Soarer's Choice: The Sixth Book of the Corean Chronicles

As Modesitte does we get to see things from the other side. He tell us how we got there. Never saw this coming.

I have read almost all of LE Modesitt's work and enjoyed them all. He is able to bring his characters to life and then grow and develop them into better people. This book delves into how the choices made by the Alector Dannil affect his life and the lives around him. This novel also brings the Corean Chronicals full circle. I do hope that Mr Modesitt has considered revisiting this world.

Soarer's Choice (2007) is the sixth fantasy novel of the Corean Chronicles and the third in the prequel trilogy, following Cadmian's Choice. In the previous volume, Submarshall Dainyl took the Table at Hyalt offline, although he received a cut from an Ancient weapon and barely made it through the tubes to an Ancient site before collapsing. When he returned to Elcien, the aura over his shoulder was stained green. Majer Mykel also managed to take the Table at Tempre offline, but was almost killed in the resulting explosion. His undercaptain placed him in the care of Chatelaine Rachyla for treatment of his injuries. When he has recovered enough to rejoin his battalion, Mykel passed the Ancient dagger on to Rachyla. In this novel, Dainyl distributes the announcement of his appointment as Marshall of Myrmidons and repositions his Myrmidon companies to keep them from being suborned by Brekylt. He appoints Undercaptain Zernylta as assistant Operations Officer. Then he briefs Duarch Khelaryt on his actions and provides a more concise report to High Alectors Chembryt, Alseryl and Ruvryn. The next day, Dainyl translates to Alustre and offers Aleyna the position of Submarshall in Elcien. In Hyalt, Majer Mykel inspects the nearly completed Cadmian compound and compliments Captain Rhystan on his accomplishments. He inspects the Regional Alector compound and notes the empty clothing in the room with the Table. He sets up a patrol schedule for the local Cadmians and then prepares the third Battalion for an upcoming move. In this story, Dainyl learns that Majer Hersiod has gotten himself and half his Battalion killed in Iron Stem. He cuts orders sending Majer Mykel and the Third Battalion there, with Mykel commanding all Cadmian forces in the Iron Valley area. Mykel takes his Battalion to Tempre shortly after receiving the orders, but the River Vedra is running too high to for barge traffic, so the Third Battalion stays in the Tempre compound for the next few days. When The Third Battalion finally reaches the Iron Valley, Mykel finds the town and surrounding countryside to be confused and hostile. The miners are angry over the harsh conditions imposed by Majer Hersiod. The town and outlying settlers are also angry at the way they have been treated. Even the Reillies are angry at the Cadmians. This story exposes Dainyl to additional interactions with the Soarers. They warn him once again that he must change or die. He discusses it with his wife and explores the Ancient weblines, but is uncertain about making the final commitment. Mykel, however, has followed the Soarer advice as far as he can. Since he isn't as powerful as Dainyl, he is still vulnerable to the alector Talents. He remains a Cadmian mostly to protect his own men, but he is ready to follow the Ancients in anything they require. This trilogy is an obvious analogy to the ecological problems of our world. Alectors and their technologies derive their power directly from the pl

Soarer's Choice is an acceptable but not great finale to the Corean Chronicles. Modesitt weaves an interesting tale of political intrigues with his characters but doesn't do a particularly satisfying job of tying that to the world he's created, meaning plot development and resolution leaves something to be desired. I take a star off for the overall plot and a half star for shunting one of his lead protagonists to a secondary role, but I'll round it up to 4 stars as the intrigues were interesting enough the first read through to keep me up past my bedtime. The basic problem of writing a prequel is that the reader already knows the ending, which means if you're not careful as a writer you end up spending the majority of your plot on things that either don't matter or just seem contrived to get you to the beginning of the next book. (Think the Star Wars prequels: you suffer 8 hours of hell to finally get to the great last 30 minutes, and even then parts of it feel contrived.) Modesitt's actually been both very good (the first few Recluce books) and very bad (the Cyador novels) at walking this line. Soarer's Choice falls somewhere in between. In this case, the prequel's problem is that at the start of the book we know that something was done to the life-sucking, planet-invading alectors by the ancients, but we're not sure about who, how, when, and what resulted, just that those questions have to be answered by the end of the book. (The why at least is nicely answered over the last couple of books.) The resolution of all these questions would have made a very meaty, intriguing plot. Instead, we get a political drama surrounding the commander of the alector military forces, Dainyl, and a less-satisfying series of military battles with his native counterpart, Mykel. While Dainyl's ultimate moves are predictable for a Modesitt protagonist - when those above you don't get the problem (in this case keeping the alectors from killing the planet off for selfish personal gain), fix it yourself! - it's still one of Modesitt's better one-man-against-the-world stories in a while and worth the read. On the other hand, Mykel gets shunted off to a series of military battles that may be important to setting up the world of the sequels but have almost nothing to do with the impending ancient vs. alector struggle we know is coming. As a result, his plot line seems largely irrelevant. With character development stunted, even with vastly reduced stage time every time he shows up it feels like he's taking away from the main plot, not adding to it. The two plotlines barely interact, a shame given the effort Modesitt made in developing Mykel in the first two books. The bigger problem, though, is that while we get answers to the what resulted and when questions we really don't get much of an answer to who and how. Dainyl's struggles end up being a very interesting story that is largely marginal to the bigger overall plot resolution, and Mykel's struggles add

Every few thousand or so years, the Alector must move to a fresh planet having exploited and ultimately devastated the resources of the orb they have resided on. This has happened to their home world Ifryn, left as ruined husk. Now it is time to leave Corus after farming the planet to such a waste that sustaining life is nearly impossible. However, who is left behind besides the crops of species raised to feed the vast vampiric Alector populace becomes the issue. High Alector Dainyl is a Marshal trying to keep a civil war from breaking out as various groups argue over who stays to die on this exhausted orb. However, instead of the Undesirables, losers left behind, neither Dainyl nor others in the government abandoning Corus anticipated on the Ancient winged native Soarers to suddenly intercede on behalf of their planet. No one before truly challenged the Alectors. The end of the second Corean Chronicles trilogy is one of the best science fiction tales of the year and perhaps the best in a powerful series that reminds readers (at least older ones) of the Zager and Evans song 2525: "He's taken everything this old earth can give, And he ain't put back nothing". The story line is filled with action whether it is battle scenes, government intrigue or social dysfunctional interaction. Readers will choose to soar with L.E. Modesitt, Jr. as he takes his fans on quite a ride. Harriet Klausner