Adiamante [Paperback]

L E Modesitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 1999

In the far future, Earth is just one planet inhabited by humanity, the capital of a long-abandoned interstellar empire. The people of Earth have built a new society and slowly the planet is recovering from millennia of selfish exploitation and the destruction of wars. Suddenly, a former colony's fleet of twelve warships built of nearly indestructible adiamante appears in orbit and tries to intimidate the people of Earth into submission. The people of Earth will not surrender, but their principles also don't allow them to take defensive measures until the fleet actually attacks. Ecktor deJanes is the newly appointed planetary coordinator and has the terrible responsibility of protecting the lives of all the Earth's inhabitants. Somehow he must maintain his society's principles while preventing the fleet from turning the planet into a lifeless ball of rock.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Earth was once the capital of an interstellar empire, but now it's just another inhabited planet in a forgotten universal order. Its citizens survive through kindness, environmental conservation and non-aggression. But humanity's great strides toward erasing its violent past are threatened when 12 ships made of indestructible adiamante appear in orbit. The ships are from a former colony bent on subjugating the Earth and its inhabitants. But the strict ethics that have helped revitalize the Earth may be its downfall, as the human homeworld struggles to find a way to save itself without violating its new-found principles. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In the far future, humanity is scattered among the stars and has divided into many subgroups. On Old Earth itself, after many wars and disasters, society is based on conservation and non-aggression. But the resilience of this culture is tested when a hostile fleet of 12 spaceships appears in orbit around the planet. Built of adiamante, a nearly indestructible material, the ships have been sent by a former colony bent on revenge. Narrator Ecktor deJanes, Earth's temporary coordinator, has to prevent the fleet from sterilizing the planet. He's not without resources, as it turns out. But he's bound by a code of honor that mandates that "those with great power must exercise equally great responsibility." Modesitt avoids the digressions and lingering scholarly points that sometimes slow his popular Recluce series, though his narrative here does get didactic at times ("For all our nets, for all our communications, humans... are aliens, aliens to each other and to the universe, and that is why we must trust"). If he doesn't always fully explain the technological distinctions and intricacies of his elaborate far-future Earth, he nevertheless paints an absorbing picture of this world and how it became what it is.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (August 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857238427
• ISBN-13: 978-1857238426
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,878,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After spending years writing poetry, political speeches and analyses, as well as economic and technical reports on extraordinarily detailed and often boring subjects, I finally got around to writing my first short story, which was published in 1973. I kept submitting and occasionally having published stories until an editor indicated he'd refuse to buy any more until I wrote a novel. So I did, and it was published in 1982, and I've been writing novels -- along with a few short stories -- ever since.

If you want to know more, you can visit my website at www.lemodesittjr.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A flat out excellent book, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an inverted storytelling approach, September 27, 2002

By 

shari l brooks (pacifica, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book., September 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)

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.