The Towers of Sunset is the second book in the Recluce series. Unusual for a fantasy series, Modesitt doesn't tell his epic saga in chronological order or in many cases even tell the stories of the same character. This is nice --- each book is its own self-contained story and you don't have to read every book in the series, but if you do read the whole series the setting becomes richer.
In this case, the book details the founding of Recluce, which is referred to in the first book, with just one or two characters mentioned. The book starts with Creslin, who's a consort in a matriarchal society where men are only good for marrying off to seal political alliances. He doesn't like this pre-arranged fate so escapes while he's being carted off to be married off.
It turns out that he was being groomed for much more than being a consort, but that he's a weather wizard, in fact, one of the best of all time. He tries to escape his fate but eventually (because of a soul link) is tied to the woman he's supposed to marry as well, and they fight bitterly before getting together to found the island nation.
I enjoyed the book though I found the political business tied up at the end all too neatly. There's also a scene where a bomb is used on an empire but I again found it a little too pat. One bomb (even one that wipes out the royal family) shouldn't shut a whole nation down, especially if it's army is as top-notch as it's touted to be.
Nevertheless, it's well written, transparent, and the characters feel real.
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