The Chaos Balance is the 7th book in the Recluce series, and a direct sequel to Fall of Angels, which I loved. The main character is the same, Nylan, who is forced out of Westwind by the behavior of the Marshal, his former lover. This is honestly the worst and least characteristic part of the book. We're supposed to believe that the "win at all costs" leader of Westwind would be willing to let her only combat engineer and builder leave with his new beloved without a fight or a promise to change her own behavior.
The rest of the book is mostly exposition about the new (to us) empire of Cyador and their desire to take over copper minds. As usual, the leader of this new empire is an idiot, and despite another looming threat, decides to send most of his army to fight a much weaker enemy, which draws Nylan into the fight.
We discover that Nylan and his consort become the founders of the druids. The magic isn't well explained, and I guess I'm still disappointed that the Recluce magic isn't revealed to be some sort of science. It is still interesting to see Nylan view his new adopted planet with some technical terms which aren't explained.
Definitely not as good as Fall of Angels. There's scant engineering involved, and too much magic, which probably is an unfair criticism of a fantasy series.
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