More Questions from an L.E. Modesitt Fan

[Gil galad]

thanks for editing those spoilers Tuck

[Aunflin]

Actually, I never noticed a lack of emotion in Modesitt's characters...

But then I've been personally accused of a "lack of emotion" when horrible things happen. But then I just tell them, "Well, it could've been worse. Why get excited about it?"

I'm weird like that...

[Tuck]

I never really paid that much attention to it before, but it was something that sort of nagged at the back of my mind when reading the last book. Most of the time I would not expect to see a lot of things and shock often times tends to limit a person's reactions, but he has sort of gone on with his life without either dealing with any of these emotions or indicating he even has much in the way of strong emotions. Nothing in the way of being furious, angry, outraged, burning for revenge, grieving, tearful, anguished, etc. Perhaps it is just me, but I can't help but wonder why.

[Kagnok]

I've also felt that the main characters tend to handle their emotions in a controlled manner - but, the main characters are often such rational people that it is appropriate.

(Still, apparently LEM includes enough emotion to be nominated for romance awards... )

[Aunflin]

...but his writing is subtle...it's as if he leaves it to the reader to decide what the character is thinking and/or feeling, which is good for us folks with active imaginations...

[lmodesitt]

Kharl is one of those people who expresses what he feels in action, not in reflection... only the deepest wounds will get any sort of self-reflection... the separation from his sons, for example... not that he doesn't feel guilty about his wife. But why would he grieve over Jenevra? He did his best, and he was betrayed by others... and he does feel anger, which is how many men express grief.

There will be more about this -- crucial to the plot -- in Ordermaster.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Hunter B]

Mr. modesitt, I've been thinking about this for a long time... How long are the units of length in the recluce series(cubit and kay)? It seems like a cubit is about 1.5 feet long, but I have no idea about kays. A little help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[lmodesitt]

Think of a kay as roughly equivalent to a kilometer -- or 2000 cubits -- whichever is easier.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[MidasKnight]

I knew what a cubit was but I never quite got the kay. Thanks Mr. Modesitt.

[Ron Lambert]

I am intrigued by the Forest of Naclos.

(1) Did it exist before the marooned colonists from the Rational Stars terraformed Candar, and resisted the process? That is the impression I got from The Chaos Balance.

(2) Are the fearsome creatures that are so determined to leave the walls around the forest and go rampaging through the countryside (in Magi'i of Cyador) generated magically?

(3) When the events of The Death of Chaos take place, and Lerris virtually exhausts or drains the power of Chaos, how does that affect the Forest of Naclos?

(4) When the last of the wards around "The Accursed Forest" failed, what happened to Cyador? (And how did the Whites wind up migrating to Fairhaven? Were they driven out to sea by the forest?)

(5) Will there be any future books that feature the forest itself? The Chaos Balance had Nylan and Arylyn spend a short time in the forest, and we learned a little about the forest then, just enough to tantalize. Perhaps The Order War got into that a little when it talked about the druids--that is the only Recluce book I haven't read yet (not counting Wellspring of Chaos, which I am just starting now).

[lmodesitt]

1. Yes, before the colonists from the Rational Stars, the forest was far larger.

2. No... the creatures are not generated magically. Some possess rudimentary magical abilities, such as the stun lizards.

3. Very little, since it's in balance anyway.

4. When the wards failed, the forest began to expand back toward its previous boundaries. This was evident as already beginning in The Chaos Balance. The "re-orienting" created by Nylan and Ayrlyn essentially creates massive earthquakes, etc., and brings down most of the center of Cyador. Surviving whites moved many places, and eventually some of them congregated in Fairhaven.

5. I honestly don't know. Not any time soon, however.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Ron Lambert]

Thanks for your answers. Much appreciated.

[Ravenseye]

Perhaps The Order War got into that a little when it talked about the druids--that is the only Recluce book I haven't read yet (not counting Wellspring of Chaos, which I am just starting now).

I'd just add here that The Order War does indeed go into the forest and the druids quite a bit. A definite must read, and my personal favorite of the series.

[Ron Lambert]

Thanks, Ravenseye. I've got to get that book!

[Ron Lambert]

Another thing I wonder about is why none of the order mages or chaos mages think of trying to bring up gold from deep within the earth. Anna in Darksong Rising thinks of trying this, and it works for her, bringing up a ton of gold without hardly trying, then magically minting a small portion of it into 100,000 coins (golds). If Creslin had thought of this, he wouldn't have had to resort to piracy to save Recluce. You would think a good order mage like Nylan or Lerris, who could sense things under the earth and manipulate them, would at least be able to say, "Dig here, there's a gold seam down about 150 feet."

White mages should have been able to do it too. After all, Jeslek raised a whole mountain range. Why couldn't he just raise a few seams of gold? "Hey Jeslek, a gold for your thoughts!" No need to be so bearish about collecting tolls (tarriffs) for use of the white roads; the white wizards should have been able to come up with hundreds of times more gold than they could ever get through collecting tolls from reluctant, resentful nation-states located along the white roads--who never even asked for them to build the roads in the first place.

[MidasKnight]

If we pick long enough, we're bound to ruin the world he's created.

I'm going to stop reading these threads.

[Ghost]

If we pick long enough, we're bound to ruin the world he's created.

I agree.

Another thing I wonder....

You want to write to criticisms fine just don't do it in the Questions For LEM thread.

I'm going to stop reading these threads.

No you're not, you're going to read them get mad and then stew or post your opinion.

[\maybe I’m out of line , LEM we love your books ]

[lmodesitt]

Actually... in theory, partly, you're right, except that there are very few "earth" mages in Recluce... Creslin certainly isn't, nor is Justen. That's really not Cerryl's specialty. Jeslek could have done it, but his mind never worked that way, and Lerris could have, except that by the time he truly realizes what he could have done he's already changed the world so that he can't.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Ravenseye]

Do you have any ideas or tentative plans to make a Recluce book dealing with Werlynn as the main character? His point of view, and if he made any other influences beyond siring Creslin would be interesting to see. Or is Werlynn someone whose main significance is what we've seen, and while cool doesn't really warrant a book in your mind?

[Ron Lambert]

Sorry MidasKnight and Ghost, I thought I was asking a legitimate question. I was not asking it out of a desire to pick holes in the stories. It just occurred to me as I was reading the stories that if it were me, I would look for an easy way to come up with golds. And as I pointed out, Anna in Darksong Rising did exactly what I suggested, she brought up gold out of the earth, and even used magic to mint it into gold coins.

Yes, Mr. Modesitt, I can buy that about Jeslek. He clearly was more than a little unbalanced and compulsive-obssessive, and probably preferred to demand that other countries pay tarriff for use of the roads as an excuse to bring them under White rule. Offer him a producing gold mine, and he still would have wanted the rulers of other nation-states to pay up.

By the way, I loved reading The Magic Engineer which shows events from Dorrin's viewpoint, after reading and The Colors of Chaos, which showed some of the same events from Cerryl's viewpoint. I wondered just how it was that Dorrin got Jeslek. It seemed a little vague and mysterious in The Colors of Chaos, and The Magic Engineer made it clear.

It is also interesting in the Recluce stories how someone who seems to be a good guy from one viewpoint, appears somewhat different from another viewpoint. Modesitt is masterful in the way he does this. Was Cerryl really a good guy? He seemed to be in the way he treated people he knew, people who shared his essential viewpoint. But his highest purpose was to promote Fairhaven, as the embodiment of civilization. This is sort of the way the ancient Romans justified their empire--the assertion that they were bringing "civilization" to the world. Certainly Dorrin would not have regarded Cerryl as being much different from Jeslek. Same for Lorn of Cyador, who was awfully good at assassination and cold-blooded killing for a good guy. Likewise the forest of Naclos--to Lorn it seems an embodiment of brooding evil, but in The Chaos Balance, you begin to sympathize with the forest, because it has a legitimate grievance against Cyador, and actually helps Nylan and Arylyn against the Cyadorans.

[ironwill96]

If you think from an economic standpoint, doing what you suggest would be a bad idea in general. There is a certain "balance" that has to be struck of the currency in circulation, even when using a precious metals based system. If you suddenly came up with hundreds of tons of gold coins, the overall value of gold would go down and you would decrease the value of your currency leading to rampant inflation - just think of what has happened in Mexico and other countries several times. It is not quite as bad because you are using precious metals which have value outside of the currency system, but if you introduce enough of it into circulation, it will devalue it because it is now less "rare", which is what makes it valuable in the first place.

Just a though,
Nathan

[lmodesitt]

The point about debasement/inflation created by too much gold introduced too rapidly is valid -- and I'd actually thought about that. However, the opposite has also been true in history, when there literally was not enough metal-based coinage. That's why Anna can mint her own coins -- because the gold has a value of its own and because Defalk is horrendously "specie-poor." In that case, the introduction of more coinage will spur commerce and production. In the case of Fairhaven, at the time of Cerryl, where commerce is established and flowing well, more gold might not help at all, but have exactly the effect that Nathan postulated.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Ron Lambert]

And I notice that even Anna, when she brought up all that gold out of the earth, only minted a small fraction of it, at least right away, in Darksong Rising. I haven't read The Shadow Sorceress yet, so I don't know if she or Secca dipped into the treasure trove any further.

I have heard several times from different sources that the world diamond market has long been artificially maintained at an elevated level. If this were not being done, the diamond market would have crashed long ago, because there are so many diamonds available. It's a good thing we don't have our currency based on diamonds.

The problem with our present monetary system is that it is based solely on faith. We have faith that the U.S. economy is strong, and will continue to be so. But let anything come to pass that raises serious doubts, and our currency could quickly lose its value. And America is seriously and increasingly vulnerable because of our huge, multi-trillion dollar national debt. Let a couple of major earthquakes hit, or terrorists set off a tactical nuke somewhere in the U.S., and that could send us spiralling down to economic collapse, where we would not have the resources any more even to pay the interest on our national debt. That in turn would result in massive bank and business failures. If anyone questions how vulnerable our economy really is, just look at how our economy had a heart attack after 9-11, from which we are still recovering.

Getting back to Recluce/Candar, it appears that none of the nations are sufficiently civilized to try issuing "faith-based" paper currency. Cyador might have come close to reaching the place where it might have dared such a thing. But then the towers starting failing.

The White Order of Fairhaven might have tried to issue a chaos-based currency. That would be in the form of bearer instruments "entitling the bearer to one firebolt on demand, aimed at the target of his choice." That would imply the willing cooperation of the white mages. Then Recluce would have to issue order-based currency, "entitling the bearer to an infusion of order." (I'm not sure how it would be quantified.) Which would depend upon the willing cooperation of black mages.

I'm just joking.

[Hunter B]

Thanks Mr. Modesitt for the answer to the question about distance and I'm sorry I didn't thank you sooner but for a while I can only go on the boards on weekends. Once again, thanks!

[Aunflin]

Think of a kay as roughly equivalent to a kilometer -- or 2000 cubits -- whichever is easier.


L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Yay! I knew I was right! Kay = Kilometer