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The Ethos Effect | 
| Manufacturer: Tor Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $5.69
You Save: $22.26 (80%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 46084
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
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 attache 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Action Si-fi provides opportunity for reflection on values... July 20, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
With so many of today's government and business leaders more concerned with being re-elected; the bottom line; popularity; and enriching their bank accounts rather than their souls, The Ethos Effect provides an opportunity to reflect on where this type of behavior can lead and the disasterous consequenses that may result.
 Boring February 5, 2006
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I spotted this book in the library, saw the cover art, and thought, "Oh boy, an action-packed sci-fi novel about spaceships!" I had never heard of Modesitt but the quotes on the back cover seemed to lend some credibility to the book.
As the chapters went by, I kept trying to convince myself I was engaged in an interesting book, but you know what? It's just plain boring. In a future galaxy of spaceships and planet colonization, the main character seems to spend all his time leisurely strolling around from embassy office to embassy office, mildly contemplating something. Modesitt made a grand effort but the overall effect is soporific and tepid. 500 pages of gentle boredom. Sorry.
 Justifying Genocide October 10, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This sequel to "The Parafaith War" is not Modesitt's best book. As other reviewers have suggested, it presents large and small ethical dilemmas for its protagonist to puzzle over. But in the end, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the protagonist's actions were as much motivated by revenge as by some kind of pure ethical principles, however much he might protest.
Van Cassius Albert is from the Taran Republic and serves competently, if controversially, in its space navy. After he succeeds where he was supposed to fail, repeatedly disrupting his government's plans, he is retired from the service. When he is unable to find other work, he is rescued from mysterious assassins and winds up employed by Trystin Desoll, the near-immortal protagonist from "The Parafaith War." It's obvious to everyone but our ethically striving but dense protagonist that he is being groomed by Desoll to take over, and that the Tarans as well as the religious, zealot Revenants are Bad Guys, if in different ways.
You will have to decide for yourself if Desoll and Albert are ethical, or rationalizing fascists. Desoll, in "The Parafaith War," at least attempted persuasion from within before taking the more . . . drastic . . . measures here. Albert doesn't. The Taran Empire brutally killed most of the people Albert had known. How much of Albert's actions are driven by a personal need for revenge? Was Hiroshima justified? These are not new questions.
In some ways, this novel left the same sour taste in my mouth that Peter Hamilton's "Fallen Dragon" did: the conclusion is that selfishness and selfish choices can solve humanity's fundamental flaws. I think the Farkhans may share my opinion. You'll have to decide for yourself.
Good but not great. As much annoying as throught-provoking. Bonus points for Albert's amazing family.
responsible hero makes tough choices, wins through... reminiscent of Dune series... August 25, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Modesitt's "ethics" sci-fi novels include the Parafaith (religion) and Ecolitan (ecology) series. I read "Ethos Effect" a second time for enjoyment and to check again, was Modesitt advocating a particular morality?
I like the novel for several reasons. It clearly proposes an ethical dilemma: Is there an absolute morality that everyone must follow, or is there an individual morality each person must follow on their own, at the risk that they are just personally justifying what to others are clearly immoral actions?
In this novel, the hero accomplishes what he sets out to do by acting several times according to the operational premise, "it's better that some die now in order that more live in the future". But the plot line requires the hero to continually reflect on, be responsible for, and clean up after the consequences of his actions.
Modesitt's main message is being responsible and accountable for one's choices in life, whatever they are. But it's told in the context of a rousing interstellar conflict, with excerpts from a sort of "encyclopedia galactica" discussing ethics, giving the book a stature reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Dune series,
Another Modesitt masterpiece about war, ethics, and personal responsibility August 12, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
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