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Loading... Archform: Beautyby L. E. Modesitt
   No current Talk conversations about this book.   Cheryl_in_CC_NV | Oct 18, 2024 |   ) quickmind | Aug 31, 2021 | Mostly, though, it's a detective story. Illegality has transpired, and the characters, variously, have committed it, are chasing it, or are affected by it. The different threads of the story tie together marvelously as events work their way forward. Modesitt also gets points for a very well-developed world. Language usage has changed a bit in three hundred years, and the book is littered with new turns of phrase. It's not too hard to figure out meaning, though, and a short ways into the book I found the terms nonintrusive. Spoilers below. I'll admit that I was disappointed a bit by Kemal's death, mostly because he didn't get what was coming to him. Nevertheless, it was quite reasonable in the context of the book. I was very happy with the tying together of Parsfal's and Cornett's threads at the end--the poet and the singer. Sometimes a book won't tie up all of its loose ends before it ends. This can give me a sense of incompleteness as I wonder, "Okay, but then what?" This ending, however, left things loose or unresolved but still gave me a sense of closure. (I had tears in my eyes at the last scene, even if Parsfal's poetry wasn't spectacular.) asciiphil | Dec 9, 2008 | In the end, this is just a police-based detective story. The villain is clear from the start, but that doesn't really hamper the story. Individual chapters are related from the POV of the set of key characters. (Notice how I cunningly slotted in an acronym? Destroys the flow of the narrative, doesn't it?) Tension is nicely built up, but there isn't much surprise in the ending. I'd certainly recommend it to pass the time, but don't expect much depth or subtlety. (  ) Noisy | May 13, 2007 | He still can't write a romantic interest into a story very well, though. Fortunately, for this novel, it's very much in the far background until the denoument which prevents it from being too distracting. ( ) BlankReg | Apr 11, 2007 | no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesArchform: Beauty (1)
Most readers recognize L. E. Modesitt, Jr. as the author of a favorite fantasy series, be it The Magic of Recluce or The Spellsong Cycle. It's always a special treat when he turns his hand again to SF, andArchform: Beauty is no exception. Four centuries in the future, the world is rich -- nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody -- but no utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people. A singing teacher suffers for her music and fights bureaucracy and apathy. A news researcher delivers the essential background details but can't help looking deeper and wondering about therealstory behind the grim incidents that make the headlines. A police investigator, assigned to study trends, begins to see a truly sinister pattern behind a series of seemingly unrelated crimes and deaths. A politician aids his constituents, fights the good fight and tries to get re-elected without compromising his principles. A ruthless businessman strives to make his family powerful, wealthy and independent. Theirs is a world where technology takes care of everyone's basic needs but leaves most people struggling to extract a meaningful life from a world crowded with wonders but empty of commitment and human connection. Alternating the voices and experiences of these five characters in a tour de force of imaginative creation, Modesitt overlaps, combines and builds their disparate stories into a brilliant tale of future crime and investigation, esthetic challenge and personal triumph. In the same way that he has built fantasy landscapes of surpassing fascination, Modesitt creates a believable future, one imbued with a deep understanding of the way politics works and how people act and react when their sense of themselves, of justice and truth, is exploited by others for power and control. When there's nothing left to need or want, will beauty live on in people's lives or disappear forever? L.E. Modesitt, Jr. asks difficult questions, sets himself unlikely challenges and, once again delivers an absorbing tale that enlightens, entertains and uplifts all at once. 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 No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813Literature American literature in English American fiction in EnglishLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.31)
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