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| Manufacturer: Tor Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $5.69
You Save: $20.26 (78%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 42915
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Great sci-fi with drama, action, suspense August 17, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book by Modesitt. He brings an interesting angle and delves into the world of product placement which we are seeing in today's television. His analysis is detailed and believable and I found his research and diligence to be solid.
The action is phenomenal and gripping. Modesitt shows his best in the battle sequences.
On the other hand, the relationships are wooden, De Vries and his niece start with a very interesting relationship but it becomes very 2 dimensional. His pseudo/potential relationship with paula meets a similar downfall, but I enjoyed his relationship with the AI.
PRO- outstanding battle scenes, very interesting take on product placement and advertisment, interesting plot with good story flow
con- wooden relationships
An outstanding read. I highly recommend it.
 Did anyone read The Octagonal Raven? August 9, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have yet to find a Modesitt book I didn't like. I read this technothriller in one sitting, and sucked it down like candy. Don't get me wrong, it was smart and superb - great characterization and plot.
But, did anyone read The Octagonal Raven? We've got a similar storyline and a similar protagonist.
Octagonal Raven features a former military space pilot, now a freelance media consultant, who becomes embroiled in corporate interests and politicians when his sister is assassinated. Flash stars a former Marine, now a freelance advertising consultant, who becomes embroiled in corporate interests and politicians when his sister is assassinated.
Flash does feature the new character types of an intelligent computer (but then again, so did "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress") and linked to the AI is an android that becomes independent and a romantic interest - quite cool.
The Octagonal Raven does feature a lot more (foiled) assassination attempts than Flash, and more flying cars :-)
Both espouse the philosophy of "Big Business Sucks and must be taken DOWN", with lots of internecine squabbling of corporate boards that is really fun to read...
So, buy it anyway - I own 'em both!
Thoughtful, well-done SF thriller -- 4.5 stars June 5, 2005
This is a thoughtful, well-done 25th century SF thriller, set in the same world as 2002's ARCHFORM BEAUTY -- but this one's better, I thought. An ex-Marine commando, now an advertising consultant(!), gets caught up in a web of political intrigue when he accepts a seemingly-innocuous consulting assignment. In what is (in retrospect) a weak, ad-hoc auctorial plot-pusher, the ruthless Secret Masters of Earth and Mars decide to make a patsy of ex-Col. Dr. Jonat deVrai, then murder him. DeVrai turns out, unsurprisingly, to be both hard to kill and good at turning the tables on his attackers. Besides having a curiously apposite surname....
This is all pretty basic, plot-boiling stuff, but Modesitt makes the book more intriguing by going deeply into his protagonist's life, and makes 25th century ad-consulting sound pretty interesting. Really. Plus there's a heavy dose of quotidien details that I (mostly) liked, setting up some startlingly-effective juxtapositions. On an 'interesting' day, deVrai's 'To Do' list might read:
1) Get the kids fed and off to school.
2) Make sure Charis practices piano for an hour.
...
7) Blow up Mahmed Kemal, a local ganglord.
There are the customary Modesitt ruminations re what's a good guy to do if the system won't stop the bad guys? Answer: "Get them before they get you." DeVrai also gets involved with an unusual police AI and its attractive cydroid remote, Paula Athene(!), in a clear setup for a sequel or two. Jonat de Vrai's not quite up to Johan Eschbach, the very resourceful environmental-economist protagonist in Modesitt's excellent "Tangible Ghosts" trilogy, but he's cut from similar cloth. Recommended for Modesitt and political-thriller fans.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Powerful world-building, great adventure December 6, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ex-marine Jonat deVrai suffers from flashbacks to his marine days--when he was sent around the world fighting battles to keep North American multinational corporations from facing competition, but mostly he is a successful consultant. He's parlayed his economics expertise into a business analysing the impact of product placement in commercial entertainment--a job made difficult by privacy legislation. When he gets a major contract to see if product placement is being used in political campaigns, it seems like an interesting extension to his business. He knows his employers have a hidden agenda--who doesn't? What he doesn't know is that his report will have a lot more credibility if he ends up dead just after presenting it.
deVrai is tougher to kill than most men. He has maintained (semi-legally) his marine enhancements. But he is just one man against the power of multinational organizations with much of the government, significant parts of law enforcement, and the ability to hire gangland thugs. He quickly realizes that he's in a moral quandry. If he does nothing, he'll end up dead, as will what remains of his family. But the only actions he can think of turn him into something of a terrorist. For an ex-marine, the choice isn't easy.
An artificial intelligence within law enforcement offers a degree of information and some more tangible assistance. But everything deVrai does seems to make his own death that much of a necessity for the multinationals that rule most of the world.
Author L. E. Modesitt, Jr. creates a fascinating near-future world building on political, environmental, and economic trends that are evident now. There is a strong political message in the story, but it's a message that neither current political party (in the US at least) is likely to be completely in synch with.
Fans of SF will see Modesitt's debt to classics such as Heinlein's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and others in his development of the relationship between humans and computer-based intelligence.
I thought FLASH got off to a relatively slow start. Still, half the fun of Modesitt's work is in the world-building and this was very strong. Althoug FLASH lacked some of the emotional impact of some of Modesitt's works, I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
Chock-full of new ideas. October 10, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of my favorite authors. Although I like his fantasy novels more than his sci-fi novels, this paticular book was fun to read, primarily for the glimpse into the future, its technological marvels, and the effect on the individual. Is it okay to take the law into your own hands when the law can not help you, especially when you are better "equipped" than other people to play judge, jury, and executioner. Lots of questions to speculate about, and a fair bit of action. What more could you wish for.
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