The Elysium Commission by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
I recently won this book as a signed copy and have been really anxious to finally read it. I’m not sure why. I have not read any of Modesitt’s work before, but for whatever reason I just want to get into this book quickly.Now I need to premise this review by saying a few things. First, this book is going to be well beyond the average scifi reader. Second, I can say this because it is well beyond me. The concepts in this are so deep and sound that if you are not prepared to grasp them you probably won’t until halfway through the novel. This is not to say that it is a bad book, quite the contrary, but it is saying that this book is probably going to turn off a lot of less hardcore scifi readers out there. If you love hard scifi, you will likely love this book. If you love Modesitt, well then that is self explanatory.The basic story is, well, not very basic. In fact I’m not going to bother trying to provide a self-written synopsis, but I’ll instead put up the one on the book:“A brilliant scientist on the planet Devanta has created a small universe contiguous to ours–and a utopian city on one of the planets. The question becomes, though, a utopia for whom? And why is a shady entertainment mogul subsidizing the scientist? More critical than that, does this new universe require the destruction of a portion–or all–of our universe in order to grow and stabilize?Blaine Donne is a retired military special operative now devoted to problem-solving for hire. He investigates a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries that arise with the arrival of a woman with unlimited resources who has neither a present or a past. The more he investigates, the more questions arise, including the role of the two heiresses who are more–and less–than they seem, and the more Donne is pushed inexorably toward finding himself a pawn in an explosive solution and a regional interstellar war.” See how complicated that is?Now, I really did enjoy the book once I got into it. At first it was rather difficult because of the language and what seemed to me to be very French influence. The story moves along very much like a detective story. I enjoyed the characters very much. It was strongly written and Modesitt has created a very fascinating world that I would be interested in knowing more about. That being said, some of the things I didn’t like were more or less little pet peeves. I thought the ending was rather forced. I won’t ruin it for anyway, but it just seemed so, well, quick, and I didn’t quite understand why Donne had to be a part of it if it were seemingly so simple. I also found the sections where Modesitt switched viewpoints to one of the antogonists to be rather annoying. This is written in first person, so the first few times he does this it is hard to tell if we’re in Donne’s head or someone else’s. Eventually it all pans out, but those were some things I didn’t like.All in all I think it is a well written book. It’s not one of my favorites, but at the same time I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it. The detective story really had me wondering how Donne was going to figure it all out.So, if you are into really hard scifi, give this one a go.
A List of Somewhat Important Facts
So I found this meme over at Lindsey’s blog. Sounded interesting and it will be an interesting insight into my little writing brain: 1. Do you outline? For the most part no. I don’t make long outlines like many writers do. I feel like doing so takes away all the magic of the story for me. I no longer want to tell that story because nothing is new. It’s all set in stone. 2. Do you write straight through a book, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order? This really depends. If there is a scene that is eating at the inside of my brain I will write it down in advance. For the most part, however, I stick to writing straight through. It’s not very common that I take the other route. 3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer? Depends. When I’m in a massive writing groove and the words are coming out of me in droves, then I prefer to be on my computer because I can type a lot quicker than I can write. Sometimes, though, I find that writing by hand is so much more enjoyable. It all depends on my mood and what is going on in my head. My short story Death By Poking was done primarily by hand. Bits and pieces of WISB were too, though the majority is done on the computer because I have to put a lot of focus into it and do a lot of research here and there. 4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third? This is going to sound weird, but I hate first person, yet I write in it quite often. It’s a strange feeling. I think perhaps I am growing an appreciation for it, but it used to be where I actually despised first person novels. Now, I write and read in both. I still hate first person and tend to be turned off by short stories written in first, but I think my hatred for it comes from reading a lot of very dull stories told in first person. I personally like first person for humor because you can convey humorous situations through the character better. 5. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, do you create a playlist, listen randomly, or pick a single song that fits the book? Sometimes. Mostly I’ll listen to classical or orchestrated stuff (such as soundtracks and the like). When I’m really tired of music or my concentration is lacking I will listen to silence instead. I never really make playlists, not really anyway. I only have one playlist and it consists of all my classical and orchestrated stuff. Usually I just put my list on shuffle. 6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters? I used to use a program called EBoN (Everchanging Book of Names), which is fantastic for a few reasons. One, it comes with a library of thirty or so languages that it creates names from. Two, you can get new libraries from other users. And three, you can affect how it will create names by fiddling with the phonemes and the like.For the most part I sit in my chair and start speaking out names to myself until something grabs me. This is also how I started coming up with the language of my world as I started to notice in the names of places some very common aspects. Thus begins my endeavor to create a functioning language without going insane or screwing it up (which I already have twice and have had to fix). 7. When you’re writing, do you ever imagine your book as a television show or movie? Sort of. I don’t imagine it as a full show or movie, but I do imagine scenes as if they were playing like movies in my head. I like it that way because I tend to see nifty details I might otherwise be blind to. 8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn’t want him/her to do? Who hasn’t? A story I wrote a while ago started off as two kids just sitting around doing kids stuff. I never expected that the secondary character would turn out to be the villian of the story. He went from being that sort of innocently evil child to a complete madman. It was wild. 9. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it? Yes and no. I know where the characters will be and the very very very very last scene, but I have no idea how the characters are getting there, or if that future will be the same when I reach it. The story evolves as I go. 10. Where do you write? In bed, at work, at school, in my car (yes, while I’m driving, I have a digital recorder), and anywhere I can sit down and concentrate. I carry a little book for notes with me just about everywhere I go just in case I come up with something fascinating. 11. What do you do when you get writer’s block? Kill people. Not really literally, but sort of literally. I play computer games if I’m really in a slump or need to stimulate my creative juices. If feel sort of snagged and need to clean out my head I go read. Mostly it’s computer games. For me they do wonders. It’s completely mindless, it makes my brain reboot, and I don’t have to think too much while playing. 12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of wordcount, or as a percentage of the book as a whole)? At any one time, not more than a thousand words (usually). Over the course of a day I can churn out 10,000 if I’m really into a story. Usually I get around 2,000 or 3,000 in a day.