The Ghost of the Revelator

Rating:
Summary: Uneven and confusing
Review: I didn't read the precurser to this novel, which may have been a handicap, but I am an unabashed fan of the Recluce and Ecolitan books by Modesitt, and I was expecting realistic characters and a logically consistant universe. I didn't say mundane or "normal", I said "logically consistant". Well, the characters were quite real, but the world was... Frankly, words fail me. This book is billed as an alternate history; Ok, but an alternate history of WHAT? Historical names are mentioned, but the apparent timeline is completely out of sync. The archduke Ferdinand and Tony Blair in political contention? Really. The book is roughly two-thirds expostulation and I still couldn't figure out where (geographically) the story actually takes place and who the geopolitical players are and where they're located! Add the whole "Ghosts" premise, and I went thru "suspension of disbelief" and out the other side. I'm sorry, but this book either should have come with a warning label to see the previous volume or it truly needed the services of a good editor. I give it two stars based entirely on the strength of the characters. The world and the plot were a mess.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven and confusing
Review: I didn't read the precurser to this novel, which may have been a handicap, but I am an unabashed fan of the Recluce and Ecolitan books by Modesitt, and I was expecting realistic characters and a logically consistant universe. I didn't say mundane or "normal", I said "logically consistant". Well, the characters were quite real, but the world was... Frankly, words fail me. This book is billed as an alternate history; Ok, but an alternate history of WHAT? Historical names are mentioned, but the apparent timeline is completely out of sync. The archduke Ferdinand and Tony Blair in political contention? Really. The book is roughly two-thirds expostulation and I still couldn't figure out where (geographically) the story actually takes place and who the geopolitical players are and where they're located! Add the whole "Ghosts" premise, and I went thru "suspension of disbelief" and out the other side. I'm sorry, but this book either should have come with a warning label to see the previous volume or it truly needed the services of a good editor. I give it two stars based entirely on the strength of the characters. The world and the plot were a mess.

Rating:
Summary: An exciting thriller with both spooks and spies.
Review: If John Le Carre tried his hand at alternate history the result might be similar to The Ghost of the Revelator. Maybe -- assuming Le Carre grafted elements of science fiction and fantasy onto his creation, enjoyed opera, and was feeling particularly quirky. As with the best Le Carre, Modesitt's characters live in shades of grey, struggling to make ethical decisions in a world where good is ambiguous but evil can be absolute.

Professor Johann Eschbach, hero of Tangible Ghosts, is a newly tenured professor of Natural Resources at Vanderbraak State University, former Subminister for Environmental Protection, and former highly successful covert operative for the Spazi, a state security agency every bit as warm and cuddly as its nickname. Not surprisingly, Eschbach is far more enamored of his retirement from government service than his former employer despite his "insurance policy".

The one bright spot in Eschbach's life is his recent marriage to Doktor Llysette duBois, a once famous opera singer who came to the university in exile after the fall of old France. Between the Ghost books and his acclaimed Spellsong Cycle fantasy series, Modesitt demonstrates extraordinary interest in and insight into the character of beautiful, supremely talented sopranos.

Revelator's world, although contemporary, diverges from our own by presuming changes in a few key historical events, particularly the failure of the English colony at Plymouth and the early death of George Washington. The result is a North America which is far more politically fractured than in our world. Columbia, Eschbach's Dutch-Anglo home, is bordered to the south by New France, to the north by Quebec, and to the west by Deseret -- a Latter-Day Saint republic that still permits polygamy. Europe is mostly united, albeit forcibly under the bloody heel of Ferdinand, Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Modesitt creates a subtly detailed universe which weaves an eclectic yet on-target cast of characters along with politics, economics, energy security, technology, the environment, and matters of the heart into a novel which, in the best literary tradition, enlightens us about our own world as well as offering an escape. More importantly, Revelator is a flat-out fun read. As usual with Modesitt's books, Revelator's dry humor includes a number of thinly disguised persons famous and obscure. Readers will be able to find such names as Blair, Chirac, and Hartpence among others.

Ghosts is also enlivened by the not-so-minor matter of, well, ghosts -- human spirits released into haunting mode by prolonged and violent death. Not only tangible, Modesitt's ghosts can be destroyed and even replicated by those few, including Eschbach, who posses and know how to use the right technology.

Llysette is invited to give her first major performances since exile in Great Salt Lake City, the capital of Deseret. The concerts are important to on many levels various people and powers. Deseret and Columbia's relations are uneasy although both understand the need for closer ties. Deseret has an advanced synthetic fuel industry while Columbia needs additional energy sources. Columbia's need for energy security has led to strict environmental regulation. Vehicles are steam-powered and run on kerosene. Air travel is usually by dirigible.

Anonymously mailed news clippings, a Presidential request for Llysette to sing at the White House, meetings with spies in offices which smell of disinfectant, the occasional assassination attempt and a surplus zombie or two do nothing to ease Johann's mind about the upcoming trip. Eschbach's travel is mandatory since Deseret's conservative culture forbids unaccompanied women -- a notion which does not sit well with either wife or husband.

Modesitt portrays the theocratic Saint state with restraint and balance, allowing the society speak for itself. One failing of the book is that while the role of religion in Deseret's society is fully developed, there is virtually no consideration of what if any role religion or religions play in Columbia. Similarly, Johann and Llysette's own beliefs (or lack thereof) remain unexamined which is both disappointing and odd given the otherwise highly detailed characters drawn by Modesitt.

Following the last of three triumphant performances, Llysette is kidnaped -- apparently by a schismatic sect. The real kidnaping target is Johann who soon swaps himself for his wife but not before seeking assistance from his embassy. Eschbach asks for a senior career official, rather than a political appointee with a more prestigious title.

The schismatic Revealed Twelve have a modest request of Johann -- bring back the ghost of Joseph Smith, certainly one of the more creative ways ever devised of staging a coup. While Modesitt's descriptions of virtually everything from university students to political machinations ring true, the same cannot be said of his descriptions of computer ghost programming which have a Star Trek-like temperance and authenticity. However, the real issue Johann is working through at the keyboard and much of the book is the need to support those who have betrayed him.

Revelator is somewhat marred by lack of a good copy editor. At one point Llysette's beverage changes from tea to chocolate and back in the space of a few sentences. In another instance which becomes increasingly bizarre, a car changes from a Reno to a Reo to a Reno to a Reo in a few pages. The reader deserves better quality control for their dollar. Publishers should not consider themselves any more immune to the need for production quality than auto companies.

It would be tough to shelve Ghosts under any single genre. Alternate history may be the closest match but science fiction, fantasy and, particularly from Eschbach's perspective -- horror, would also be viable contenders. However, as Keith Richards recently noted with regard to music, there are really only two kinds: good; and crap. This is why Mozart and Robert Johnson will be listened to for centuries while the Monkees... no. Modesitt's work will likely be appreciated long after Robert Jordan follows the Spice Girls into oblivion.

Rating:
Summary: Enh
Review: This is a sequel to "Of Tangible Ghosts", but it doesn't seem to add much that is new to the previous story.

It's a combination of alternate history (something to do with the Mayflower settlement failing) and ghosts actually existing. This seemed to work in "Of Tangible Ghosts" -- which I quite likes -- but here is just blah.

There is some interesting stuff involving resource (energy and water) politics between "Columbia" (our eastern US), Deseret, and "New France" (our Mexico and California), but it gets lost in the end when the ghost story is allowed to take over. And that's between the recipes that seem to dominate whenever the main character and his wife have a meal!

Anyway, I have a feeling in the back of my mind that Modesitt is setting the story up for something interesting between "Columbia" and the Austria-Hungary which dominates Europe in this weird alternate history. But whatever that is, it will be in a subsequent volume. This just seems to be an intermediary to get you from book one to a not-yet-published book three, and so doesn't really do a whole heck of a lot to advance the tale.

Rating:
Summary: Enh
Review: This is a sequel to "Of Tangible Ghosts", but it doesn't seem to add much that is new to the previous story.

It's a combination of alternate history (something to do with the Mayflower settlement failing) and ghosts actually existing. This seemed to work in "Of Tangible Ghosts" -- which I quite likes -- but here is just blah.

There is some interesting stuff involving resource (energy and water) politics between "Columbia" (our eastern US), Deseret, and "New France" (our Mexico and California), but it gets lost in the end when the ghost story is allowed to take over. And that's between the recipes that seem to dominate whenever the main character and his wife have a meal!

Anyway, I have a feeling in the back of my mind that Modesitt is setting the story up for something interesting between "Columbia" and the Austria-Hungary which dominates Europe in this weird alternate history. But whatever that is, it will be in a subsequent volume. This just seems to be an intermediary to get you from book one to a not-yet-published book three, and so doesn't really do a whole heck of a lot to advance the tale.

Rating:
Summary: Enh
Review: This was an enjoyable return to the world of "Of Tangible Ghosts". It tries to stand alone from the first novel, but doesn't quite succeed; certain character and background details are repeated (and repeated...), while others are omitted. His treatment of an evolved Mormon society is interesting, particularly in comparison the one in the author's novel "The Parafaith War". I look forward to future stories in this series that explore some of the other cultures in this world-line, such as the New French.

About my only other complaint is that the main ghost (you knew there had to be one from the title) appears quite late in the story, and doesn't have the depth of character of the first novel's. I enjoyed the ghost construction details -- kinda like building a Web page on steroids.

Rating:
Summary: Solid but Heavy
Review: This was an enjoyable return to the world of "Of Tangible Ghosts". It tries to stand alone from the first novel, but doesn't quite succeed; certain character and background details are repeated (and repeated...), while others are omitted. His treatment of an evolved Mormon society is interesting, particularly in comparison the one in the author's novel "The Parafaith War". I look forward to future stories in this series that explore some of the other cultures in this world-line, such as the New French.

About my only other complaint is that the main ghost (you knew there had to be one from the title) appears quite late in the story, and doesn't have the depth of character of the first novel's. I enjoyed the ghost construction details -- kinda like building a Web page on steroids.

Rating:
Summary: Well-done, complex, worthwhile alt-hist political thriller
Review: [paired review with Of Tangible Ghosts]
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Johan Eschbach, retired from an eventful career in service to
Columbia as a naval aviator, Spazi agent, and cabinet minister,
now teaches environmental economics at Vanderbraak State
University in New Bruges (New Hampshire in OTL). Doktor
Eschbach lost both his wife and daughter in a political murder --
he himself was badly wounded -- and he would like nothing better
than a quiet life in this academic backwater. But that would make
for a dull book, and he is soon caught up in a murder
investigation, love affair, political intrigues, and secret military
research into "deghosting".

Doktor Eschbach's solution to the ensuing tangle is
"rather appalling and not entirely credible" [note 1].
--------
"A land of dirigibles and difference engines, Modesitt's
eerily refined world is compelling and coolly original, a place where
you still drive to work in a car--albeit steam-powered--but think
nothing of waving good morning to the zombies raking leaves off the
lawn." -- Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Ghost of the Revelator picks up Doktor Eschbach and his new
wife Llysette Du Boise as her singing career is taking off, and
as the messy ending to "Tangible" comes back to haunt Eschbach.
The story unfolds slowly, but the same wonderful details of
everyday life that enlivened the first book -- lunch at a favorite
cafe, icy roads, dense, lazy, occasionally sharp students, petty
academic politics, politicians who can "smile and smile and be a
villain" -- make the trip worthwhile. This world is slower-paced
than ours, and Modesitt's prose has something of the heavy Dutch
feel of well-fed burghers, shining-clean windows, tidy lives. Very
human. If slow bothers you -- skim.

Modesitt still hasn't smoothed out his jarring exposition
of the differences between his alternate world and ours, here

usually dumped as interior monologues. Show, don't tell, please!

Llysette sings at a Presidential Arts Awards dinner and is
invited to perform at the prestigious Salt Palace in Deseret --
after fleeing the fall of France and an Austrian political prison.
Johan comes to the uncomfortable conclusion that he's about to be
eclipsed in fame and fortune by his glamorous wife....

....but maybe Deseret is after more than just a performance by the
new prima diva. And what about Austria-Hungary? And New
France? And the shadowy "Revealed Twelve"?

Minister Eschbach resolves the ensuing international crisis with
verve, skill, and a couple of twists that would be unfair to reveal.
Suffice it to say that the ending is most satisfactory, and leaves
plenty of room for future Eschbach/Du Boise adventures.

Both books are reasonably self-contained, but if you read one and
like it, you'll want to read the other, so it makes sense to start with #1.

Doktor Eschbach and the "Ghosts" books have parallels to Mr
Modesitt's real life: the author was a naval aviator, spent twenty
years in our "Federal District" as a political aide, EPA staffer, and
college teacher. He's married to a lyric soprano (sorceress?, who
teaches at Southern Utah University). He and his family moved
from DC to New Hampshire ("New Bruges") and then to Utah:
these are the settings for the "Ghosts" books. "Write what you
know," the old adage goes -- it certainly works for Modesitt. I
presume the spies and ghosts are from the author's imagination...
_____________
Note 1) -- not to mention *confusing*. A reader at
Amazon.com writes: "I've read the book 6 or 7 times,
and I'm *still* not sure what's happened at the end..."