his new SF book by Modesitt, best known for his Recluce fantasy series, returns to the world he conjured up for Archform: Beauty (2002), but with an entirely new cast of characters. The scenario Modesitt posits is a radically complex one. Sometime in the 2100s came the Collapse, when America's "Commonocracy" failed in chaos. Out of those ashes arose a new patchwork nation along what appear to me to be essentially libertarian lines: little government, free rein to businesses known as "multis," privacy laws that limit media snooping and a requirement that each individual citizen maintain his own security. All in all, though, it's a system that seems to work. "America" is flourishing, and the solar system is thoroughly colonized. The rest of the world has its zones of success and failure. But this new system still has its flaws, and our hero, Jonat deVrai, is about to encounter them.
Jonat is an ex-Marine who left the service on matters of idealism and managed to retain many of his potent military bodymods. But for the past 10 years he's led a quiet life, attaining his doctorate and then running a one-man business. Jonat crafts reports for various businesses, advising them how to maximize their product placement in the infosphere. He's known for his blunt honesty, and that's what initially gets him in trouble. After turning in a less-than-glowing assessment to powerful industrialist Abe Vorhees, Jonat finds his luck turning bad, with lawsuits and related annoyances. But worse is to come. He lands a big assignment from a nonprofit group known as the "Centre for Societal Research," which wants to investigate the use of new propaganda techniques in current political campaigns. Jonat sets out reluctantly to shadow certain politicians, and shortly finds himself the object of assassination attempts. Moreover, his new unseen enemies have his sister, Aliora, and her family—including Jonat's beloved niece and nephew—in their sights.
Eventually, Jonat finds himself in over even his capable head. But luckily he gains an ally in the form of a scrupulously moral governmental AI known as Central Four. Central Four has its own agents in the form of cydroids, humaniform biological constructs that the AI and others can operate from afar. (All the citizens of Jonat's world are provided with the mental Links that allow this kind of transaction and others.) The cydroid interfacing with Jonat is a beautiful female named Paula Athene, who happens to be developing her own sentience aside from the guiding mind of Central Four. When the going gets particularly rough, it'll be Jonat and Paula against the world. And can love be far behind?
An extrapolative thriller
Anyone who enjoys the hard-edged speculations of Wil McCarthy and the noir paranoia of Richard Morgan will find in this book a fine fusion of the two forms.
Modesitt has put a lot of effort into building a future that coheres into an unusual form. There's no off-the-shelf props here, just some good solid speculation over how the future might undergo tectonic paradigm shifts. Modesitt supports his vision with deep political, economic and cultural knowledge and speculation, producing a world that actually makes its own kind of sense. His libertarianism is modulated and skeptical, not dogmatic. His people are genuine inhabitants of this world, not transplanted 20th-century souls. All of this is bolstered with some clever and catchy neologisms. In short, he performs the core task of the kind of pure science fiction that often seems in danger of disappearing from the shelves.
Narrating in the first person, Jonat assumes a credibility and reality that allow the reader easy entry into his world. (The 10 percent or so of the book that is narrated otherwise, consisting mainly of backstage views of the conspirators, could almost be excised completely.) Jonat is Heinlein's "capable man," but hardly an unrealistic superman. His burgeoning romance with Paula Athene comes off as believable. His affection for his sister and her family humanize him even further. Even when he moves into quasi-Punisher mode, he does not lose our sympathy.
Modesitt has a fine way with action scenes, and even manages to make Jonat's job—basically, rummaging through cyberspace—look exciting. He has a tendency to open chapters the same way too often: "When I got up Monday morning ..."; "I actually reached Friday ..."; "By noon on Wednesday ..."; and so on. But even this repetitiveness might be chalked up to Jonat's precise military mind. Additionally, the welter of acronyms and the intricacy of the interlocking conspiracies occasionally threaten to induce a headache. But if you just focus on Jonat as a kind of Hitchcockian man on the run without trying to label his pursuers, you'll find yourself propelled into a robust adventure.
