This series has mixed reviews. Its pretty much the same tale told again and again with very little changed from book to book. Take a callow boy, force him into the wider, unforgiving world, give him nascent magic abilities that eventually become god-like, and have the character overturn the status quo system of the day and you have a Recluce novel.

Now thats not to say the series is not entertaining the first few books are good reading. But the recycled plot archetypes start wearing on you a few books down. At like about 18 or so books (at time of writing this in 2015) in this series out so far, you might start pulling your hair out unless you

Youll probably enjoy them if you like the world and magic system the author creates everything is internally consistent and the author tells stories that span thousands of years from the start of the series to the end (and not necessarily in the books chronologically published order).

All and all, the Recluse is not a bad series at all -- there's just nothing new in the sort of story told after a couple books in. But I do confess, I do keep up with the newest books in the series as they come out, even if I don't particularly enjoy the stories all that much anymore. The good news is that you can pretty much just cherry pick what you want to read as each tale is distinct with some of the stories broken down into two books at most. You only need to read ALL of them if you want to get a sense of the whole, detailed history of the Recluse world, from founding to the present.

If you want to give this series a go, start with The Magic of Recluce.

To help you guys cherry pick the best of the bunch, I've created a mini 'Guide to the Best of the Recluce' Books here. The most interesting of the 18 books are:

The Magic of Recluse (the original book, and a good introduction to the world) Fall of Angels (this is the origin story of the Recluse world)Magi'i of Cyador (set in one of the earliest periods in Recluse history, this one will give your military fantasy/squad combat aficionados your fix as quite a bit of the story deals with a young commander working his way up the ranks in the military)Ordermaster (a middle-aged hero, finally)Mage-Guard of Hamor (a selfish hero who causes a lot of harm before he learns his lesson -- this is the closest you are going to find to the author attempting a more 'complicated' character in the Recluse series).