Alector's Choice (Corean Chronicles) [Mass Market Paperback]

Alector's Choice (2005) is the fourth Fantasy novel in the Corean Chronicles series, following Scepters. This volume starts a new subseries taking place several thousand years in the past on the same planet. Many placenames are the same, but the political hierarchy is greatly different; Acorus and another planet, Efra, are ruled by Duarches appointed by the Archon on Ifryn.

The lifeforce on Ifryn is slowly draining away. Acorus and Efra are being transformed into more suitable homes for the Ifrits. The Archon will soon select one of these planets as the new capital of the entire Ifrit population. After that decision, the number of Alectors on the chosen planet will increase dramatically.

Alectors have been on Acorus in large numbers for only five centuries, but their first contact with the planet was many centuries before that. They have seeded the land with lifeforms -- including the intelligent indigens and landers -- to increase the lifemass and to warm the climate.

The ancient ones -- the soarers and others -- were on the planet prior to the coming of the Ifrits. Their ruins are still visible, but personal encounters are rare, since the original inhabitants prefer colder climes than the Alectors. Besides, the Duarchy is suppressing reports of such encounters.

Dainyl is one of the small minority of Alectors born on Acorus. He was initially evaluated as having little Talent and thus was not trained to any extent. He has worked his way up from the most menial jobs, but has gained much higher responsibilities since marrying Lystrana. While he hides his abilities, Lystrana has also helped him more fully develop his Talent.

Dainyl is now a Colonel of Myrmidons, the third highest position in the Alector military. He witnessed the death of Submarshall Tynaylt in the office of Marshall Shastylt and realizes that Tynaylt was executed for failing to support the plans of the Highest Alectors. Now Dainyl is the acting submarshall and has been sent to the island of Dramur to observe the deployment of a Cadmian battalion to suppress an insurrection.

Mykel is a lander Captain, commanding the Fifteenth Company in the battalion deployed to Dramur. He is not aware that he has latent Talent, but has learned to use it to direct his rifle fire. His battalion commander, Majer Vaclyn, is less than competent, but unaware of his flaws. Mykel has refused to obey his direct orders on occasions when they would entail excessive casualties to his men, but the Majer has overlooked such insubordination when the results are favorable. Since the deployment to Dramur, however, the Majer has been out to get Mykel and any other officer who defies him.

Rachyla is the daughter of Seltyr Ubarjyr. She is driving a horsecart to town when Mykel, leading a squad of Cadmian riflemen, stops her for questioning. Mykel notices her shifting her leg to hide a firearm under the seat and warns her to move away from it. When he checks it out, the rifle is a standard Cadmian issue weapon, but without serial numbers. He confiscates it, has his men check the cart for other weapons, and then lets Rachyla go.

When Mykel sends a dispatch reporting the incidence, Majer Vaclyn is very displeased. He comes to Mykel's encampment and has him lead his company to the estate of Seltyr Ubarjyr. There Mykel senses that Rachyla is stalling to let her sire escape and sends a squad to the stables to block his exit. Suddenly riflemen appear on the villa ramparts and open fire on the company. Mykel's troops wipe out most of the riflemen, yet Majer Vaclyn charges into the building and shoots the seltyr.

Dainyl finds that the local Cadmian commander, Majer Herryf, has not submitted the reports that have been attributed to him. The situation on Dramur seems volatile, yet not threatening to the Alectors. The local seltyrs, however, are arming themselves to prevent a takeover from their peers in western Dramur. Since they were unaware of the real situation, the Third Cadmian Battalion blundered into the middle of this conflict and were promptly attacked by both parties.

In this novel, the Alectors on Acorus are only a small part of the planetary population. Since they are very long lived, many have been on planet for centuries. Most of the few Alectors on the planet have come through the translation tubes from Ifryn. These Ifrit colonists have been transformed slightly during the translation. They remain tall, with some men almost eight feet in height. Yet some changes to their appearance are obvious and other such transformations -- mental as well as physical -- may have occurred in the tube as well. No one knows for certain.

Both Dainyl and Mykel encounter soarers and their lifeforce sucking minions. Both are warned to change or they will die. Dainyl is shown the lifeweb around him and his own attachment to Ifryn; he begins to understand that the Ifrits are not, and maybe never will be, part of Acorus. Yet the indigens and landers have been incorporated into the planetary lifeweb.

Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, military tactics and psionic Talents, with a little romance on the side.

-Arthur W. Jordin

There's no longer any doubt--Modesitt has fallen into the "shampoo" mode of series writing: rinse-shampoo-repeat. Alector's Choice, while not a bad book if read on its own (which it can be), is, for fans or former fans of Modesitt's other work merely a rehash of the same old same old. Same old plot. Same old characters. Same old conflicts. Same old resolutions. Only the names have been changed to protect the profits (and a possible plagiarism suit if one could sue oneself).

Reading the above criticism, those who've followed the Corean series can predict what's coming here. A good character of middling military rank is placed under an incompetent superior and given multiple impossible tasks. Employing his still-developing "talent" and his tendency toward original and independent thought, the character manages to overcome said impossible tasks, though not without feeling guilt over the ease with which he learns to kill and not without angering his incompetent superiors. While doing so, he will gradually rise in rank (end of book is coming--cue promotion), overhear snippets of conversations among his men marveling at his ability and his compassion, stoically continue his impossible task of the moment despite being badly wounded, and kill his opponents with a single "crack" of his rifle, despite the seemingly impossible distance between them. He will also ride (a lot), order food (a lot), and tell his men to do a variety of strange yet effective things.

As with the previous three books, there are differences of specifics--this book is set in the far past, all the characters are new as is some of the geography--but no differences of character type, of plot, of structure, of resolution. It's as if it came out of the old Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew/Tom Swift factory structure. If one comes to this book as the first entry into Modesitt's world, then it's moderately readable. It moves along at a decent pace but becomes a bit repetitive within itself and lags a bit toward the latter third. There is little sense of suspense with regard to one of the two main characters--Mykel, the military man described above--since his actions mostly repeat and his abilities are such that one never doubts the outcome of any of his situations. A bit of complexity is added with a second main character, Colonel Dainyl, an Alector caught up in Alector politics linked to the rebellion Mykel is sent to put down. But there is actually little of interest or depth to the Alector culture or background (with the exception of his conversation with one of the original Alectors whose sense of age and sorrow is one of the book's few shining moments) and the politics mostly involve Dainyl flying around musing on how little he understands.

If I had come to this book first, I'd probably rate it a solid three--readable but uninspiring, interesting but not compelling. But being aware of what's come before means it gets downgraded to a two due to its cookie-cutter approach. Not recommended for fans (who will be bored with the overly familiar elements) or for newbies (as the series peters out so badly). If one wants to try Modesitt, turn to the Recluse books which, though by the end also become overly familiar, at least don't do so for a good number of books.

Alector's Choice, L. E. Modesitt's 4th book of the Corean Chronicles, is probably his best novel since 2002's Legacies. By pushing the timeline back several thousand years Modesitt plays to his strengths, spending most of the novel exploring an essentially new world and culture without his common pitfall of telling the same story over and over. I do take a half star off as the plot still isn't up to his very best fantasy work, but it is still a refreshing change from much of his more recent books. I rank it 4.5 stars out of 5 and can recommend it for both Modesitt fans and those new to the series and writer.

It's taken me a while to realize this, but L. E. Modesitt's plethoric catalog of fantasy and science fiction novels share a pattern based on his strengths of worldbuilding, rational characters, and martial writing. Because Modesitt spends so much time forming believable worlds and protagonists, the first couple of novels in any series he writes (as well as the standalone books that he doesn't speed write) tend to be quite good as the story unravels the mysteries he creates. Unfortunately, since his plot writing tends to be repetitive, his followup novels rarely fare as well.

What makes Alector's Choice a solid read despite being the fourth novel in this series is that by bringing the timeframe back several millenia Modesitt essentially creates an entire new world and culture to explore. The Alector (Ifrit)-run Corea of Alector's Choice is substantially different from the lower-tech, post-Catastrophic Corea of the earlier novels, and because Modesitt has only glancingly addressed Alector culture there is a wealth of society to observe for the first time. (The latter works far better than his attempts to backtrack in the Recluce series as once we see a little of Fairhaven and Cyador in the early novels a multi-book exploration is overkill.)

Part of the plot is quite familiar but some isn't. Half of the plot involves the efforts of a young junior officer, Mykel, to deal with incompetent superiors and be slowly forced into using his burgeoning magical skills to valiantly lead troops while making tough moral choices. Had Modesitt used only this plot line, even with the new world the novel would have not been nearly as good as it essentially duplicates that of several of his other novels. However, what makes it far more interesting are the simultaneous efforts of Colonel Dainyl, a military observer and later Mykel's commander, to play Alector politics and unravel what led to the revolt that both are fighting. Modesitt skillfully uses Dainyl to explore Alector culture and it's a masterful attempt that makes this his best novel in several years.

I wish the Mykel side of the story wouldn't be as predictable as it was if you've read any previous Modesitt - and Dainyl's mid-level officer caution against high level scheming superiors is far too similar to that of his characters in other novels - but since Modesitt sticks to world exploration and combat operations for almost the entire book it still works well. Reading the previous 3 novels in the series helps explain much of what the Colonel is doing and enriches the read (knowing how lifewebs and Ancients work is useful, and the term Talent steer from the previous books makes a lot more sense) but isn't necessary to understand the book.

4.5 out of 5 stars and I hope the ubiquitous sequel will have more depths to explore.