Madness in Solidar / L.E. Modesitt Jr

Madness in Solidar

(Imager 9)

by L.E. Modesitt Jr

fantasy

copyright 2015

read in December 2016

rated 7/10: well worth reading

For many, many chapters, nothing happens. Well, nothing apparently exciting. Meetings are held, accounts are checked, the school for Imagers ticks over. Then there's a burst of activity -- fighting, using Imagery. Followed by more of nothing much, some excitement, more of nothing much...

So why did I rate it as seven?!

Partly because it's book nine of a series yet it stands alone. I have read only one other Imager book, the very first. There are plenty of references to the "history" of the first eight books -- yet I did not need to have read any of those books. (Though, perhaps, it would have added depth to my enjoyment.) In fact, Modesitt has dealt nicely with those first books by saying that the earlier Imagers have deliberately wiped their exploits from the history books.

So we're starting a new age of Imagers. And yet... I keep feeling that there is a book missing. Which is, I hope, just the result of a solid backstory which has not been written.

Partly, I enjoy this book because... I enjoy it :-)  Even the "boring" stuff was sort of entertaining. It certainly did not stop me reading. And it is easy to read. Then -- once the action had happened -- I found that I was just a little bit more interested in the surrounding nothing much.

Not that I could follow all that was happening... Every character is named and has their own part to play in the action. (Or, in the inaction.) I quickly gave up trying to remember the characters. Some stood out, I remember them. Others, I just treated as filler. Not worth following. So I missed some of the motivations.

And partly I enjoyed this book for something which may be purely in my imagination...

This book is set 400 years after the previous eight. The earlier characters have avoided being written up in the history books. They are remembered as heroes, their actual deeds are largely forgotten. In just one of the surviving books from that era there is a passing reference to the amazing powers of the wife of the main hero.

Was it the case, perhaps, that the first eight books were very... traditional. That men were men and that women looked pretty, supported their men, and occasionally twisted their ankles? Is that acceptable in today's books? And here is a very clever way for readers -- especially those starting Imager reading with book nine -- to accept a more egalitarian set of Imagers.

There is the male Imager and the female Imager. Each powerful, in their own ways. Was this possible in the first eight books? I'm guessing -- not. If I'm right -- that's very clever.

I enjoyed this book. Perhaps not really at a "seven" level... But, for various reasons, near enough.

PS: Having read the book... I still have no idea what the cover picture is supposed to represent.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"No plan survives contact with the enemy." … Helmuth von Moltke the Elder