Imager's Battalion [Hardcover]

As a longtime fan of L.E. Modesitt, Jr., I was excited to discover that he had begun another series based in the Imager Portfolio universe. However, after reading Scholar and Princeps, I was left waiting for months for the newest book of the series to come out: Imager's Battalion. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of the series, I was somewhat let down with Imager's Battalion. To be fair, there was no glaring flaws in the book, but there were some inconsistencies throughout the book which just gave me kind of a bland impression of the entire book. These will be outlined in greater detail below and may include some spoilers, so be warned. Overall, Imager's Battalion is an acceptable, but not outstanding, addition to the Imager's Portfolio, and were it not for the fact that they were not concluding the series in an additional book Antiagon Fire (Imager Portfolio), I'd probably drop the rating down to 2 stars instead of 3.

***SPOILER ALERT!***

Okay, so down to the nitty gritty about what bothered me with this particular book of the Imager's series:

1. If you've ever read Mage-Guard of Hamor (Saga of Recluce) of the Recluse saga, you'll find that these two books are rather remarkably similar; both books involve a character on a long war campaign leading troops and using their powers to destroy the evil forces of the other side. Similarities include: both characters use shields to great extent in battle, troops in the opposing army are generally incompetent in some way, and both campaigns seemed heavily laden with traps which the character magically is able to sense and disarm. Now while I kind of understand it from the Recluse perspective (the traps could be considered chaotic due to their destructive nature), I don't really get the whole angle on how Quaeryt would begin to be able to sense them.

2. The characters of the series seemed to have turned complacent in Imager's Battalion. Bhayar, who is described throughout the series to be a reasonably perceptive ruler, is somehow unaware of fact that 10 out of 11 regiments that were sent to reinforce the his army for the final battle were diverted to the northern army, leaving the Southern army and Quaeryt only a total of 3. Civilians of the book were all pretty much well mannered and displayed none of the outright hostility one would expect for invaders or imagers/Pharsis. All the Pharsi characters, imagers and the Khel troops, were all more or less outright worshipful of Quaeryt; one would expect some kind of faction that is at least dubious of him. Overall, these instances gave me an impression that the author was just not trying very hard to give a realistic outlook of characters in that world; the lack of dissonant characters made it all seem very one-dimensional.

3. One of the biggest things that bothered me about Imager's Battalion was the ending. Generally when Modesitt writes a book, he tends to have a general, if short, conclusion. It generally includes a summary of what has happened to all the major characters involved in the book, and a small hint of what's to come. However, to say the ending for Imager's Battalion is abrupt would be an understatement. At the conclusion of the book, you are basically told that Quaeryt survives and the enemy is destroyed. No mention on the state of the army, the other imagers, or what's to come. However, given that the next book of the series is titled "Antiagon Fire", one can probably conclude that Quaeryt is likely to end up fighting Antiagons.

Slightly less enthralling than the other entries in what's been L. E. Modesitt's best series in a while, "Imager's Battalion" is still a solid addition to it. 4 stars.

Modesitt's tried-and-true formula of the coming of age rituals for reluctant heroes that possess not-so-reluctant morals and superpowers got a bit stale in his last few Recluce books, but the Imager series has been a nice turnaround. "Scholar" and "Princeps" followed the growth of hero Quaeryt's career and powers, with most of the writing focused on his political rise while he gets forced into combat as a logical part of his responsibilities. "Imager's Battalion" is a bit different, as the politics are more of a sidelight while the military conquest takes precedence. To long time Modesitt readers, this is a bit reminiscent of books in several of his previous series, including one of the Corean Chronicles where after setting up the politics and world in previous books Modesitt dedicates the sequel to his heroes on campaign.

In this case, Quaeryt ends up commanding a battalion that is designed to use him and the few imagers he's assigned. Most of the novel revolves around Quaeryt learning to accept responsibility for being senior, and he struggles but finally comes to the realization he can't do everything himself and starts delegating and training.

The military action isn't terribly notable as the civilians are well-behaved and the opposing forces are competent but largely off-stage except for when they're being directly opposed (and usually slaughtered) by Quaeryt and his men. There's a scheming high-level type bureaucratically opposing things, but that storyline isn't one of the centerpieces of the hero's story as it normally is in Modesitt's novels. There's some minor additions to worldbuilding in the interesting exploration of some of the Pharsi legends, what it has meant to be an Imager over the course of history, and several events that seem to correspond to ones discussed in the Imager books set hundreds of years later. All this, though, takes a back seat to moving Quaeryt along.

Combined with the series' seventh book, "Antiagon Fire", being due out in only 4 months, it adds to the overall impression of "Imager's Battalion" being more of a transition novel than anything else. Thus, with the focus being on getting the reluctant hero to a place where he can finish his job upending the world, the overall book is a bit weaker than the previous two novels. Still, it's worth a read as Modesitt's best series in a while progresses. 4 stars.

My experience of Modesitt's writing is that his SF plots are more complex and assume greater reader maturity, while his fantasy tends too be more straightforward on the plot side and coming-of-age oriented on the reader assumption side. Some of my favorite writing of his,like the Lorn sequence in the Recluce series, occupies a delightful middle ground, as does this arc of the Imager series. Enjoyable and engaging.