Wellspring of Chaos (Saga of Recluce) [Mass Market Paperback]

The story is one we've heard before and unfortunately elements remain formulaic enough to knock it down a star. Without ruining plot, Kharl the Cooper is a good-deeds type who does a good deed for the wrong person, gets forced from his home, sails around the globe (literally), finds himself in exile, and helps out the land and people of his exile. Substitute sail for wander and Recluce has seen this tale told before - Magic of Recluce, Towers of the Sunset, Magic Engineer, Order War, Fall of Angels, among others. It's familiar territory, for better or for worse.

Now the good news. First, Kharl is Modesitt's first middle-aged Recluce protagonist since Nylan in the Chaos Balance, meaning Modesitt ratchets Kharl's observation level of life's travails up a few notches from his typical kid. This doesn't mean Kharl is any quicker off the bat than some others - his awakening as an Order Mage resembles that of Lerris - but we don't have to watch him do truly dumb things. Second, the wanderjahr is better done than any book since Chaos Balance. Kharl visits almost every major city on the planet in his sailing, and its the exploration of the different cultures in this well articulated world that make this worth reading. Nordla and Austra finally get explored, as well as side trips into Hamor, Recluce and Candar, the last of which features some neat cameos by previous series characters. As it turns out, Austra and Nordla don't feel much different from various Candar provinces, but its still interesting reading. Finally, Kharl does interesting things with Order magic - there's new tricks in that old dog.

The formulaic aspect to the plot clearly subtracts a bit, meaning this is good but doesn't rank with the very best of the series (such as Towers or Death of Chaos). Still, its the best of Recluce in several years, and the various plot threads Modesitt leaves undone means we'll get a sequel of hopefully similar quality.

It's also not a bad entry point for the series given that Kharl has to have the history of Candar explained to him by his shipmates, meaning you get a pretty solid background even if you don't know the series. Those of us who have a bookshelf full of Modesitt first editions and would buy the next just to keep the series complete have a worthwhile read ahead.

When the blackstaffer is found murdered, Kharl is blamed by the authorities. They know quite well that he had nothing to do with it, but Kharl's earlier good deeds puts him at odds with them. He is falsely imprisoned and he loses his wife and his children (how he loses his wife and children I will up to the reader to discover). Kharl must escape Brysta before he loses his life. He ends up taking a berth on a ship owned by one of his former customers and works as a carpenter for a time. Kharl also begins learning about his inclination towards Order (which will make sense if you have read other Recluse novels), and who he may really be.

"Wellspring of Chaos" was a good Recluse novel. For one of the few times (or maybe first) in the series, the main character is a middle aged man rather than a kid going out on his quest. This changes how Kharl reacts to things and how he thinks, though he still is a bit naïve at times. As always, "Wellspring of Chaos" is not substantially different from the other Recluse novels. They have a similar feel and if I wasn't told that Brysta is in Nordla rather than Candar, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. The good thing is that if you do not try to read the whole series one right after another, this is a good story with a fairly likeable protagonist and is a nice addition to the series. Similar series of events happen to Kharl that might have happened to any number of protagonists in Recluse, but Modesitt is a solid enough writer that it is easy to get engaged in the story and it doesn't matter what other novels have come before (even if there are 11 previous novels).