- Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; First Edition edition (Mar 15 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0812545583
- ISBN-13: 978-0812545586
- Product Dimensions: 17.1 x 10.6 x 2.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 163 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #386,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Earth was once the capital of an interstellar empire, but now it's just another inhabited planet in a forgotten universal order. Its citizens survive through kindness, environmental conservation and non-aggression. But humanity's great strides toward erasing its violent past are threatened when 12 ships made of indestructible adiamante appear in orbit. The ships are from a former colony bent on subjugating the Earth and its inhabitants. But the strict ethics that have helped revitalize the Earth may be its downfall, as the human homeworld struggles to find a way to save itself without violating its new-found principles.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In the far future, humanity is scattered among the stars and has divided into many subgroups. On Old Earth itself, after many wars and disasters, society is based on conservation and non-aggression. But the resilience of this culture is tested when a hostile fleet of 12 spaceships appears in orbit around the planet. Built of adiamante, a nearly indestructible material, the ships have been sent by a former colony bent on revenge. Narrator Ecktor deJanes, Earth's temporary coordinator, has to prevent the fleet from sterilizing the planet. He's not without resources, as it turns out. But he's bound by a code of honor that mandates that "those with great power must exercise equally great responsibility." Modesitt avoids the digressions and lingering scholarly points that sometimes slow his popular Recluce series, though his narrative here does get didactic at times ("For all our nets, for all our communications, humans... are aliens, aliens to each other and to the universe, and that is why we must trust"). If he doesn't always fully explain the technological distinctions and intricacies of his elaborate far-future Earth, he nevertheless paints an absorbing picture of this world and how it became what it is.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
If the conversation had been offline and spoken, neither of which was possible within the working systems contained in the adiamante hull of the Gibson, the words would have followed old patterns, patterns based on the spoken words that seldom echoed within the bulkheads and networks of the Vereal ship. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
If the conversation had been offline and spoken, neither of which was possible within the working systems contained in the adiamante hull of the Gibson, the words would have followed old patterns, patterns based on the spoken words that seldom echoed within the bulkheads and networks of the Vereal ship. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One that will make you think...,
By
This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is an excellent example of what makes science-fiction so appealing to me : timeless questions and ideas, put in a different perspective, so that a new understanding may be found.Power vs responsibiliy, and what make a society stable ? Food for the thought, packaged in a good action plot.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well done, but blandly seasoned,
By
This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)
This novel presents a compelling entree to a mythos/universe that the author expands in other novels, but Adiamante may lack the vicersal tug that you get from a truly great novel. Well worth reading, even loosing sleep for, but by the very nature of its characters and message, not one you'll push on your friends.More mature and thoughtful readers will remember this one fondly, and return to it often.
4.0 out of 5 stars
an inverted storytelling approach,
By shari l brooks (pacifica, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Adiamante (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the first L. E. Modesitt book I picked up, and it was a pretty entertaining read. It sustains through a second read too, for the presentation of the two different cultures remains consistent throughout.I found the approach unexpected - even though by the end of chapter 3 there is little doubt about how the story will conclude, that leaves room for an amazing amount of suspense in just what the path will be to get to that foregone conclusion. Also the changes in points of view - first person for the demi and third person for the cybs - are a good way to unrelentingly underscore the impersonal outlook of the cybs as opposed to the demi's beliefs that life must be lived "whole-body". All in all the best science fiction book I have read in a while. I realize it's been published for some time but that just means it's still worthwhile to browse outside of the newly-published book selections.
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