The Ethos Effect [Hardcover]

L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Set in the same universe as The Parafaith War (but two centuries later, and intended to be read independently), The Ethos Factor is the story of Commander Van C. Albert of the Republic Space Force of Taran, a brave and resourceful officer who once defeated a larger enemy ship but indirectly caused the loss of a civilian liner in the process. Cleared by the board of inquiry, but an embarrassment to the high command, he retains his commission but is given only dead-end assignments. For a time, he must watch helplessly as cold war among economic, religious and political rivals evolves toward interstellar open warfare.

Assigned as a military attaché at the Taran embassy on Scandya, Van is seriously wounded foiling an assassination. Decorated, promoted and summarily retired while still in a coma, he wakes to find himself honorably but intolerably unemployed. Then the harmless sounding Integrated Information Systems foundation of the Eco-Tech Coalition recruits him to fly a starship, Van finds he now has a powerful new vantage point not just for observation, but for action. The IIS has interests everywhere and Van is not just a pilot, but their point man in a conflict that will shake the worlds.

Modesitt uses a distinctive blend of space battles, political and economic intrigue, and issues of race and religion to address deep questions of good and evil, ethics and self-interest. Van Albert makes his decisions; it is for you to decide if he is a hero.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set 200 years after the events in The Parafaith Wars (1997), Modesitt's complex, fast-paced stand-alone offers a traditional space-adventure hero and heavy doses of philosophy laced with ethical issues. Commander Van C. Albert, of the Republican Space Force of Taran, moves with bewildering speed from command of the Fergus, a light cruiser where he's serving under a cloud, to military adviser to the Taran ambassador on the planet Gotland, Scandya system. Feeling both confused and inadequate to the post, he sets out to research the untimely death of his predecessor and uncovers mortal intrigue among three large planet clusters. He gets the chance to display his ability to both reason and act when he saves the Scandyan leader from assassination. While recovering from near-fatal injuries, he realizes the complicity of his own interplanetary government in acts of war and oppression. He later becomes a sort of "fixer" for the mysterious IIS (Integrated Information Systems), a private organization that's backed by the even more mysterious Farhkan race. As ever, Albert tries to make the best decisions in tragic situations. Despite some expository lumps and wooden characterization, thoughtful SF readers will appreciate this weighty tale of humanitarian intentions and social speculations.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The story of Commander Van Albert of the Taran republic makes a quite entertaining sermon. Once indirectly responsible for the loss of a civilian liner in a battle in which he defeated a larger enemy ship, he was cleared by a board of inquiry but still has nightmares, and his superiors no longer trust him. Is that the only reason why, after he is seriously injured in preventing an assassination, he is promoted with honors and retired? Anyway, he signs on with a small foundation that turns out to possess many hidden assets. In the meantime, an uneasy interstellar situation turns into a military, economic, and, worst of all, theocratic war, and its aftermath is worse, with changes from tyranny to anarchy in some systems, from independence to tyranny in others. Van Albert must move quickly to preserve the foundation's independence and his life. Modesitt knows well how to keep this kind of soup at a boil. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308029
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308023
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,148,507 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Sad Sequel, January 30, 2004

By 

Walter Tingle (danvers, ma USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ethos Effect (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Modesitt masterpiece about war, ethics, and personal responsibility, August 11, 2005

By 

Douglas Scheinberg - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ethos Effect (Mass Market Paperback)

Imagine that you have fallen through a portal time and have been transported back in time to October, 1939. Germany has invaded Poland, and World War II has just begun. You find yourself in Berlin, and you think about what you should do with your knowledge of the future. You think about assassinating Hitler, but realize that it would be too late; even if you could succeed, his successor would continue to carry out his policies and little would have been accomplished.

You then see an object appear out of nowhere in front of you. It is a button that, exactly seven days after it is pushed, will detonate several hydrogen bombs, killing every person in Germany. By activating it, you would kill of millions of people, many of which have committed no crime themselves, but you would bring World War II to a quick end and save millions of others.

Do you press the button? If you did, could you live with yourself afterwards?

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. has written many stories of cultures at war, usually told through the eyes of one single individual in a position to alter the course of history. Is there a limit to how far you can go to protect yourself, your country, and your way of life when faced with an enemy that will continue plotting your destruction until one side or the other has been completely defeated? The Ethos Effect is one of his best novels, but you should be warned. This book is meant to be controversial and upsetting. It raises serious questions and provides answers, but deliberately leaves the reader wondering if the hero's solution to the problem of the evil he slowly uncovers throughout the novel was the right ones. You may not like this book, but you ought to read it and consider it carefully.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timely follow-up to "The Parafaith War", October 5, 2003

By 

Samer T Ismail "SF & classical music fan" (Danbury, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ethos Effect (Hardcover)

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.