Showing results by author "L.E. Modesitt Jr." in All Categories

The cooper Kharl has no sooner taken possession of the estate bestowed upon him by Lord Ghrant of Austra when he is summoned back to the capital. After a bloody campaign, in which Kharl discovers and is forced to use even more deadly order magery, civil order is restored and Ghrant's throne firmly secured. But Kharl is now a famous and feared public figure, the Lord's Mage, and his notoriety makes him uncomfortable.To his surprise, Kharl is soon called upon again by Lords Ghrant and Hagen.

Mykella, the eldest daughter of the Lord-Protector of Lanachrona, discovers that someone is diverting significant sums of money from her father's treasury. Soon, a series of fatal and near fatal accidents occur with members of her family and trusted retainers. Then there are attempts to remove Mykella and her sisters from the capital by marrying them off.

Rahl, a young apprentice scrivener on the island of Recluce, likes life to work out in his favor. And he has a bad attitude, too. To make sure things go his way, he uses a small amount of order magic at opportunistic moments-but his abilities are starting to get the attention of the Council magisters. So the Council sends him to the mage training school for testing, and through misuse of his powers, which are getting stronger all the time, Rahl gets himself banished to the continent and empire of Hamor.

Six years have passed since the failed uprising of the High Holders, and the man behind the conspiracy is where the rex and Maitre Alastar can keep an eye on him. Charyn has come of age and desperately wants to learn more so that he can become an effective rex after his father - but he's kept at a distance by the rex. So Charyn sets out to educate himself - circumspectly. When Jarolian privateers disrupt Solidar's shipping, someone attempts to kill Charyn's younger brother as an act of protest.

Professor Johan Eschbach had hoped for a quiet life in retirement from the intelligence service, teaching environmental science and living with his new wife, but an unusual invitation from the Mormon nation of Deseret inexorably drags him back into the spy business, though he isn't quite sure why or for whom. It quickly becomes apparent that he is being used as a pawn in a deadly game of international maneuverings that are leading the world closer to war.

When two real ghosts and the records of a murdered researcher enter the life of Johan Eschbach, the former spy and present professor finds himself caught with the secret of high technology de-ghosting, and the whole world, including his former spymasters, try to turn Johan himself into another ghost.

A bloody coup has made Mykella, the Lord-Protector's daughter, ruler of her land, but it has also left her and her two sisters bereft of family and uncertain of their friends. Worse, their country is almost destitute, and there are rumblings of war along the borders.

Across the Galactic Empire, from planet to planet, the lone Immortal fights. He has a plan, and he has all the time he needs. Gerswin, the Forever Hero, is determined to be the salvation of distant Earth and of humanity. In The Silent Warrior, Gerswin, now out among the worlds of the Empire, pursues his idealistic quest for supplies for Earth through a secret, bold economic war, undermining the very foundations of the Empire.

The keep of Westwind, located in the cold mountainous heights called the Roof of the World, is facing attack by the adjoining land of Gallos. Arthanos, son and heir to the ailing Prefect of Gallos, wishes to destroy Westwind because the idea of a land where women rule, no matter how small and how isolated, is total anathema to him. Saryn, Arms-Commander of Westwind, is dispatched to the neighboring land of Lornth to seek support against the Gallosians.

In the twenty-fourth century, Earth is vastly changed. Ecological and biological catastrophe have raged across the planet, but for the survivors, it is a world of plenty. Even the poorest live in abundance, and the upper class—the ascendant—command technological marvels.

Rahl was a young apprentice on the island of Recluce who was sent to the mages' training school for testing, then banished to Hamor. His education now continues under dangerous circumstances. In Hamor, his powers have increased but so has the amount of trouble he attracts. The whole society of Hamor is a new culture for L. E. Modesitt, Jr., to explore, one in which magic is a monopoly of the state. Rahl is a mage now, powerful and still just as dangerous to himself and to others.

Alastar has settled into his role as the Maitre of the Collegium. Now married with a daughter, he would like nothing better than to focus his efforts on improving Imager Isle and making it more self-sufficient. However, the rise in fortune of the merchant classes in Solidar over the years does not sit well with the High Holders, who see the erosion of their long-enjoyed privileges. Bad harvests and worse weather spark acts of violence and murder.

What lies beneath the millions of orbiting nanotech satellites that shroud the world called Haze? Major Keir Roget's mission is to make planetfall in secret, find out, and report back to his superiors in the Federation, the Chinese-dominated government that rules Earth and the colonized planets. For all his effectiveness as a security agent, Roget is troubled by memories of an earlier mission.

Nathaniel Firstborn Whaler is an Ecolitan, both a professor at the Institute and a field agent with extraordinary powers. Sent to a backwater colony planet nominally to determine its economic viability, Whaler evades an assassin's bullets only steps from the spaceport. He soon uncovers evidence that the planet will become the flashpoint for interstellar conflict between two empires, with each prepared to blame the Ecolitan Institute should war break out. Whaler must do everything in his power to stop what might become the worst disaster in human history.

The deadly White Wizards of Fairhaven, wielding the forces of chaos, threaten the ancient matriarchy of Sarronnyn, the last bastion of order in Candar. When Sarronnyn falls despite the assistance of the Black Order mages, Justen, a young Black Engineer, must escape the city and master forbidden technology that harness chaos itself. Even so, it may not be enough to halt conquest of the White Wizards.

Four centuries in the future, the world is rich—nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody—but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people: a singing teacher, a news researcher, a police investigator, a politician, and a ruthless businessman.

Rather than accepting a marriage arranged by his mother, the powerful military matriarch of Westwind, Creslin chooses exile, setting out to find his own identity and developing his magical talents through conflict with the enigmatic white wizards of Candar. What Creslin doesn't know he stands in the way of their plot to subjugate the world.

Lerris has settled into being a woodworker and building a life with Krystal. But this newfound peace is endangered when both Candar and Recluce come under the threat of invasion from the Empire of Hamor. Despite the imminent possibility of destruction, the lands of Candar will not unite and Recluce will not heed the peril. Lerris is faced with the challenge of becoming the greatest wizard of all time-or seeing his whole world destroyed.

The civilization of the Alectors - which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to produce sustaining life force for their vampiric civilization - must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move.

Young Lerris yearns to find a place in the world better suited to his skills and temperament. In Recluce this means taking one of two options: permanent exile from Recluce or the dangergeld, a complex, rule-laden wanderjahr in the lands beyond. Many do not survive. Lerris chooses dangergeld. Lerris will need magic in the lands beyond, where the power of the Chaos Wizards reigns unchecked, and he must learn to use his powers in an orderly way before his wanderjahr, or fall prey to Chaos.