/lit/ - Literature

>>20275366
Scholar, Imager Portfolio #4 - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (2011)

Scholar is the first of five books featuring this protagonist and time period. The narrative travels back several centuries to a time before unification of either country or imager. Five states vie for dominance and imagers remain unknown or die. While it would be possible to start here, it would be inadvisable because it seems to assume that the reader has read the previous three to have established everything that matters. There's minimal covering again of anything from the first three books, so a new reader may be confused about certain matters.

Quaeryt, the 29 year old sole POV, is tasked with providing an assessment of whether the former nation that his lord's father conquered still harbors notions of rebellion. The entire novel is Quaeryt's journey there and then taking matters into his own hands. His ambitions are audacious, though concealed. He has few qualms about killing, as long as it's something he can do without there being any evidence. He plays the role of assassin almost as often as that of scholar. As there's no formal training, his imager abilities are developed through trial and error, which are described in text. Some of the side effects of being an imager are either not described or aren't present for whatever reason.

This book continued the trend of focusing on the protagonist's day to day life. The POV is even more closely held than with the previous protagonist and I often felt that almost all the other characters were more background than significant forces than could affect Quaeryt's life, which reflected how closed off he was to others, often by necessity. The various discussions regarding politics, religion, sociology, history, and other subjects are present here as well. This first book compared favorably to the first book of the prior protagonist and I have little doubt that I will comfortably enjoy the rest of my time with him.

Rating: 4/5