Fall of Angels - L.E.Modesitt Jr

I need to start by saying that L.E Modesitt Jr is one of my all time favourite authors, I love the way that he writes and the detail that he puts into the worlds he creates. I've only read books from two 'series' by him, but every single one of those books I have loved!

Fall of Angels is the sixth book in the Saga of Recluce. I was a little bit apprehensive about reading it because the first five books were all very much of the same mould, so much so that they were criticised for it and thereafter none of them were published in the UK, causing a bit of a palava when I wanted the sixth one and had to order it from the USA.

It's surprising, to me at least, that the sixth book wasn't published here, because it's definately something different. It's the same writing style, however this novel is set much earlier in the world of Recluce, and even contains some sci-fi elements.

The book is about the crew of a spaceship which basically jumps to somewhere it would be irretreivable. They manage to land it in the only part of the 'impossible' planet which happens to be nearby, that most of them would be able to survive on. They still get attacked by the locals because they are primarily female and are attracting abused women from all over the continent. They eventually reach a truce at the close of a costly battle in which they effectively massacre thousands of local soldiers.

It was epic and I could barely put it down.

My favourite part of the story, in a bizarre way, was a side story, in which the main protagonist has his good nature taken advantage and is used to artificially inseminate several of the women as pretty much the only male. He doesn't realise until three of the children are born and they have too many similarities to his daughter he knew about to be anyone else's.

It's definately a book or even a series I would recommend to anyone whose looking for something a little bit different in fantasy and enjoys nice established worlds.

Rowen