Recent developments in Reading include a dull old club's conversion to the posh-looking Sardar Palace, meaning that within mere days we should have a classy Indian restaurant thirty seconds' walk from the front door. Potential visitors take note. So Regis is doing his best, which isn't bad at all, with a story that so far lacks a punchline. The Order War is the fourth of L.E.Modesitt's Recluce fantasy novels, which continue to be sort of interesting for their Nivenesque treatment of magic as a branch of physics, following strict conservation laws. All good clean fun, with a refreshing absence of routine dwarfs, elves, trolls, the Wild Hunt et al .
Word processors have much to answer for.