ISBN: 0-312-86826-X Order from: Amazon.com
A competent if tedious novel, with well-explored technology, heavy-handed social commentary, and pronounced lack of conflict or excitement.
Reviewed by David on November 13, 1999
Genre: Science Fiction (Nanotechnology)
Synopsis: In an anti-technology society, Tyndel, a priest/teacher, unintentionally becomes a hated pariah when he gets infected by nanotechnology. As he loses everything he loves, Tyndal must escape to the "Demon" civilization of Rykasha, and to struggle to adapt to a drastically different social and technical culture.
Full Review: The peaceful but restrictive society in which Tyndal grows up uses Dzin, which sounds like a mixture of Zen and Confucianism, to keep its youth content and useful. Rabidly hating the threat of nanotechnology as the worst of the industrial blight which nearly wiped out humanity, Tyndal's fellow priests reserve their harshest punishments for the "demons", people infected (or augmented) by nanomachines.
When a maddened villager infects the young priest, only a desperate run towards the borders and the hated Demon civilization of Rykasha can preserve Tyndal's life. Yet the life among the Rykashans, painfully honest and ruthlessly efficient, may not be worth living for the grieving Tyndal.
The biggest fault of this book, as is the case with several recent books by the same author, is the obvious pointlessness of the plot. A good storyteller with several annoying habits, Modesitt had succeeded more than once in entertaining his readers through a grand conflict. Sadly, there is none such here, and all the typical flaws are obvious in the poverty of the plot.
Several implausible, plot-moving devices, such as the maddened but overly devious (and ultimately suicidal) villager, strain the suspension of dibelief. The long, and mostly unconvincing lectures on social responsibility detract further from the plotline. The Rykashan society, a model of state-enforced social responsibility, seems depressingly poor. For instance, despite its apparent technical wealth, a few weeks of routine, part-time medical care by a few professionals require a repayment of 15 years of menial labor. Other such excessive debts abound. The way the society enforces the repayment—in many cases by mandating jobs—seems a lot closer to Stalin's "work assignments" than to sf-libertarian or modern-capitalist money-based debts.
The paucity of the plot exhibits itself in the volume given to description of menial tasks. The long periods of angst also pad this otherwise slight plot. In this book, as in many other by the same author, the characters can rarely converse or impart information without ruing the ineffable denseness of the audience (this applies to internal monologue as well).
The concluding adventure of this long and tedious book comes as an anticlimax, justifying little of the preceeding effort. While suitable for a coming-of-age story, the weak ending hardly emphasises the development of the adult protagonist.
This long and largely unexciting novel is recommended only for extreme fans of Mr. Modesitt. For others, little would be wasted by skipping this stand-alone book.
Overall: 4.5; Plot: 3.5; Characters: 4; Style: 4.5; World-building: 5; Originality: 4.5;
Copyright date 1999, Tor, July 1999, Cloth
ISBN: 0-312-86826-X Order from: Amazon.com