The Chaos Balance

The saga of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., has become one of the standard works of fantasy in the 1990s.VOYAsays, "Modesitt's logical structure of the interrelationship of order and chaos, magic and technology, is one of the most through in modern fantasy. The personal growth of his characters and the depiction of their world, it well-written and credible - and involves the reader... The serious fantasy reader will revel in Modesitt's work." Launched withThe Magic of Recluce, the novels of Recluce have gone on to sell over a million copies in paperback. The most recent of the Recluce novels,Fall of Angels, introduced the engineer/smith Nylan, the only man among the leadership of the company of "angels" marooned on a high plateau in the west of Candar, and perhaps the one person most responsible for their survival. But the angels are a matriarchal band, and so Nylan must leave his companions and seek a life elsewhere. He travels down from the plateau into the world of warring kingdoms and strange magics with his companion, Ayrlyn, the healer, and his infant son. They are in search of a place to lead a peaceful life, but they look different from the locals, and their talents are most valued in battle - and so the war between chaos and order begins again. The Chaos Balanceis the seventh book of the saga of Recluce.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the author of the popular fantasies of the Recluce, Spellsinger and Corean series as well as numerous science fiction novels. He lives with his wife, a lyric soprano, in Cedar City, Utah.

I
 
 
The Angels of darkness made the Roof of the World their home, and after deceiving the followers of light who had eagerly welcomed them, they wielded the ancient and dreadful weapons of Heaven and vanquished those who rejoiced in the light.
In those first dark years, there were none at first among the dark ones who could descend to the lower lands and bear the heat, and the lords of mankind, their true daughters, and their consorts rejoiced that this was so.
For the angels of temptation bore blades that slashed through armor and loosed arrowheads that treated iron bucklers as if they were rotten wood, and they raised a mighty stronghold called Westwind, anchored on Tower Black, that rivaled Freyja in power. And the followers of light, who had ages earlier forsaken the powers of the heavens, relinquished the barren heights to the dark angels and their evil powers.
The dark angels were women who made a mockery out of hearth and home, who reviled men and laughed as they destroyed all the armies of the Westhorns sent against them, as they forced the great lords to heap dust and ashes upon their own heads and to bend their knees and pay tribute, and to stand helplessly as their daughters were tempted from their hearths and consorts.
Yet an even more deadly evil was to flow from the Roof of the World, and none knew it, from the mighty Nylan, smith of the angels, he who builded the Tower Black, he who forged the blades of night and the arrows of the storms.…
 
Colors of White
(Manual of the Guild at Fairhaven)
Preface
 
Copyright © 1997 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.