The Magic Engineer
core novel 1995 The Saga of Recluce
Record
| First published | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.04 (10,557 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 617 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312855703 |
Synopsis
The Magic Engineer, the third novel in L. E. Modesitt Jr.'s Saga of Recluce, follows Dorrin, a young scholar from the orderly island of Recluce whose forbidden fascination with machines and engineering sets him apart from his peers and draws the disapproval of Recluce's order-masters, since such devices are seen as dangerously destabilizing to the island's magical balance. As a consequence, Dorrin is sent into exile in the chaos-touched lands beyond Recluce's shores, where he must find a way to survive among peoples and powers hostile to his homeland, all while wrestling with whether the devices he loves are truly as dangerous as Recluce claims.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Saga of Recluce
- Series: The Saga of Recluce core; position 3 of 26 in the series' recorded order
- Author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Notes
- From the series record (The Saga of Recluce): One continuous, internally chronological world across many reading-order sub-arcs; the whole published run to date is Core Canon, per the author's own single ordered list. Ongoing; a further volume (Last of the First) is announced for 2026 and is not yet published, so it is not registered (Constitution Article 2).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Saga of Recluce: position 3 of 26: previous The Towers of the Sunset (1993) · next The Order War (1996)
Sources
- L.E. Modesitt, Jr. official site: The Saga of Recluce
- https://www.travelinlibrarian.info/recluce/recluce/engineer.html
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