Friday, November 18, 2011

"Scholar"

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce, Corean Chronicles, and the Imager Portfolio. His science fiction includes Adiamante, the Ecolitan novels, the Forever Hero Trilogy, and Archform: Beauty. Besides a writer, Modesitt has been a U.S. Navy pilot, a director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant and staff director for a U.S. Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Scholar, and reported the following:
Scholar is the fourth book of The Imager Portfolio, but the first in a four-book subseries that takes place hundreds of years before the first three books. It features the junior scholar Quaeryt, and page 69 of Scholar is both representative and unrepresentative of what lies in the rest of the pages. It’s very typical in that Quaeryt is in a strange city, trying to avoid local corrupt authorities who dislike scholars, as do most people throughout the entire continent of Lydar, especially a great many in positions of power. Quaeryt is also trying to find a place to employ his abilities as an imager to create legitimate coinage because he prefers to keep his talents hidden, a trait that continues throughout the book. And, typically, he finds himself stranded in Nacliano because he took a route to his destination that would allow him to discover more about the problem he is trying to resolve, rather than the safest means of travel.

Page 69 is atypical because Quaeryt is without any resources except himself and his abilities, whereas, prior to this, and often later, he is usually been able to insinuate himself into positions requiring moderate ability, where he draws neither interest for great ability nor adverse attention for lack of ability, but it is a foreshadowing of the greater and greater trials he will face.
Learn more about the author and his work at L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue