Legalist: A Novel in the Grand Illusion (The Grand Illusion book 4) by LE Modesitt, Jr. (book review)
‘Legalist’ is the fourth book in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s ‘The Grand Illusion’ series, but it’s a prequel to the others, so you don’t need to read them first. You can read them afterwards if you like this one. Although the genre is secondary world fantasy, it’s really a political novel that tells the story of Dominic Ysella, a councilor in the Imperium of Guldor, which is ruled over by the Imperador Laureous. Ysella, who is 33 years old and unmarried. He’s also smart, careful, discreet and trustworthy, so fellow councilors and even the premier often seek his advice. The story takes place fifty years after the Imperium was established. Ysella’s grandfather was the King of Aloor, a land conquered by Laureous years before but, as the third son of landed gentry Landors in Modesitt’s world, he stood to inherit nothing, so he became a legalist to earn a living and, eventually, a councilor for his home district in the capital city of Machtarn.
Councilors are elected by those property-owning gentlemen who have the vote. With 24 Council seats, Landors are the largest group and regard themselves as the natural party of government, but commercers are a rising class as trade and finance become more important and they hold 18 seats. Able Crafters or artisans can also acquire property and wealth and also have representation on the Council but only 8 seats. Commerce and crafter votes combined can defeat any measures proposed that favour only Landors. As yet, these groups have not formed political parties and each councilor is supposedly independent, but that tradition or myth really is rapidly becoming outdated.
Like President Trump, Imperador Laureous can veto any bill he doesn’t like, issue edicts that must be obeyed, probably with a quill pen instead of a sharpie and controls the army and navy, so supreme power rests with him. However, he is slowly dying and his heir will be a tyrant. Laureous founded the Imperium by ruthless methods, but at least he’s smart and wants to leave a stable empire as his legacy when he’s gone. His son is just a cruel, spoiled brat and everyone dreads him taking over. Ysella works with Iustan Detruro, Premier of the Council, to prepare the way for the Imperador’s death by making the Council more powerful but without a violent revolution. As Ysella says, ‘Revolutions never end up where the revolutionaries thought they would. Too many people get killed, often the revolutionaries.’
Apart from that, he has the usual troubles of a politician. He’s chairman of the waterways committee, so the voters back in Aloor want him to get more money to clear their rivers and improve their ports. Like electorates everywhere, they want government money spent on them, not ‘wasted’ on anyone else and don’t want to pay more taxes or any tax, if they can help it. Landors want to keep their old privileges, commercers want government contracts to get rich, and crafters try to avoid being crushed by the other two groups. Even in his fantasy worlds, where chaos wizards hurl firebolts against attacking armies, Modesitt always puts in a fair bit of stuff about how rulers wisely rule or not. This book is pure politics and little else. There are a few attacks and assassinations but, that is politics, at least in America.
The entire story is told in a tight third person point of view on Councilor Dominic Ysella as he goes about his daily life. He gets up, rides to the Council offices, does some paperwork with his two clerks, chairs meetings of the waterways committee and then goes on to the full Council meeting to vote on measures proposed. When the Council is not in session, he travels by post-coach back home to Aloor to visit his family and keep abreast of what worries local voters so he can get re-elected. Ysella is a fit young man trained in swordsmanship and self-defence and there’s occasional violence in the book, but not much. He’s courting a widow who owns a tin mine, so there’s romance, too. No sex.
I’m a big fan of Modesitt’s books and his blog and his sensible views, but I have to say that if you’re looking for excitement, ‘Legalist’ is not the book for you. Although it’s book four in ‘The Grand Illusion’ series, comprising ‘Isolate’, ‘Councilor’, ‘Contrarian’ and ‘Legalist’, this novel is a prequel that takes place 450 years before the first three books in the series and features entirely different characters. While manners and society are much the same, at least among the upper echelons featured, the technology is more primitive, being at the horse and cart level, whereas the later books had steam-powered cars. Steam engines are a new development mentioned here in passing. The technological changes over four centuries don’t seem as much as you might expect. The same goes for social progress. In ‘Isolate’ and the other books, Landors are still a powerful group, but if you look at English history from 1500 to 1950, there were huge changes and, by 1950, a Labour government, ‘Crafters’ in Modesitt’s terminology was in power and the landed gentry were much reduced.
‘Legalist’ reads like a political novel by Anthony Trollope from 1876, with everyone going to and fro by horse-drawn carriages and prime ministers coming from the landed aristocracy, but that was only 75 years before a Labour/Crafter government.
The only fantasy elements in the book, apart from the setting, are empaths and isolates. Empaths can sense emotions and even project them to a degree. They can tell when someone is lying. Powerful empaths can control weaker people known as susceptibles and force them to work. Landors use a susceptible labour force controlled by empaths. Isolates like Ysella cannot be read or dominated by empaths. However, these characteristics play very little part in the story, which would be pretty much the same without them.
‘Legalist’ is a splendid political novel with interesting characters, a slow but oddly gripping story and many insights relevant to our times. Modesitt’s technique is to draw you into the daily life of the character so you are completely immersed in his world for five hundred pages. It works. Fans of ‘The Grand Illusion’ series will certainly enjoy this prequel. I would recommend new readers try a short Modesitt book first as a taster. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a short Modesitt book.
Eamonn Murphy
November 2025
(pub: TOR, 2025. 576 page hardback. Price: $27.98 (US), £22.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-25038-575-8. Ebook price: £13.99 (UK))
check out website: https://torpublishinggroup.com/legalist/?isbn=9781250385758&format=hardback
