pulls you into this world he's created, and this is what makes it real. Although you wouldn't think it would be interesting to read about all of the mundane things like black smithing, cooking, or gardening, these details make the characters come to life.

Overall I rank this as one of the better fantasy novels I've read in awhile. Modesitt's system of magic (Order vs. Chaos) is one of the more well-developed and original out there. This book also is a great study in character development as Dorrin starts out a whiny, naive character and ends up as, well you'll have to read the book to find out! Also, this book does a good job of standing on it's own. There are some references to characters and events in the second book, but nothing necessary to know before starting this one.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys rich, well-crafted fantasy!

This is 600 pages of some guy building a boat. Elsewhere in the mystical land of Recluce a titanic battle is being fought across seas and continents -- but we don't get to see any of this, cause we're stuck watching this guy build his blasted boat. Eventually the war moves closer to home. Will the guy and his friends actually get caught up in an interesting plot? You needn't worry on that score, as Modesitt is able to quickly wrap everything up inside twenty pages. You quickly wonder why the rest of the story wasn't as short.

Blame me if you like, I made no attempt to read the earlier volumes before starting this one. Still, Recluce on first blush seems a fairly whitebread, uninteresting fantasy world; the twin forces of Chaos and Order little more than Evil and Good, renamed; and Modesitt's present-tense prose more irritating than illuminating.

Oy. Is this the third book or the 1st? Once again, it's the story of a young lad who doesn't want to admit he has powerfull magic powers as a healer and so hides in a village of the 'norms' and makes his living as a blacksmith.

And once again, in the end our young hero learns to manage his powers and uses them to defeat the evil. Yet, at a cost.

Oh man, why do I keep reading this series. I've got the 4th (or 5th, I can't tell the way this series keeps jumping between sequels and prequels) on my bookshelf at home. So I'll probably read it, even if it -is- just the same story I've read 3 other times.

This book comes highly recommended (the cover features glowing reviews from magazines and famous names in the field, such as Robert Jordan). However, I found it to be a huge disappointment.
The plot is centered around Lerris, a young order-master from Recluse, and his quest for answers to questions which are never presented to the reader (or perhaps I'm too dense to understand what they are). He is sent out of recluse because he's easily bored. Lerris never actually ASKS the questions he wants answered, but this doesn't stop him getting frustrated when no-one will answer them.
The dialog is at points unclear, and much of it consists of Lerris talking to his pony. Throughout the book we are privy to Lerris's thoughts, which are not very realistic either.
Lerris spends most of the book riding his pony or working with wood, which makes for boring reading. Whenever there is action, it is almost never described. Many times I found myself asking - WHY did he do that? but even though we are privy to Lerris's thoughts, some of his actions are cryptic.
As for the system of magic: it's supposed to be semi-scientific, but it has many inherent contraditions, and is not explained well. I didn't like it much. The actual working of magic was rarely described (Lerris just says "I created a shield" - but not how).
Also, the book is interspersed with ridiculous comics-style sound effects such as "Wheee... uuhhh...." and "whhhssttt" that do little to illustrate the plot, and in many places actually replace descriptions of what is happening. This became very annoying very quickly.
Overall, a low-grade fantasy novel. Don't buy.