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L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Just wondering why there aren’t any maps in From the Forest or Overcaptain? Is this your choice, or Tor’s? I enjoy your writing, and the world you’ve created in Recluce.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I submitted updated rough maps to Tor, i.e. annotated versions of older maps. I was told that the combination of copyright on the original maps and cost to redraw them made including them infeasible.
Is there an upcoming book in The Grand Illusion? It just seems to stop.
The fourth book in The Grand Illusion is Legalist, which is a prequel to the first three books. Right now, I don’t wish to say more about possible future books.
I would appreciate any comments you may have about the politics and economics of this article: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/age-depopulation-surviving-world-gone-gray-nicholas-eberstadt
My initial reaction is that Eberstadt totally misses the ramifications of the most important point. We’re seeing depopulation because women everywhere in the world are tired of being baby factories and being marginalized. Where they can, they’re stepping away from familial structures that continue to minimize them. Where they can’t step away, they’re trying to have fewer children.
Until men and governments recognize this, and actually deal with the problem, it’s going to continue.
I wondered if you ever considered a Prequel series to the “Forever Hero” novels. It seems like the downfall of Earth, and how Gerswin came to be.
I’ve never considered a prequel to The Forever Hero for several reasons. First, such a prequel would be a real downer. Second, for it to be even halfway realistic, the books or books would have to be massive. Third, the last kind of book I’d want to write would be a massively complex downer, especially since The Forever Hero is essentially a tragedy.
I enjoy your writing and own most of your books, which I buy new because I like to support writers. Being on a retirement budget, I wait patiently for the Mass Market Paperback editions, which also fit on my shelves. However, the prices on your recent series have been rapidly climbing. Mass Market Edition of Contrarian at $15.00??? Is your publisher trying to encourage us to turn to the resale market?
No… Tor isn’t trying to cut readership. It’s a sad fact, but inflation has also hit publishing costs. I understand your amazement and frustration, but it’s not just Tor. Contrarian runs 750 pages in the mass market edition. I’ve done a spot check of current mass market paperbacks of approximately the same length as Contrarian, and I’ve found quite a few, from various publishers, in the $13.00-$15.00 range. There are several reasons for that. First, the price of paper and everything else is up. Second, the overall sales of mass market paperbacks have dropped enormously, most likely because ebooks cost less. As a result, for better or worse, from here on out, it’s unlikely that any of my upcoming releases will be available in mass market paperback. The only print versions will be hardcover and trade paperback.
The problem is that I write large books. Large books have lots of pages, which requires more paper. Almost all of the recently published mass market paperbacks around the same length as Contrarian that I could find (and there weren’t many) are priced in the same range. The vast majority of books listed in Locus are half the length of Contrarian in hardcover and sell for about $5-$7 less. If I didn’t sell reasonably well in ebooks, I doubt that Tor could afford to publish my long novels in print format at all.
I realize that’s hardly comforting to you, and it’s certainly not to me, but the way matters are going, according to many professionals throughout the field, fewer and fewer books, especially long ones, will be printed or reprinted as mass market paperbacks because the physical production costs have increased so much. It also means that I won’t be writing really long books and/or they’ll have to be split into more volumes.
Firstly, your books have brought me great enjoyment, in particular Corean Chronicles, Imager Portfolio and Saga of Recluse. I was delighted to find a chronology for Recluse on your site and am now in the midst of rereading all of them in order (barring the few that are not yet published). However there is a small inconsistency – Wellspring of Chaos, Year 2170, is followed by Ordermaster, Year 2112. Are the years wrong, or are the books in the wrong order?
Alas, it’s more mundane than that. It’s a typo. The year for Ordermaster should have been 2172 (I’ve since changed it on the website). Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
This isn’t much of a question, but more of an adoration for your work! I had ZERO idea my favorite author of the last few years has a slick website, and an active response series! I’ll be brief, but as a sophomore at KSU (Go Cats!), your mass portfolio of novels, alongside your battle depictions and determined characters have me hooked–and honestly, amazed. (Man is THE writer). It’s taken me a while, but I’ve been reading The Corean Chronicles, and I’m currently on the second half of the second book, Darknesses, and Alucius (the GOAT) has just awoken from his near-death battle with the Pteranodons, ending the war with a new expanse of his talent. My question goes into the motive/mentality of Alucius at this point; with the the mass loss/Burning of his men, repeated omen-induced dreams, and a horribly injured body (poor guy got his hair burnt off)–Does he, behind the pages, experience anguish over being used by the Dekrons? Or more so, feels disgust in how easy it is for himself to kill? (luckily it’s always in defense!) If translated such events in today’s world, would Alucius ever be expected of showing symptoms of shell-shock, PTSD? Some passages hint to his withdrawn attitude when ever (briefly) saying what cruelties happened to him to his spouse (in Legacies), but he more-so, just shares a small nod and a send-off in relation to his under captains/soldiers. Therefore, is it because of his herding-origins and strength in The One who Is, that Over Captain Alucius doesn’t shy away from calculated killing? (I don’t want to compare two giants of fantasy literature, but I only know that much) Like Froddo’s dread of the ring, does Alucius carry his talent with a sense of horror? (Being that, many officers would be alive with him, but literal cities would’ve been ablazed if it wasn’t /for/ him). I ask this because, seeing him be used by those torque-wielding women in the last book, I catch myself wondering if the heralded hero ever hesitates, or in such a state of war, there’s no time to hesitate. Maybe I’ll eat my words come chapter 78, but I’m too excited to send a message to the AUTHOR HIMSELF!
For better or worse, you did send a message to the author himself, since I’m the only one responding or posting from the website. In answer to your question about Alucius’s mental state, from my observations and limited research into possible PTSD-inducing situations, there are two primary factors affecting susceptibility to PTSD: (1) the intensity or horror of the events experienced (including duration and closeness) and (2) the individual’s resilience and ability to remain less attached (the “problem” being that I suspect total detachment borders on psychopathy). Alucius never wanted to be a soldier/warrior; he’s a nightsheep herder, and he ends up being good at what he does by first just surviving, and second, by recognizing that the only way he’ll ever be able to return to what and who he loves is by destroying what stands in the way in the most effective manner (which is in fact borderline psychopathy) and by, in effect, identifying those behind his opponents as “the other,” which is a traditional coping mechanism of human beings forced to do horrific acts.
I won’t comment further because Scepters will bring Alucius another trial.
Will there be any additional Imager books after Endgames?
It’s highly unlikely, but I won’t absolutely foreclose the possibility. At this point, I’ve written five fantasy series and three science fiction “series” (linked books in different futures), and I still am writing, with three more Recluce books and at least one more, and possibly two Grand Illusion books coming out in the next three years. While I intend to keep writing, I’m not exactly a spring chicken, as the old saying goes, and we’ll just have to see.
I noticed an error at page 601, line 16 of Contrarian. The word “kept” should have been “keep.”
Despite intensive proofreading, typos still slip in. I’ve passed the error on to Tor.
I have read up to number 11 in The Imager series. I have to know what happened after that. Is there a 12th book?
Yes, there is. The last book (number 12) is Endgames, which was published in February of 2019.
And you wonder why I have to curb my desire to lecture?” (July 31st, 2024) So, please don’t curb such desire. You describe a politician’s small office staffing in your “Grand Illusion” series. Please expand on your experiences in the US Congress; specifically the elements/expertise that usually makes up the staff of a U.S. Representative’s office staff and/or a U.S. Senator’s office staff. How/why are these people chosen by the politician?
After the rather poor reception of /The Green Progression, I doubt that I’ll write about contemporary or even near future U.S. politics. Since I know something about staffing a U.S. Representative’s staff, I can give you a general outline of the key personnel, at least at the time I was a staff director. Usually, the head of the office is the staff director, once called the A.A.(administrative assistant). Then most offices have a media/press aide, a legislative assistant, a chief caseworker, and the appointments/personal secretary to the Representative. These positions can overlap. When I was in charge of the office, I was effectively the head legislative assistant. My successor as staff director was the press/media aide. There is almost always an office in the district (sometimes two in large rural districts), with several staff members there. As I recall (it was 40 years ago), the total number of employees was 18 (including those in district offices), but there was also a total salary cap for staffers. Unpaid interns didn’t count against the cap; so there were usually a few of those, but not that many, because the D.C. employees had to fit into two staff rooms. There were usually other staffers with assorted duties. For new Congressmen or Congresswomen, usually a few campaign aides ended up as staff, depending on abilities. Others are picked for needed expertise. Salaries and duties are determined by the Representative, and the only real limits are the number of staff and the total staff pay ceiling.
I’m rereading the Imager books, and I’m reminded of a recurring experience by most of your main characters. Their situations require that they kill people (sometimes A LOT of people), and yet they never seem terribly bothered by it other than some occasional regret. Quaeryt is certainly driven into at least a month of madness at killing many 10’s of thousands but not so much after “only” 10 thousand troops, and Lorne feels guilty about a single innocent. I have a harder time understanding how a portraitist like Renn can become a cold-hearted killer in less than a year after an earlier lifetime devoid of violence. Is the mark of a hero the ability to avoid PTSD or significant guilt from the body count they amass? Or is it the necessity of the plot moving on? Curious what your view is on this. Thank you!
People are different. A single brutal incident is enough to create PTSD in some. Killing doesn’t seem to bother others in the slightest. From my experience and observation, most people lie somewhere in between. Also, I’m convinced that the circumstances make a difference, and the closer and more “personal” the killing is, the greater the emotional impact. Also, I tend to write more from the viewpoint of the “defender” than the conqueror, possibly because I tend to believe that killing in self-defense or defense against raiders or attackers exacts less of a price. And, from a practical viewpoint, I’d rather not write a military story where the main character is effectively reduced to mental rubble by killing. Instead, my characters vary, ranging from those less impacted to those more so, but over time, there’s a definite impact.
I really enjoyed the Imager series. Is there any plan to continue the series?
I have no plans to write additional Imager books, and it’s unlikely that I will, but I won’t say “never,” because I learned a long time ago that was unwise.
Given the sheer amount of writing and years you have spent on the world of Recluse, it seems likely there are some things you established early on that have caused annoyance in later books. I certainly have seen plenty of things that cleverly show how things that certain characters (and readers) thought to be true were in fact not, but are there things that you have found more difficult to work around?
So far, I’ve managed to work around most items in the earliest Recluce books(that is, those I wrote first, in which the events take place after the earlier books) that might suggest contradictions, but occasionally a reader will bring something to my attention. In many cases, there’s no contradiction, because, as is often the case in the history of our world, the historians had an agenda to either excessively glorify or denigrate the acts of previous powerful figures. There also have been instances where I made a mistake, despite my best efforts.
You worked a lot of great mythology into The Timegod, but there’s one reference I always thought I missed. At the end, Loki realizes that the bell told him where everyone had gone, and he understood it due to a recent language implant. I’ve always felt like that was more significant than I was picking up on. Is that actually a reference which went over my head?
It’s not so much a reference as a hint. The bell is inscribed with a Terran language. Sammis tells Loki that he can find Baldur and Wryan, and even Sammis himself, and gestures to the bell before he vanishes. The inference is that all the Scandinavian myths in our world come from Baldur, Sammis, and Wryan… because that’s where they went from Query.
Why does the era of the books of Recluse not start, for example, with the arrival on the island or with the birth of the founder?
The dates in the chronology begin with the year that the rationalist colonists landed. Those dates show up in Magi’i of Cyador and Scion of Cyador. The term A.F., refers to After the Fall. Other cultures around the world may use other dates, but I used the founding of Cyad as the base date.
Will there ever be any Film or Episodic adaptations of the Recluce series? If so, could you please elaborate?
I’m not aware of any plans of even rumors of plans to present anything in the Saga of Recluce in film, television, or the like. While I can hope, I’m certainly not holding my breath.
Although I’ve been occasionally approached about gaming possibilities over the years, those have not turned out, either, at least so far.
Do you have a public appearance schedule for the rest of the year?
At present, I do not have any other public appearances scheduled for the rest of the year.
For personal and logistical reasons unrelated to my health, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be making many public appearances in the foreseeable future.
I’ve just begun reading the Ecolitan novels, and I notice that you have used the same system names as in The Hammer of Darkness: Fuard, Halston, etc. Do you consider all of these novels to be in the same timeline/universe? If so, what is the chronology?
In writing my science fiction, I’ve always considered the different “series”/books as possible varying futures from the present in which we live, or, as in the case of the “Ghost” books, an alternate present. That’s why certain names recur in various books. The Ecolitan books are set in a future somewhat different from The Hammer of Darkness, and there’s no real connection except the past.
I just finished, and greatly enjoyed, From the Forest. My impression (having not re-read other Recluce books with chaos-wielding protagonists recently) is that Alyiakal learned a number of fairly advanced techniques (which I have always likened to lasers or energy weapons) quite quickly. I’m curious, if that’s the case, is that more reflective on Alyiakal’s unique talents, or on the benefits of having lots of order-chaos devices around to learn from. I’m also curious if there’s any genetic differences between the Cyadorans and the surrounding nations that affects the prevalence of order-chaos wielders. It seems that Cyador is much more sparsely populated despite their higher technology level and employ a lot of the same techniques as Recluce later does to rely on technology and technique when they are outnumbered.
Alyiakal isn’t really that much different from other Magi’i, nor does he have more in the way of devices or technology to learn from. What he does have is a very good tutor in Master Triamon, who makes Alyiakal really think about how to use chaos, Healer Vayidra, and the experiences of the Great Forest. No other magus has that range of experience. He also has the incentive to learn because he almost instinctively knows that he’ll be killed if he doesn’t. Because most of the inhabitants of Cyador are from the Rational Stars, that means there are definite differences in genetics from the inhabitants of the lands bordering Cyador. With the later fall of Cyador, many of the techniques for dealing with order and chaos are lost or forgotten, and have to be rediscovered, partly in Fairhaven, but largely in Recluce because greater mastery of order is required to fully harness the power of chaos.
