Reread: The Magic Engineer

 The Magic Engineer is the third book in the Recluce series, and now several foreshadowings that were in the first book finally come to be revealed. For instance, in the first book, Lerris leaves home with a black staff. Well, the lead character in this novel, Dorrin, is the person who first invents and designs them. Similarly, much is made of the book, The Basis of Order, which Lerris reads and finds confusing, and again, Dorrin is the person who wrote it. Similarly, there's a mention of steam-driven boats in the first book, and the engineer who invents it is also the protagonist.

As with Lerris, Dorrin is thrown out of Recluce for even thinking about building machines (you'd think the rulers of the island might reconsider throwing out people who think different), and he, along with other exiles, leave home and traverse a war-filled continent. While his companions could expect to return, Dorrin is given instructions not to come home until he knows who he is.

He becomes a smith, then an apprentice healer, and eventually does finally build his machines. The engineering part is of course complete fantasy. Other than the steam engine, nothing Dorrin builds ever seems to need testing --- it almost always works the first time. (Granted, he does spend a bunch of time at the middle parts building models and drawing) And then he builds those weapons of war, but insists on being the person to set them off or install the mines. One would think that an engineer is too valuable to spend in the field when he could be continually churning out new weapons.

We get a bit more insight into the way Recluce magic works --- the order bound folks who can infuse their devices/weapons/fabrications with order literally can't observe the destruction created or they pay for it with physical symptoms up to and including blindness. Dorrin gets the bright idea to write it down in a book, and we finally understand why its so obtuse --- he never actually fought a Chaos wizard with magic, prefering to build rockets and fire them.

The book's an enjoyable read, and now I'm good and hooked and have the rest of the series handy and will keep going.