The Ethos Effect

Rating:
Summary: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz & What's up with all the 'easing'?
Review: Actually, I rather like Modesitt, despite his peculiarly wooden writing style, but I found this book so dull that I found myself counting the number of times his characters 'eased' into, up to, and around things, rather than paying attention to the plot (which, two months afterward, I have absolutely no recollection of). You may ask, why did I continue reading it, in that case? I ask myself the same thing. I kept waiting for it to get interesting, I guess. But I suppose it's difficult to "ease" into excitement-mode.

Rating:
Summary: unintentional ethics
Review: First things first: the dust jacket says "Set in the same universe as The Parafaith War (but two centuries later, and intended to be read independently)". While this book *will* make sense even if you haven't read The Parafaith War, I would strongly recommend reading that book first, for two reasons: on the one hand, The Ethos Effect gives away much of the plot of the first book; on the other, reading The Parafaith War will make the actions of characters in this book much sharper.

I won't say too much about the plot of the book--since I don't want to spoil either of these books--but I can say that I was swept along, and I certainly didn't see many of the plot twists coming. [This is surprising, as some of these twists were, in fact, presaged by comments made by characters in The Parafaith War.] The book is also rather more politically-oriented than The Parafaith War; fans of Modesitt's "The Ecolitan Enigma" should enjoy this book.

There is little in the way of graphic material in this book; Modesitt more than makes up for this, though, with thorny ethical dilemmas--ones which are not clearly resolved, and both condemned and applauded. A number of parallels are drawn between the events in the book and events in the world today, although you'd be hard-pressed to tell who's who. Modesitt suggests a solution to the problem--but is it the *best* solution? And is it a just one?

As in The Parafaith War, Modesitt presents a story, and invites you to decide what *you* would do in the same situation. It ties up some of the loose ends from the previous book, while leaving some questions unanswered. The door is left open for yet another book in this universe; if Modesitt chooses to write it, I will certainly read it.

Rating:
Summary: A Sad Sequel
Review: I hate to give this book such a poor review. "The Parafaith War" is one of my favorite sf novels. This is the sequel. I really wanted to like it, but I didn't. The one star comes from some interesting minor characters, and the first quarter of the book.

Unfortunately, the elements that came together to make tPW a compelling story don't gel here. The book is preachy and the plot is arbitrary with a literal deus ex machina at the end. The few likeable characters and relationships are not drawn in sufficient detail to make you like the book as a whole. The occasional, slightly cryptic quotations that were fascinating in tPW are too obviously pointed preaching in tEE.

Mind you, I don't really disagree with the contents of the sermon, I just object to there being a sermon here at all. Rabid Republican wingnuts should avoid this book like the plague, since you'll also strongly object to the _contents_ of the sermon.

If you haven't read "The Parafaith War", read that instead. I can't honestly recommend this sequel.

Rating:
Summary: An ethical hero's response to an systematicly corrupt ethos
Review: In some ways, this is a sequel to the "Parafaith War." But it is also a sequel to many of his other novels that struggle with a heros ethical response to a corrupt system. As in other novels, the hero makes a self-conscious search for an ethical understanding of how to confront the systematic evil of a culture. Although individual actions are important, a lot of energy is around the context that nourishes evil.

Modesitt also tends to view religion/faith as a hand-maiden of the corrupt ethos, validating oppression of those who are different in race, color or custom.

As in some of his other books, the hero solution is to do massive surgery in society. He eliminates the headquarters of evil along with millions of other not so innocents. Unfortunately, violence tends to be a tempory bandaid. The hero suffers overwhelming guilt and personal destruction, requiring months of reconstruction by super-human agents.

In the "Parafaith War" the hero is described as a "Kristos" figure, although the right term would be a "Jesus" figure.

The "Kristos" or "Anointed by God" referred to the Jesus/redeemer hero who was anointed by "God" as his incarnate son because he was living out "God's" plan for the confrontation of the evil ethos.

The Jesus of Nazareth, confronted the evil ethos by spending 3 years with a small group of trainees building community; personally healing and teaching those who came to him. He choose to confront the evil ethos of his own culture and religious establishment as a martyr(witness) until he was brutally killed by the religious establishment that claimed validation from his God.

At his death, Jesus community of trainees fell apart, until a "risen" Jesus returned to inspire them. He sent his spirit to empower them as communities to continue the non-violent confrontation and witness to the evil ethos. The community of faith witnesses without massive surgery of evil in society.

Of course this is only one interpretation of the "Jesus" response to the evil ethos.

Modesitt is probably my favorite author. I found this book less focused and less powerful than the "Parafaith War"

Rating:
Summary: An Ethical Crime
Review: In some ways, this is a sequel to the "Parafaith War." But it is also a sequel to many of his other novels that struggle with a heros ethical response to a corrupt system. As in other novels, the hero makes a self-conscious search for an ethical understanding of how to confront the systematic evil of a culture. Although individual actions are important, a lot of energy is around the context that nourishes evil.

Modesitt also tends to view religion/faith as a hand-maiden of the corrupt ethos, validating oppression of those who are different in race, color or custom.

As in some of his other books, the hero solution is to do massive surgery in society. He eliminates the headquarters of evil along with millions of other not so innocents. Unfortunately, violence tends to be a tempory bandaid. The hero suffers overwhelming guilt and personal destruction, requiring months of reconstruction by super-human agents.

In the "Parafaith War" the hero is described as a "Kristos" figure, although the right term would be a "Jesus" figure.

The "Kristos" or "Anointed by God" referred to the Jesus/redeemer hero who was anointed by "God" as his incarnate son because he was living out "God's" plan for the confrontation of the evil ethos.

The Jesus of Nazareth, confronted the evil ethos by spending 3 years with a small group of trainees building community; personally healing and teaching those who came to him. He choose to confront the evil ethos of his own culture and religious establishment as a martyr(witness) until he was brutally killed by the religious establishment that claimed validation from his God.

At his death, Jesus community of trainees fell apart, until a "risen" Jesus returned to inspire them. He sent his spirit to empower them as communities to continue the non-violent confrontation and witness to the evil ethos. The community of faith witnesses without massive surgery of evil in society.

Of course this is only one interpretation of the "Jesus" response to the evil ethos.

Modesitt is probably my favorite author. I found this book less focused and less powerful than the "Parafaith War"

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: L.E. Modesitt has been my favorite author of fantasy novels. I have enjoyed reading the entire Recluce series and the Corean Chronicles, but the Ethos Effect was a major disappointment. The novel projects all the current race, religion, sexuality, and family value conflicts into the far distant future. It is a very gloomy view of the future.

Rating:
Summary: An Ethical Crime
Review: Modesitt is at his best when he concentrates on action, and reins in his regrettable tendency to preachiness. Like many other readers, I liked THE PARAFAITH WAR, and other Modesitt books like ADIAMANTE. I found myself completely turned off by THE ETHOS EFFECT. The first third or so of the book is vintage Modesitt; the last two thirds are lost in a fog of murk as Modesitt commits attempted philosophy.

Didacticism is always a heavy load for any work of fiction; it's even worse when the message is so completely confused that you wonder what it's supposed to be. The book's protagonist commits mass murder--in what he sees as a good cause, of course. Normally, this should be viewed as the action of a depraved, mad, or wicked man. However, Modesitt doesn't seem to see his hero that way. Instead, gives us some mumblings of what appear to be an attempt at philosophical ethics, but these mumblings are of no help whatever in understanding the actions of the character within the story. The most cogent and concise review of this book would probably be: "Eh?"

Actually, I'm being charitable to Modesitt; if I understood what he was saying, this might be something much worse than a book of bad fiction. One could read this as a paean to mass murder; an exaltation of genocide; a rhapsody of ends justifying the means. (...)

But lo, I am uncharitable. As I said, I really can't understand what Modesitt is mumbling about in the Ethos Effect, so it's not an evil book--just a very bad one.

Rating:
Summary: Great space opea
Review: Taran Republic Space Force Commander Van C. Albert defeats an unknown enemy's cruiser that attacked his vessel, the RSFS Fergus. However, his rejoicing is short-lived as his actions also caused the destruction of a civilian liner. A board of inquiry condoned his actions, but his career is over though he retains the rank of Commander.

His current loser position is as a military attaché at the Taran embassy on Scandya. However, he gets once last chance to show his courage when he stops an assassination. To the elation of his superiors, Van ends in a coma so he is decorated and given a disability retirement.

Van awakens to learn that he no longer works for the military. Integrated Information Systems of the Eco-Tech Coalition hires him to command a starship. The exiled former commander finds he is the prime focus in an interstellar conflict that will leave no world the same and some potentially eradicated.

THE ETHOS EFFECT occurs two centuries after the Parafaith War has ended, but retains much of the complex military science fiction that made the previous saga a fan favorite. The story line is action-packed yet contains fully developed characters especially the lead protagonist. Van is more than just a strong strategist and courageous warrior. Readers will feel his guilt over the civilian deaths and his dissatisfaction with his post incident assignments, his shock over his dismissal, and finally his sense of self worth when he is placed in a vanguard position. He makes the tale that will provide much enjoyment to L.E. Modesitt, Jr. fans and sub-genre readers.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Ethics in a Technocracy?
Review: The Ethos Effect is a sequel of The Parafaith War. In the previous volume, Major Trystin Desoll was a Major in the Eco-Tech Coalition forces. The Coalition was hard pressed by the superior numbers of the Revenant forces that were attacking Eco-Tech worlds. Desoll undertook a dangerous mission to assassinate a Revenant admiral and archbishop, but added a spin of his own that led the Revenants to believe that the death was an expression of divine wrath. This apparent act of God resulted in a cessation of the war and a rewriting of the Revenant holy writ.

In this novel, some two centuries later, the Revenants have again become expansionist and are crowding the Republic of Tara and other small polities in nearby systems. Commander Van C. Albert is a veteran ship commander in the Taran Republic Space Force who had been responsible for the destruction of the Vetachi, a renegade terraforming vessel that had been rampaging among the commercial ships within that sector. Unfortunately, the renegade had been stalking the Regneri, a colony ship, and the resulting explosion caused an errant torp to launch from the renegade and destroy the other ship. Since then, Albert has been relegated to older ships and smaller commands.

Albert's current command, the RSFS Fergus, is preparing to jump to its next station when it receives an urgent message to change destinations to Gotland in the Scandya system to replace the RSFS Collyns. Further orders will be sent by courier to Gotland. Revising their jump coordinates, the Fergus transits to Scandya and is immediately attacked by an unidentified warship. Albert's crew quickly responds to the attack and destroys the other ship.

Albert sends a battle report by message torp back to headquarters. When questioned by the local self defense forces, Albert admits detecting unusual emissions from further outside the system, but denies any other knowledge. When the Fergus achieves orbit around Gotland, a courier brings a replacement commander for the Fergus and orders for Albert himself to be reassigned as the the Naval Attaché in the local Taran embassy. He is to replace a fellow officer who was killed in a sailing accident.

Since Albert has not been receiving the plum career assignments, he has little training or knowledge of his embassy duties. However, he starts gathering information from the records, other embassy staffers and his counterparts in the other embassies and the Scandyan SDF. He is well and thoroughly ignored by the Revenant Naval Attaché, but cooperatively received by his other peers and forms a good working relationship with the Second Secretary in his embassy. From the information received from various sources, he begins to wonder about his predecessor's death and the situation in Scandya.

Then Albert foils an assassination of high Scandyan government officials and is severely wounded. Although eventually restored to full health, he is recalled to Tara, where he is presented with a high award, promoted to Commodore, and retired from the service. He soon finds that he is too highly qualified to work as a pilot, but still doesn't want to become a desk jockey.

During this time, he is offered a job by Trystin Desoll, now managing director of Integrated Information Systems, a developer of proprietary business intelligence for multisystem corporations and governments. The job has the title of senior director and will involve piloting one of the IIS courier ships as well as acting as a consultant to planetary managers and clientele.

When Albert finally accepts the job with IIS, he is provided with training on the corporation's proprietary systems and then sent on specific assignments. From the business intelligence gathered by IIS and his own observations during these assignments, Albert begins to see a very dark and dangerous pattern emerging. Apparently IIS is attempting to counter this pattern, but things are looking bad.

Albert also discovers that Desoll has close connections with the Farhkan aliens. They seem to be interested in human affairs, but refrain from too close relationships with most humans. Desoll seems to be an exception.

This story continues to examine the ethical questions raised in the previous volume regarding interference in other societies. The Farhkans believe that such interference will corrupt their own society. Desoll has interfered once before in Revenant society with mixed results. So how can one society justify massive interference with another?

In contrast with the Farhkan viewpoint, the Revenants know that they are only obeying the will of God, so have no qualms about completely disrupting another society. The Taran Republic seems to be developing an ethic of survival at all cost, which justifies any degree of intervention in another society and even their own. Are these the only alternatives?

Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of social conflict and personal ethics.

Rating:
Summary: Ethics in a Technocracy?
Review: The Ethos Effect is a sequel of The Parafaith War. In the previous volume, Major Trystin Desoll was a Major in the Eco-Tech Coalition forces. The Coalition was hard pressed by the superior numbers of the Revenant forces that were attacking Eco-Tech worlds. Desoll undertook a dangerous mission to assassinate a Revenant admiral and archbishop, but added a spin of his own that led the Revenants to believe that the death was an expression of divine wrath. This apparent act of God resulted in a cessation of the war and a rewriting of the Revenant holy writ.

In this novel, some two centuries later, the Revenants have again become expansionist and are crowding the Republic of Tara and other small polities in nearby systems. Commander Van C. Albert is a veteran ship commander in the Taran Republic Space Force who had been responsible for the destruction of the Vetachi, a renegade terraforming vessel that had been rampaging among the commercial ships within that sector. Unfortunately, the renegade had been stalking the Regneri, a colony ship, and the resulting explosion caused an errant torp to launch from the renegade and destroy the other ship. Since then, Albert has been relegated to older ships and smaller commands.

Albert's current command, the RSFS Fergus, is preparing to jump to its next station when it receives an urgent message to change destinations to Gotland in the Scandya system to replace the RSFS Collyns. Further orders will be sent by courier to Gotland. Revising their jump coordinates, the Fergus transits to Scandya and is immediately attacked by an unidentified warship. Albert's crew quickly responds to the attack and destroys the other ship.

Albert sends a battle report by message torp back to headquarters. When questioned by the local self defense forces, Albert admits detecting unusual emissions from further outside the system, but denies any other knowledge. When the Fergus achieves orbit around Gotland, a courier brings a replacement commander for the Fergus and orders for Albert himself to be reassigned as the the Naval Attaché in the local Taran embassy. He is to replace a fellow officer who was killed in a sailing accident.

Since Albert has not been receiving the plum career assignments, he has little training or knowledge of his embassy duties. However, he starts gathering information from the records, other embassy staffers and his counterparts in the other embassies and the Scandyan SDF. He is well and thoroughly ignored by the Revenant Naval Attaché, but cooperatively received by his other peers and forms a good working relationship with the Second Secretary in his embassy. From the information received from various sources, he begins to wonder about his predecessor's death and the situation in Scandya.

Then Albert foils an assassination of high Scandyan government officials and is severely wounded. Although eventually restored to full health, he is recalled to Tara, where he is presented with a high award, promoted to Commodore, and retired from the service. He soon finds that he is too highly qualified to work as a pilot, but still doesn't want to become a desk jockey.

During this time, he is offered a job by Trystin Desoll, now managing director of Integrated Information Systems, a developer of proprietary business intelligence for multisystem corporations and governments. The job has the title of senior director and will involve piloting one of the IIS courier ships as well as acting as a consultant to planetary managers and clientele.

When Albert finally accepts the job with IIS, he is provided with training on the corporation's proprietary systems and then sent on specific assignments. From the business intelligence gathered by IIS and his own observations during these assignments, Albert begins to see a very dark and dangerous pattern emerging. Apparently IIS is attempting to counter this pattern, but things are looking bad.

Albert also discovers that Desoll has close connections with the Farhkan aliens. They seem to be interested in human affairs, but refrain from too close relationships with most humans. Desoll seems to be an exception.

This story continues to examine the ethical questions raised in the previous volume regarding interference in other societies. The Farhkans believe that such interference will corrupt their own society. Desoll has interfered once before in Revenant society with mixed results. So how can one society justify massive interference with another?

In contrast with the Farhkan viewpoint, the Revenants know that they are only obeying the will of God, so have no qualms about completely disrupting another society. The Taran Republic seems to be developing an ethic of survival at all cost, which justifies any degree of intervention in another society and even their own. Are these the only alternatives?

Highly recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of social conflict and personal ethics.