power, building an enormous fleet of steel warships armed with powerful canons. In the final climactic battle on the shores of Recluce, Lerris and his family use their mastery of order and chaos to forcibly impose a balance on the world, unleashing vast amounts of subterranean lava directly into the ocean beneath the invading Hamorian forces. In the end, Lerris uses the vast amounts of order in Recluce to bind all of the free chaos into small, balanced units (again, strongly reminiscent of particle physics). The result is the destruction of nearly all of the order and chaos magic in the world, including Lerris's family (which was being kept alive by magic) and even parts of the continent of Recluce itself. Aside from the titanic magical battles, the book introduces the unique character of Lerris - wielder of enormous, literally earth-shaking magical power, yet whose true passion and vocation is woodworking and creating exquisite pieces of furniture by completely material tools and with no use of magic. At the concluding scene of the book - and so far, of the entire series - Lerris, deeply scarred from the final cataclysmic battle, is happy to leave magic behind him and settle into the life of a skilled craftsman. Notes References External links About the Saga of Recluce series at the publisher's official website Listing at SciFan Interactive Map of the series Fantasy novel series High fantasy novels Novels by L. E. Modesitt Jr. American fantasy novels Social science fiction