Natural Ordermage

Modesitt's 14th novel of the island-continent Recluce (after 2004's Ordermaster ) introduces Rahl, a short-tempered but diligent copyist with a knack for wielding a truncheon. These skills prove vital when he's banished to the distant continent of Hamor for mouthing off to the ordermages who are trying to teach him to control his unusual abilities. As Rahl explores the cities of Nylan and Swartheld and endures assault, a memory-erasing drug and a second exile to the coal mines of Luba, his natural sense of order increases, but his quick anger and recklessness lead him into a series of blunders from which he only barely recovers. Though Rahl mostly manages to stay a sympathetic character, readers may grow impatient with his tendency to shoot himself in the foot. Modesitt renders the people and places of Recluce and Hamor somewhat humorlessly but with diligent attention to detail, treading the narrow line between exquisite world-building and overbearing verbosity. (Sept.)