Reviews for The white order

The average rating for The white order based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-04 00:00:00 Margie Avellino Call it 3.5 stars? This is another one of those series that I'm lukewarm about. The plots carry me along, but I find the people to be so wooden and predictable that I can tell from the beginning of each book just where it is headed. Take one young man with a talent and an unnatural sense of honour and dedication to hard work. Add a young woman that he's interested in, but he'll only admit that if pressed. He works his way through trials that would derail most young men, but prevails through sheer talent and honesty. He's basically a boy scout. What made this book more interesting was that we finally get a look at the Recluce world from the White mages' point of view. Up to this point, we've had Black mage main characters and they've been set up as the "good guys." But we all know that perspective is everything and there are good people on both sides of any conflict. I seem to recall dimly from memories of previous volumes that we witnessed from the Black viewpoint as Jesek pushed up the mountain range outside Fenard. I also recall a White mage at an inn somewhere who resembled Jesek in attitude. Power hungry, dangerous, and self indulgent. Switching sides gave this installment a little extra fillip for me. It also helps that Cerryl is clear eyed about being manipulated and is quite a bit less dim about women than previous main characters. At least so far. The next book follows him as a brand new mage, so he'll have plenty of time to screw up his burgeoning relationship with Leyladin! Book number 381 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project. Cross posted at my blog:

Review # 2 was written on 2017-08-27 00:00:00 Andrew Rolston This takes place almost 300 years after the founding of Recluce, as told in The Towers of the Sunset (2P, 8C) & switches to following one of the white wizards of Fairhaven, the bad guys of the previous book chronologically. It overlaps somewhat with the next book chronologically toward the end, The Magic Engineer (3P, 10C), which flips back to the Recluce point of view. The changing points of view, each demonizing the other, really brings home Modesitt's theme of balance & of how little control even the most powerful have over their lives. I've been reading another book in between the Recluce books, but this time I'm going straight on to The Magic Engineer due to the overlap. There isn't much & the characters don't meet, but there are some common, momentous events that are best viewed from both sides. This is the 8th published, #9 chronologically (8P, 9C). The full list of books in chronological order is in my review here.