The Elysium Commission

By L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Book Overview

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. Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. The Saga of Recluce The Imager Portfolio The Corean Chronicles The Spellsong Cycle The Ghost Books The Ecolitan Matter The Forever Hero Timegod's World Other Books The Green Progression Hammer of Darkness The Parafaith War Adiamante Gravity Dreams The Octagonal Raven Archform: Beauty The Ethos Effect Flash The Eternity Artifact The Elysium Commission Viewpoints Critical Haze Empress of Eternity The One-Eyed Man Solar Express

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765356546
• ISBN13: 9780765356543
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A Confused Hero

The Elysium Commission (2007) is a standalone novel of the far future. Assuming that this novel takes place in the same universe as Flash and Octagonal Raven, it probably occurs about a millennium after the latter work. Devanta is a planet within the Gallian Subsector of the Assembly of Worlds. The Assembly has two main interstellar enemies: the Argenti and the Frankans. The Assembly has a nasty habit of reformulating worlds that become too repressive (and too independent); the results include restructured minds and disrupted societies. Devanta is ruled by a matriarchal hierarchy -- the Sorores Civitas -- which is widely viewed by other Assembly worlds as a repressive government. The City Sisters are not very democratic and have internal enemies, but they are fairly efficient and effective. Their Garda have active surveillance of all public places that discourages public crimes and strict regulations that restrain corporate corruption. Still, illegal acts occur off camera and off the books. In this novel, Blaine Donne is a former special operative for the Assembly. After his heroic exploits on Pournelle II, Donne was medically discharged from Assembly Special Operations and retired to Devanta. He became a consulting investigator -- private detective -- using his data analysis training to find lost persons and other such work. He also unknowingly becomes an urban legend as the Knight of Shadows, using his martial arts training to protect victims of back alley assaults. A decade or so after starting his new career, Donne receives a commission from Principessa Seldara Tozzi to investigate the future husband of her great-granddaughter. Marie Annette Tozzi is a surgical resident at the Medical College and is engaged to Doctor Guillaume Richard Dyorr, director of consciousness programs at the college. Principessa Tozzi believes that Dyorr is misrepresenting his sexual preferences to her great-granddaughter. Shortly after the principessa disconnects, Donne receives another client at his villa. Seigniora Reynarda wants him to investigate the connection between Eloi Enterprises, Judeon Maraniss, and Elysium. Donne recognizes Eloi Enterprises as the largest corpentity on Devanta providing explicit entertainment. Maraniss is vaguely familiar, but a data search provides only slightly more information. Elysium, however, generates so many hits as to be useless. Donne finds a message in his queue from Lemmy Jerome asking for assistance in finding out whether the Classic group is infringing his patents. Later, he gets Jerome on the vid and discovers that the patents cover jumpship navigation. Jerome sends him a device to detect the use of this patented technology. Then Donne receives a visit from his sister Krij and her partner Siendra. They have completed their regulatory compliance audit of his consultancy and have found a few problems that might cause a formal audit by the government. Krij also suggests that his unmarried state mig

an English History major's interlude

Don't expect regular fare from this one! From the hero's name comes the first clue- think John Donne. Lots of literary references with an emphasis on Donne's work. This book is a sort of "time out" piece- having fun with English lit history. I think he's just having some fun, but it does create a lot of strain on the story. To really enjoy this work you had better have a pretty good grounding in Classical English Literature. Think of it more as James Bond meets John Donne. I got a kick out of it. How about doing Shakespeare next?

Fascinating world-building and social projections

Worldwide surveilance and the benevolent dictatorship of the 'Sisters' haven't eliminated crime and ex-special forces soldier Blaine Donne splits his time between acting as detective, tracking down missing people, questionable dealings, and patent infringement, and acting as the 'knight of shadows,' righting wrongs and preventing the violence and cruelty that still exists in a civilization thousands of years in our future. But the private detective business is undependable and Donne needs to take the commissions he gets. Still, it's odd when he gets several commissions at once--and odder yet when all of them seem challenging, with all of the facts apparently hidden. With the help of his sister and her business partner, Donne tries to get to the bottom of the biggest of these commissions--finding a connection between the planet's biggest entertainment conglomerate and a mysterious something called Elysium. It doesn't take long to discover that the managers of the entertainment complex are up to something--they're spending fortunes on research, violating patents, and running unregulated energy generators. Finding a connection to Elysium is more difficult since Donne doesn't even know what Elysium might be. Author L. E. Modesitt, Jr. creates a fascinating and believable future world. Despite scientific advances, some still yearn for the days when answers were all easy, crime still endures, and mindless sex is still a money-making enterprise. The secret behind Elysium turns ot to be something on the barely possible end of the scientific spectrum, making the story that much more believable. Modesitt occasionally jarred me out of the story by making reference to contemporary (21st Century) debates--over the roles of men and women and over Intelligent Design. I suspect this was Modesitt's frustration with the current low level of scientific understanding in America--and the devout wish of so many of the devout to deny reality when it conflicts with their beliefs. Still, it's hard for me to believe that anyone will even remember Intelligent Design a thousand years from now, any more than we remember any of the weird and disproven theories of alchemy that must have been popular a thousand years ago. I'll cut Modesitt some slack--he handles these interuptions well, and he does make them relevant to the story. Modesitt is most famous for his Recluse fantasy novels but THE ELYSIUM COMMISSION shows that he's in top form as a Science Fiction author as well. I'm happy to recommend this one.

An entertaining book.

L.E. Modesitt has been on my short list of authors for 20 years and I'm always willing to read anything he writes. Mr. Modesitt's strength is creating political/economic environments with strengths and weaknesses. He then sets his characters within these worlds as they approach a crisis. The Elysium Commission follows this formula. I enjoyed this book and recommend it. The main character, Blaine Donne, is a retired special operations agent/soldier who's been medically discharged after a botched mission. The book begins on his home world of Devanta where he now acts as an investigator/fixer for the rich and well connected. He accepts a mysterious contract to investigate the connection between a scientist, an entertainment mogul, and something called Elysium. Intrigue, murder, and political brinkmanship follow from there. The minor issue I have with this story and others by Modesitt are the main characters are almost always quiet, effective, have gray hair and green eyes, and typically dress in dark gray or black. Typically, the main characters will miss or misunderstand some salient point about his foes up to the point that it's almost too late, then they are forced into action to save the day. I've also come to the conclusion that Modesitt either doesn't know how to write a love interest into a story or always does the same variation on a theme here too. Don't get me wrong, I can easily overlook those points listed above because the political/social/economic parts of the books often provide that 'hmmm, I hadn't thought of that' moment.

fun futuristic mystery

On the planet Devanta former military special operative turned private investigator Blaine Donne suddenly finds he has too many clients when before he had none. He is hired to find a missing heiress; look into a scientist's patent infringement case, uncover the links between entrepreneur Eloi, city planner Maraniss, and the "Elysium"; and finally conduct a background search of Dr. Dyorr, the fiancé of wealthy Marie Antoinette Tozzi. As he starts on each Blaine assumes his cases have nothing in common. He soon reassesses his thoughts as the scientist who originally hired him is dead and the project he worked on appears to being used for some nefarious purpose by Eloi and Maraniss like perhaps a coup d'etat. He wonders about how the fiancé fit, perhaps via a scientific connection, and why the woman who originally hired him to look into Elysium has no history at least on record. Soon the cases intertwine even further though Blaine begins to think after consulting with his sister and others that he is forcing connections as the Dr. Dyorr inquiry begins to look clean while the rest look like a cat and mouse encounter between the Civitas Sorores oligopoly and the Eloi and Maraniss squad with the sleuth being the cheese. THE ELYSIUM COMMISSION is a complex science fiction detective tale starring a fascinating individual struggling with his cases. The story line is action-packed as the audience for the most part follows the sleuth as people try to kill him or assist him with information (sort of mindful of Robb's Eve Dallas mid twenty-first century police procedurals). Readers will enjoy this puzzler as the four investigations seem separate, and then appear to tie together, only to have Blaine's theory unravel. L. E. Modesitt, Jr. provides a fun futuristic mystery. Harriet Klausner