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The Elysium Commission | 
| Manufacturer: Tor Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $4.00
You Save: $20.95 (84%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 35052
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: February 20, 2007
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Product Description
L.E. Modesitt returns to SF with a whole new future world on the brink of destruction. A brilliant scientist on the planet Devanta has created a small universe contiguous to ours --and a utopian city on one of the planets. The question becomes, though, an utopia for whom? And why is a shady entertainment mogul subsidizing the scientist? More critical than that, does this new universe require the destruction of a portion --or all -- of our universe in order to grow and stabilize? Blaine Donne is a retired military special operative now devoted to problem-solving for hire. He investigates a series of seemingly unrelated mysteries that arise with the arrival of a woman with unlimited resources who has neither a present nor a past. The more he investigates, the more questions arise, including the role of the two heiresses who are more -- and less -- than they seem, and the more Donne is pushed inexorably toward an explosive solution and a regional interstellar war.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Mosesitt's Expected Worst October 19, 2008
Let me begin by stating that Modesitt is a master of his own art. He has created endless landscapes filled with believable and very human aliens and I have almost every volume he has produced, thus far. I do not begrudge him this error.
With that understood, the Elysium Commission is disappointing, if expected. Expected because just about every science fiction writer I have read has some sexual identity problem he (or she) is trying to work through without the expense and hassle of therapy. As this work attests, Modesitt is not different.
It is disappointing because his creation of a sexually confused mishmash similar to our own Greenwich Village in New York and San Francisco in California is all-too confusingly familiar to us. It is, in fact, boringly so. Really, who cares about a sexually free universe where everyone is same-same or same-opposite or whatever, and the main theme of the work seems to be about some lesbian rich girl who wants to marry a sexless but wealthy doctor so that she can get pregnant? Geesh!
When I purchased this book I expected sci-fi adventure. Little did I know it was to be gay-lesbian propaganda!
Decent space opera setting detective story October 8, 2008
_The Elysium Commission_ by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. is basically a somewhat film noir-ish style private investigator story set in the far future. The setting is the planet Devanta, many centuries in the future from now, a setting in which humanity has spread among the stars and a number of different human civilizations exist out in the galaxy. The main character is Blaine Donne, a former special operative who was medically retired and now works as a private detective, looking into a number of different things for various generally wealthy clients. Donne is hired to look into a number of different cases (the character made a point to comment how fiction that depicts private investigators with only one client and one case at a time as unrealistic), cases which during the course of the book start (mostly) to tie together, pointing to a powerful adversary and a real danger to the security of not only himself but to his entire planet.
I generally liked the book, the main character was likable, had a wry sense of humor, poked a little fun at other depictions of private investigators, and the story unfolded in an interesting space opera-ish style setting. There was a fair amount of action, particularly at the climatic end, and there were some twists and turns as some of the other characters in the book were not as they first appeared. Donne had a close friendship and working relationship with his sister and later her business partner, and I liked how that was handled.
The setting of Devanta was interesting, as it was an obviously terra formed world, a world that was being actively being manipulated and maintained to be comfortable to the French-Italian culture that was planted there, a society that was run by women (though not anti-male and the government employed many men).
One of the odd things about the book I thought though was that Donne liked to go out at night, not quite in costume but might as well have, and find wrongs and right them, stopping street crime generally. While interesting, it wasn't especially well-explored and the chapters in which these events were described seemed mildly jarring, that they didn't quite fit in with the smooth flow of events as Donne set out to solve various mysteries and evade those who were trying to stop him (ie kill him).
Another thing I thought was unusual was in how the bad guys were presented. It was a pair of villains, presented to the reader in occasional chapters showing action and scenes where Donne was not present. A good idea, but they were told from the point of view of Maraniss, one of the two villains, using the first person perspective. It was a little jarring to me, as at first I thought that the "I" was Blaine Donne and I (the reader) was thoroughly confused, at least for a moment. I don't know that I would have written the villains' chapters from that perspective. I also thought that the villains could have been a bit better fleshed out, particularly Maraniss.
A big complaint I had was the back cover blurb. The threat it described was a huge, huge spoiler, one not really evident to the reader until close to 200 pages into the book! Most of the book Donne is trying to find out just what Elysium is, as that was one of his commissions he received early on from a client, while the back cover pretty much tells you what Elysium is! I don't mind if book reviews and back cover summaries tell you something that happens pretty early on in the book, even if that event is not evident from page one, but this was too much!
I also found some the far future slang/terminology a bit hard to follow at times. While I didn't have any trouble following motivations or the action of the storyline, some of the terminology could have been a bit better explained, particularly the sexual orientation terminology, as someone for instance could be a samer, a hidden samer, straight, or straight-straight. Maybe include a dictionary in future editions? I think it realistic for science fiction novels to include terms and jargon that most people couldn't imagine today, that makes a lot of sense, but it should be made a tad clearer what these terms mean.
Having said all that, I did like the book even if it is not one of Modesitt`s best (his best by far are the Ghost books). I would like to read further adventures of Blaine Donne, particularly if he went off world. The book had a fast pace and the author did a good job writing dialogue as well as action scenes.
 Bewildered June 2, 2008
Of the many Modesitt books I have read, this ranks last. Following characters is difficult, and much of the book is taken up to boiling close to a dozen names down to two people. Much of the book is devoted to our hero's search for these mythical characters, while dodging occasional asassination attempts. These searches are punctuated by visits to the real villans of the piece, with a slow and confusing unfolding of events leading up to the typical Modesitt climax, best described as "Hunting Rabbits With A Howitzer". Another peculiarity is his introduction of a second "first person" individual, and jumping back and forth between the two (it usually took me to the second paragraph of the chapter to find out who I was at the time. I'm a Modesitt fan, but it will take me two or three more readings to settle on who was doing what, to whom.
Old formula that didn't work quite well April 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This latest entry use the the same formula as most of his previous single sci-fi novels with a different twist. However, the characters, which usually is the strong point of these episodes, fell short in this particular story.
Not up to usual standard December 23, 2007
I usually enjoy the good storytelling and engaging style of Modesitt's characters. However, I could not help but feel that I had missed something from the very beginning of this book. The introduction of unexplained terms and frames of reference left me wondering if I had missed explanations and by extension, unengaged. Also, the characters seemed morally ambivalent. Since they were so lukewarm, I could not warm to them nor be chilled by them -- again, unengaging. Nonetheless I pushed myself through it and found myself glad to be done.
Oh well, everyone has a bad day. Will keep reading (actually enjoyed his other -- Natural Ordermage).
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