Flash

Rating:
Summary: Powerful world-building, great adventure
Review: Ex-marine Jonat deVrai suffers from flashbacks to his marine days--when he was sent around the world fighting battles to keep North American multinational corporations from facing competition, but mostly he is a successful consultant. He's parlayed his economics expertise into a business analysing the impact of product placement in commercial entertainment--a job made difficult by privacy legislation. When he gets a major contract to see if product placement is being used in political campaigns, it seems like an interesting extension to his business. He knows his employers have a hidden agenda--who doesn't? What he doesn't know is that his report will have a lot more credibility if he ends up dead just after presenting it.

deVrai is tougher to kill than most men. He has maintained (semi-legally) his marine enhancements. But he is just one man against the power of multinational organizations with much of the government, significant parts of law enforcement, and the ability to hire gangland thugs. He quickly realizes that he's in a moral quandry. If he does nothing, he'll end up dead, as will what remains of his family. But the only actions he can think of turn him into something of a terrorist. For an ex-marine, the choice isn't easy.

An artificial intelligence within law enforcement offers a degree of information and some more tangible assistance. But everything deVrai does seems to make his own death that much of a necessity for the multinationals that rule most of the world.

Author L. E. Modesitt, Jr. creates a fascinating near-future world building on political, environmental, and economic trends that are evident now. There is a strong political message in the story, but it's a message that neither current political party (in the US at least) is likely to be completely in synch with.

Fans of SF will see Modesitt's debt to classics such as Heinlein's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and others in his development of the relationship between humans and computer-based intelligence.

I thought FLASH got off to a relatively slow start. Still, half the fun of Modesitt's work is in the world-building and this was very strong. Althoug FLASH lacked some of the emotional impact of some of Modesitt's works, I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.


Rating:
Summary: Adult protagonist nice change, but worldbuilding a bit short
Review: Flash is an interesting one-man-against-the-world story but ultimately falls short as the world doesn't quite support the plot. Still, an interesting read.

Jonat deVries is an ex-Marine colonel who resigned after running one too many missions for a government doing the bidding of heartless multinational corporations. He founds a consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the effectiveness of emotionally charged advertising, and then discovers the newest contract he has is a setup. The story basically revolves around his attempts to discover the why, what, and who of his enemies, the use of his spec ops training to destroy them, and how he falls in love.

The fact that deVries is a full adult protagonist is a nice switch from the typical Modesitt junior officer pilot, as well as the fact that he ends up having to deal with family issues - something none of Modesitt's heroes outside of the Spellsong series have ever faced. Modesitt is clearly trying to break out of his formulaic rut, and the plot as a result is better than his last few scifi ventures.

The problem - unusual for Modesitt - is that the world he builds up doesn't quite support the characters. Part of the problem is that the predecessor Archform: Beauty was an interesting exercise for Modesitt in writing 5 separate characters, but the world built up was not particularly well fleshed out given how much the plot shifted around. Flash isn't helped by this. We're still not really sure what happened to cause the ecological disaster that changed the world, how humanity recovered, or for that matter how the technology that deVries analyzes affects people. Modesitt usually gets away with ok plot writing by making a really interesting world; in this case, the plot is above average but the world isn't. Modesitt does a nice job as usual with ironic political observations; as in the Ghost series some of his most powerful observations come from the alternate world he creates.

Still, an interesting read and better than average...just not worthy of 5 stars.



Rating:
Summary: Very good. Clever.
Review: Flash!
Plausible, technically fascinating - and Mr. Modesitt has made his eating scenes interesting and enjoyable. I now have the recipe for fried apples like my Dad made for us kids. Sincere thank-you!
Running beneath the plethora of acronyms, complex dialogue and tenuous but promising love interest, the author cuts to the quick with a four hundred year future precise of today's multi-national econo-greed and intrigue. I flinched with the cognition that it is already happening 400 years earlier...in the now. Will mankind never learn? Is humanity destined to be a collective of spectating dupes too stupid to be informed voters?

But wait; there is something beneath the surface here. Has the author himself included some "resonant branding" to entice the reader to begin considering the metaphysical concept of our so-called higher self / inner guide with the introduction of Central Four...the instantaneous, humorous, unexpected, almost omniscient, omnipotent commentator we would all wish we had access to? Central Four (Paula) at least, seems to understand the exponential potentialities of ethically linking the archetype Male and Female "mindset-handicaps" into a syncretic team without forfeiting masculinity or femininity.


Rating:
Summary: wild futuristic crime thriller
Review: In the twenty-fourth century, observing his government lie and condone atrocities, former Marine officer Jonat deVrai resigned his military commission; he became an expert on product advertising. The Centre for Societal Research hires Jonat to analyze the election campaign of Juan Carlisimo to become a Senator. Jonat quickly questions the ethics and perhaps the illegal use of "rez", resonant amplification of music to enhance the candidate's message through emotional manipulation. The simple case turns nasty when thugs try to drive Jonat off the investigation.

At the same time Abraham Vorhees, whose services were exposed as a sham by Jonat threatens to kill his adversary. Jonat also becomes involved in a dastardly plot to smuggle illicit weapons onto Mars to smother a revolt. So when four illegal cydroids attempt to kill Jonat; he has no idea who is behind the assault that has led to the homicide of his sister and her husband. No one even his clients is trustworthy, but he must rely on someone for help so he turns to cydroid law enforcement officer Paula Athene in hopes of staying alive to raise his deceased sibling's children.

Though all over the place, science fiction fans will full enjoy this wild futuristic crime thriller which condemns big government and big business as being an incestuous team interested in the furthering of their own personal needs at the cost of the masses. The story line is exciting with non-stop action as the ethical Jonat keeps landing in one deadly scene after another. Fans will appreciate this law-enforcement thriller peopled with terrific characters (A.I. included) while seeking the author's fabulous ARCHFORM: BEAUTY (same time, same place, same terrific writing)

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Chock-full of new ideas.
Review: This is one of my favorite authors. Although I like his fantasy novels more than his sci-fi novels, this paticular book was fun to read, primarily for the glimpse into the future, its technological marvels, and the effect on the individual. Is it okay to take the law into your own hands when the law can not help you, especially when you are better "equipped" than other people to play judge, jury, and executioner. Lots of questions to speculate about, and a fair bit of action. What more could you wish for.