Showing results by author "L. E. Modesitt Jr." in All Categories

In Contrarian, protests against unemployment and poor harvests have become armed riots as the people sink deeper into poverty. They look to a government struggling to emerge from corruption and conspiracy. Recently elected to the Council of Sixty-Six, Steffan Dekkard is the first Councilor who is an Isolate, a man invulnerable to the emotional manipulations and emotional surveillance of empaths—but not the recent bombing of the Council Office Building by insurrectionists.

Secca, foster daughter of the Soprano Sorceress and now her successor as sorceress-protector of Defalk, must deal carefully with her willful master and wield her power to save his kingdom from the armies, fleets, and master sorcerers of the maitre of Sturinn.

Spanning the human galaxy, the Empire is all-powerful: No human or alien forces have been able to stand against its power. But now, on the planet Accord, the Ecolitan Institute bids fair to challenge the might of the Empire, at last. Major Jimjoy Earle Wright, secret agent of the Empire, is intelligent and highly trained. But he succeeds all too well in overthrowing a military dictatorship - and the result is a new government inimical to the Empire and disgrace for Jimjoy.

Nylan is the engineer and builder whose job it is to raise a great tower on the plateau known as the Roof of the World. Here the exiled women warriors will live and survive to fulfill their destiny. Here a revolutionary new society will be born...if Nylan can get the tower built and defenses in place before the rulers of the lowland nations come with their armies to obliterate them all. And if Nylan can learn to control the magical powers that are growing within him.

Once again, prejudices against the use of chaos magic force Beltur and his companions to flee their refuge in Axalt. The rulers of nearby Montgren have offered them sanctuary and the opportunity to become the Councilors of the run-down and disintegrating town of Haven. Montegren lacks any mages - white or black - making this seem like the perfect opportunity to start again.

The civilization of the Alectors - which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to produce sustaining life force for their vampiric civilization - must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move.

Four centuries after its founding, Solidar's Collegium of Imagers is in decline, the exploits of its founder, the legendary Quaeryt, largely forgotten. The Collegium is so lacking in leadership that the dying Maitre must summon Alastar, an obscure but talented senior imager who has little knowledge of politics in the capital, as his successor.

As the Alector Colonel of Myrmidons, Dainyl is the fourth highest ranking military officer of the Duarchy. Alectors are a race apart from the normal inhabitants of Corus, from another world. But there is a rebellion brewing against them.

Beltur, an Order mage, discovers he possesses frightening powers not seen for hundreds of years. With his new abilities, he survives the war in Elparta and saves the lives of all. However, victory comes with a price. His fellow mages now see him as a threat to be destroyed, and the local merchants want to exploit his power. There's only one way he can remain free and survive - he's going to have to run.

The keep of Westwind, located in the cold mountainous heights called the Roof of the World, is facing attack by the adjoining land of Gallos. Arthanos, son and heir to the ailing Prefect of Gallos, wishes to destroy Westwind because the idea of a land where women rule, no matter how small and how isolated, is total anathema to him. Saryn, Arms-Commander of Westwind, is dispatched to the neighboring land of Lornth to seek support against the Gallosians.

Alayiakal, who will one day be known by many names—not all of them flattering—has to climb the ranks of Cyador's Mirror Lancers, fighting against unforeseen weapons and ancient technology. Alayiakal, however, has secrets of his own to protect: his ties to the Great Forest and his magus abilities. He must silently pretend to be a conventional soldier favored by fate—until that very same fate forces him to choose.

When Anna Marshall is transported from her boring and frustrating life in Ames, Iowa, to the very different world of Erde, she's angry and confused. But she soon finds out that for the first time in her life she's uniquely powerful. In Iowa, Anna was a music teacher and small-time opera singer, but on Erde, her musical ability makes her a big-time sorceress-potentially. First, though, she must figure out how to use her ability before the rulers kill her.

In Fall of Angels, the sixth installment of the Saga of Recluce series, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., introduced the engineer/smith Nylan, the only man among the leadership of the company of "angels" marooned on a high plateau in the west of Candar, and perhaps the one person most responsible for their survival. But the angels are a matriarchal band, and so Nylan must leave his companions and seek a life elsewhere. He travels down from the plateau into the world of warring kingdoms and strange magics with his companion, Ayrlyn, the healer, and his infant son.

Lerris has settled into being a woodworker and building a life with Krystal. But this newfound peace is endangered when both Candar and Recluce come under the threat of invasion from the Empire of Hamor. Despite the imminent possibility of destruction, the lands of Candar will not unite and Recluce will not heed the peril. Lerris is faced with the challenge of becoming the greatest wizard of all time - or seeing his whole world destroyed.

Decades after the fall of Cyador, its survivors have reestablished themselves in Cigoerne, a fertile country coveted by hostile neighbors in less hospitable lands. Young Lerial, the second son of Duke Kiedron, lives in the shadow of his older brother Lephi, the heir to their father's realm. Lerial's future seems preordained: He will one day command his brother's forces in defense of Cigoerne, serving at his older sibling's pleasure and no more.

In the world of Recluce, powerful mages can wield two kinds of magic - the white of Chaos or the black of Order. Beltur, however, has talents no one dreamed of, talents not seen in hundreds of years that blend both magics. On the run from a power-hungry white mage, Beltur is taken in by Order mages who set him on the path to discover and hone his own unique gifts and in the process find a home. However, when the white mage he fled attempts to invade his new home, Beltur must hope his newfound power will be enough to save them all.

The deadly White Wizards of Fairhaven, wielding the forces of chaos, have completed their great highway through the Westhorns and now threatened the ancient matriarchy of Sarronnyn, the last bastion of order in Candar. The ruler of Sarronnyn appeals to the Black order wizards of Recluce for help. Justen - a young Black Engineer in the city of Nylan - joins the relief force.

In Earth's distant future, Tyndel is both teacher and mentor, a staunch devotee to his conservative and rigidly structured religious culture. Then a rogue infection of nanotechnology transforms him into a "demon", something more than human, and he is forced into exile, fleeing to the more technologically advanced space-faring civilization that lies to the north, one that his own righteous people consider evil. Although shaken by his transformation, he has the rare talent required to become a space pilot.

The cooper Kharl has no sooner taken possession of the estate bestowed upon him by Lord Ghrant of Austra when he is summoned back to the capital. After a bloody campaign, in which Kharl discovers and is forced to use even more deadly order magery, civil order is restored and Ghrant's throne firmly secured. But Kharl is now a famous and feared public figure, the Lord's Mage, and his notoriety makes him uncomfortable.To his surprise, Kharl is soon called upon again by Lords Ghrant and Hagen.

Born to privilege, with preselected genetic advantages and the best nanotech augmentation his father's fabulous money can buy, Daryn spurned the lucrative family Media Network to seek his own path, a crafty raven among soaring eagles. After serving with distinction as a space pilot in the military, he enjoys success as a media consultant. But when he finds himself the target of sophisticated murder attempts, his world is turned upside down.