WAYNE'S 2024 BOOKS (ADDENDUM): BOOK 21

Overcaptain
by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

I was creating my 2024 read list for a recap and realised that I'd missed reviewing this one; fortunately it followed directly after another 2024 read in the sprawling Saga of Recluse by L.E. Modesitt Jr., and I remembered I'd continued reading the exploits of Alayiakal, one of the Emperors of Cyador. From the Forest and Overcaptain (and two more unreleased novels) tell his story, and Overcaptain details his early military career.

I mentioned in my review of From the Forest that there's a sameness about each of Modesitt Jr's Recluse novels: most of them feature a young man, usually polite, whose powers with order or chaos make him a misfit or threat or outcast. The protagonist develops their powers over the course of the story, usually picks up a significant other with whom they share a largely chaste or secret romance, and concludes with mass death at the protagonist's hands using a new development, invention, or use of order/chaos magic. For their sins, the protagonist typically ends up blinded, aged, or otherwise humbled by their (mis)use of magic.

Overcaptain follows this model, aside from the eventual maiming of the hero – Alayiakal has to struggle through two more books after all! – concluding in rather lacklustre fashion with a redeployment of Alayiakal to another part of the country so he can fulfil more of the destiny alluded to in Book 10 of the Saga of Recluse: Magi’i of Cyador. The inevitable deployment of a death-weapon is foreshadowed halfway through the book, and you're left knowing and waiting to see him finally use it, even though Alayiakal has no idea that he will. Like From the Forest, this isn't a bad book, but it's workmanlike and I wouldn't recommend it to those that haven't read (and enjoyed) more of the now 24-book Saga of Recluse.

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https://kjcmag.blogspot.com/2025/01/12-epic-fantasy-books-every-fantasy.html

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Some of the books and series that I enjoyed last year.

The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne
Calico by Lee Goldberg
Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton
Mastermind by Andrew Mayne
Sharpe & Walker series by Lee Goldberg
Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger
David Wolf series by Jeff Carson

#books #bookstodon #books2024

Final Count for books read in 2024 - 42.

https://dice.camp/@Faintdreams/113671386732870222

So long 👋 #Books2024 #Books2024FD
Welcome 😉 #Books2025 #Books2025FD
#Books

As last year, I've kept track of the #books I've read (and finished) over the course of the year. So, here's my #books2024 list: https://carfax.org.uk/files/books-2024.txt

Starred entries are re-reads. From this, you can fairly reliably identify the times when I've been particularly busy or stressed.