1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Free SF Reader, September 3, 2007
This review is from: The Ecolitan Enigma (Hardcover)
The Ecolitan organisation exists to try and prevent people killing each other on a large scale. They try and use politics, money, sneaking around like spies, or whatever other influence or tricks they might have to accomplish this.
In this case, one of their senior guys and a female secret agent type go to the planet Artos. Pretty much straight away people start trying to bump them off.
Having to work out tricky interplanetary problems and their own relationships doesn't leave them much time for anything else.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A/A+": a hard-eyed look at an ancient human dilemma, January 1, 2004
_____________________________________________
Monsters as political leaders have been a recurrent nightmare in our
history - from Lenin, Hitler, Stalin & Mao to such comparative small-
timers as Idi Amin, Pol Pot & Saddam Hussein. The record of "good
governments" in dealing with monsters is not encouraging. Millions of
lives could have been saved with a few snipers' bullets... why weren't
they?
Modesitt posits the Ecolitan Institute, on the Coordinate capitol world of
Accord, as a genocide-prevention force: "The Institute, for better or
worse, operates on principle. They try to avoid small wars... by deceit,
assassination, or economic warfare. They willl try any type of small-scale
tactic to avoid war... That's the good side... The other side is that when
they do fight, they insure they don't have to fight that enemy again."
Economist Nathaniel Whaler is sent to the frontier colony of Artos,
ostensibly to do a survey of the planet's infrastructure. His (barely)
covert mission is to look into rumors of war. His task is complicated by
multiple assassination attempts. Clearly, he and the Institute are being
set up as fall guys by one of the interstellar powers - but which one?
Shadowy organizations of dedicated, competent fighters-against-evil are
a classic sf trope, and Modesitt knows the classics. "Enigma" is the latest
and one of the best: thoughtful, well-written, an accurate and disturbing
portrait of the dark side of humanity: "Greed and force - that's all most
people listen to."
This isn't a grim or preachy book [1] - Modesitt's action and intrigue
scenes are first-rate, and the ending is, well, earthshaking. "Enigma" can
be enjoyed as a first-rate political-adventure tale, as the latest part of a
long-running sf conversation, as an examination of human nature... It's
an outstanding work, and I plan to reread it a few years on.
I see I've left out the economic basis of conflict, the well-drawn
characters, the romance amidst danger and intrigue... Well. You'll like it.
Trust me. Assuming you've liked this sort of book before. It's like that,
only better. Subtler, better-written, less self-righteous...
_________________
Note 1). LEM does get a bit heavy-handed at times, especially with his
politicians. And he includes a *major* spoiler (IMO) in the first 20 pages.
But you'll get over it.
Review copyright 1998 by Peter D. Tillman
Original review: http://www.sfsite.com/06b/eco35.htm
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