I'm about halfway through this book, so i'll give the current situation.
In essence, the main character, Rahl, was a apprenticed scrivener to his father. A scrivener is essentially a scribe, spending hours upon end copying books for people. He was trained by his father to use a truncheon. Eventually, a Magister gets hi in trouble for inappropriate use of Order. He gets shipped off to Nylan where his order abilities are to be fine tuned. The problem is he just doesn't understand how to do some of the most rudimentary skills of order while others of the most powerful he does unknowingly. He is, as they say, a natural ordermage. Later in his stay at Nylan, he uses order inappropriately with no intent to do so, but nonetheless they exile him to Hamor until he can control his power. That's where I left off.
I've read Modesitt's wok before and the number one thing I will note about his work is consistency. It is incredible, because unlike so many fantasy series you say, the laws of his universe stay unchanging throughout not only each series, but in every book he writes. Every book ties together somehow, as if every work is a piece of the puzzle. It makes for a very interesting situation if you read several of his separate series. Feel free to jump around in the series I'm reading, The Saga of Recluce, you can read virtually any book in any order you so desire. There are occasional mini-series with the same characters, but so far they never extend more than two books. In a nutshell, he makes for a unique reading experience. So I recommend this to anyone with a interest in fantasy that is more realistic in the proportions of his characters. He doesn't overestimate them, using both their strengths and weaknesses to define them and mold them to greatness, a virtue of literature sometimes lost in an author's desire to make his (or her) character impregnable.
