Legalist: A Novel in the Grand Illusion

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of Saga of Recluce and the Imager Portfolio, continues the Grand Illusion, a gaslamp political fantasy series (Isolate, Councilor, Contrarian) with a prequel, Legalist.

Fifty years after the establishment of the Imperium, and 450 years before the events of Isolate, Dominic Mikail Ysella--ancestor of Avraal Ysella--is the grandson of the last king of Aloor. Stripped of most of their land, Dominic, as the third son, must support himself.

Dominic becomes a legalist and is elected to the Imperial Council quietly working as an isolate, someone unreadable by government telepaths.

Amid a time of a crumbling imperial line, Dominic must build a coalition within the Council and quietly draft a new constitution to save the Imperium from itself. Uncovering rampant corruption, graft, and potential to be arrested for treason, Ysella discovers any number of ways that simple legal specialist in water rights could get himself killed.

The Grand Illusion
Isolate
Councilor
Contrarian
Legalist

Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Imager Portfolio
The Corean Chronicles
The Spellsong Cycle
The Ghost Books
The Ecolitan Matter

Author: L. E. Modesitt
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 10/07/2025
Series: Grand Illusion #4
Pages: 576
ISBN: 9781250385758

About the Author
L. E. MODESITT, JR. is the author of more than eighty books--primarily science fiction and fantasy--including the long-running, bestselling series the Saga of Recluce and the Imager Portfolio, as well as a number of short stories. Legalist is the fourth book in his Grand Illusion series (Isolate, Councilor, and Contrarian).