Customer Reviews

Adiamante

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was on my way to Switzerland in the airport and found myself caught with nothing to read. I went into a nearby book store looked in science fiction and found this as the only book. It didn't look like a crowd pleaser, no #1 bestseller or anything, but I bought it anyways. On the plane I was quickly wrapped up in one of the most entertaining books I had ever read, after page 80 or so I couldn't stop, I just had to go on, what was going to happen, how come the cybs were so stupid, why didn't the demi's kick their butts, I had all these questions pounding my brain when I put it down that I had to pick it back up, if you are looking to be thoroughly entertained, buy this book. The only downside to it are some of the beliefs, they are extremest, true, but in a time and place of this sort maybe extremism is need. I don't know, but the book captured my attention and towords the last pages I was filled with emotion. I thouroughly enjoyed this book and encourage anyone th! at has the chance, to read it.

This is the first L. E. Modesitt book I picked up, and it was a pretty entertaining read. It sustains through a second read too, for the presentation of the two different cultures remains consistent throughout.

I found the approach unexpected - even though by the end of chapter 3 there is little doubt about how the story will conclude, that leaves room for an amazing amount of suspense in just what the path will be to get to that foregone conclusion. Also the changes in points of view - first person for the demi and third person for the cybs - are a good way to unrelentingly underscore the impersonal outlook of the cybs as opposed to the demi's beliefs that life must be lived "whole-body".

All in all the best science fiction book I have read in a while. I realize it's been published for some time but that just means it's still worthwhile to browse outside of the newly-published book selections.

This is one of the best books I've read recently. Modesitt makes you think. What is power? Who deserves it? What prices will the powerful have to pay? How do you define "right" and "wrong"? These are questions he addresses in most of his fiction, but this is his best examination to date. I'm already on the waiting list for his third volume in the Spellsong series, and wish I could learn more about the history of Ector's earth. I'm a fan since someone at the bookstore pointed out "The Magic of Recluce" and hope that his publishers plan to re-cycle those volumes of the Ecologic series I've been unable to obtain.

In this novel, Modesitt has managed to convey the feeling that, if we would just be honest with ourselves about our very human motivations and faults, we could have a society that works for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of its citizens. While I don't agree with all the premises of the political situation in the novel, I found myself agreeing with him that all power, political , military, or otherwise, should have a price attached. Beyond the philisophical implications, it's an excellent book. Read it, and come to your own conclusions about whether Modesitt's right or wrong.

How would you run a planet if you were truly Grown Up? Having set up a society you like, how would you defend it without losing your soul? I'm careful about what I read these days. Don't have time for adolescent knock-over-the-empire stuff any more. This is the kind of fiction that you read SF for when you get past that stage. Modesitt does a fabulous job with this. He posits an Earth struggling to clean up the toxic residues of old societies and old wars. Some residues are left in place as reminders. The inhabitants understand, but the people from Gates just don't get it. The blurb on the back cover from the New York Times is dead on: "morally persuasive and emotionally wrenching." Read this book.

Adiamante seems to follow the underlying theme that most of Modesitt's works incorporate. Once again there is found a people who wish nothing more than to be left alone, yet are forced to protect themselves at great price. Modesitt continues to write of the inherent lack of understanding by most people. There are those characters that will not listen to reason. They must go their own course untill they are forced to act differently. The main characters cannot, by their very nature, act in a pre-emptive manner for any reason. Modesitt's developement of the ideas expressed in the "Paradigms of Power" and the "Construct" work excellently with this theme. All in all a good read and I look forward to the next book sent forth.

The true litmus test is whether a book is remembered or forgotten, and this book is not easily forgotten. I read this over 5 months ago, and I still find myself mulling over the demi ideology. I love the idea that if you want to have power in society, you must pay society for the privilege.

This novel presents a compelling entree to a mythos/universe that the author expands in other novels, but Adiamante may lack the vicersal tug that you get from a truly great novel. Well worth reading, even loosing sleep for, but by the very nature of its characters and message, not one you'll push on your friends.
More mature and thoughtful readers will remember this one fondly, and return to it often.

This book is put to the extremes in all ways. The script, if a little complicated, is very good with everything else. Based in the far future, the long since exiled "cybs" return, understanding nothing of the code upon which humanity lives by. Gives many points which will make you think. Very good.

This is a unique book among Modesitt's works. It describes the restraints a Utopian society places upon its own actions to preserve its state, even when encountered with an opponent whose intention is to glass the entire planet. It has such gems of thought as the concept that most societies tend to avoid honesty (or full honesty) because of the destabilizing effects of the high priority individuals and groups of individuals place on the ego.

To be fair, I've noticed this to be the general case. Different societies have different rules for what truths are spoken, and when it is appropriate to speak them.

Whether you agree with the concepts you encounter or not, they will expand your ability to think practically about humanities tendencies towards power and the controls that societies put in place to override those urges.