Fairhaven Rising by L.E. Modesitt Jr. : Review

Sixteen years have passed since the mage Beltur helped to found the town of Fairhaven, and Taelya, Beltur’s adopted niece, is now a white mage undercaptain in the Road Guards of Fairhaven.

Fairhaven’s success under the Council has become an impediment to the ambition of several rulers, and the mages protecting the town are seen as a threat.

Taelya, a young and untried mage, will find herself at the heart of a conspiracy to destroy her home and the people she loves, and she may not be powerful enough to stop it in time.

Well, here we are, it’s another new year and another new Saga of Recluce book by L.E. Modesitt, Jr and as a fan, I could not have been more excited to receive my review copy a few weeks ago. I can’t help but feel that one of the signs that Modesitt is such a fantastic author is the fact that over the last 15 years I’ve read nearly 50 of his books and I still get ridiculously excited every time there is a new release — Though, to be honest, I often have the same excited reaction every time I receive any new book. Fairhaven Rising by L.E. Modesitt, Jr was full of everything I’ve come to love and expect from a Recluce novel. There was enough action, magic, and political intrigue to keep me reading much later into the night than I should have on a work night.

I don’t want to touch too much on the plot of this book for fear of spoilers, but I will say that I think part of what made me so excited to read Fairahaven Rising was the fact that I thought The Mage-Fire War was the last book we were going to get about Beltur and his allies. So I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw the title of this book. I’ve always found Fairhaven to be one of the more interesting cities over the course of this series. I loved the idea of a city like Fairhaven that tried to find the balance between Order and Chaos, only to be slowly pushed more and more towards Chaos by the founding of Recluce and the rise of its powerful Order mages. So I love that we get to see what it was like for this city in the very begging as it starts its rise to power and prominence.

While I loved Beltur as a protagonist in the previous three books, I’m honestly glad to see that Fairhaven Rising shifts the focus to another character altogether. In the previous three books Taelya was a minor character just learning that she was a Chaos mage who needed training and I think Modesitt was smart to bring her to the forefront with this book. Some of my favorite books and scenes in the entire Saga of Recluce have been those that give us a deeper insight into the minds and lives of Chaos mages, so I loved that we get to see one who is still young and in training. Taelya is a fantastic character in this book and I can’t wait to see what comes next for her as she continues to train and come into her own as a powerful Chaos mage.

All in all, I thought this was a great addition to the Saga of Recluce and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for something new to read. I also think that while it does follow up on the events of the previous trilogy, it acts as a great starting off point for the series! I can’t wait to see what Modesitt has in store for the Saga of Recluce in the near future!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.