The Magic Engineer

There is little to distinguish this newest Recluce work (after Towers of the Sunset ) from its myriad fantasy brethren. This time around, Modessit's world of Order (Black) and Chaos (White) features the plodding Dorrin, a healer/engineer who dreams of making machines and often denies what other people consider his extraordinary abilities. When the White Wizards of Chaos threaten the area of the world to which the Order-based Dorrin has been exiled to ``find himself,'' he uses his engineering talents to design and build weaponry and his dreamed-of machines. Modesitt's prose lacks the range to make his rather pedestrian narrative interesting: more than a few events are unnecessarily telegraphed to readers several chapters before they happen, and the same character often--irritatingly--described three different ways within a few paragraphs. The most effective moments are those depicting the troubled relationship between Dorrin and a woman named Liedral. There's not much else to sustain the reader. (Mar.)