Modesitt, L.E.
COLORS OF CHAOS
L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
TOR 1999
Hb, 634 pages
ISBN#
0-312-86767-0
COLORS OF CHAOS continues the story of Cerryl,
White-Chaos mage from Modesitt's Recluce Saga book THE WHITE ORDER,
so is not recommended to any reader who has not yet read the first
book. COLORS OF CHAOS and its prequel are recommended for readers
of sword & sorcery who enjoy stories revolving around court
intrigue.
Cerryl has now graduated to the level of mage.
His superiors don't know quite what to do with him yet, and
encourage him to develop skills that will make him unique and thus
useful to the Guild. Unfortunately (or--fortunately?) Cerryl must
learn survival beyond what the other mages learn, for he comes from
a poor background to a society prejudiced against the poor. And so
it is he becomes very adept at high-level assassinations. His first
few are thrust upon him by supervisors who don't care if Cerryl
succeeds or fails, for they succeed either way. They really are
trying to force Cerryl into an "accidental" death. But as Cerryl
learns more and more about the society around him, he becomes a
force to be reckoned with.
COLORS OF CHAOS has much debate on trade
issues, policies and cultural rules, and on how wars become an
aspect of trade and society. COLORS OF CHAOS also has a love story,
for Cerryl finds love with a Black-Order mage who is accepted into
the Guild because she's a healer. The story is complex with
intrigue, nearly tediously so. Though it gives a good balancing
explanation to the events surrounding the story THE MAGIC ENGINEER,
this reviewer did not find COLORS OF CHAOS to be a reader's-favorite
of the Recluce novels.
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