| View Larger Image | Haze | Hardcoverby L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Author)
| List Price: | $24.95 | | Price: | $17.96 | | You Save: | $6.99 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Tor Books | | Page Count: | 304 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 09, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 98,491th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780765323026
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
What lies beneath the millions of orbiting nanotech satellites that shroud the world called Haze? Major Keir Roget’s mission is to make planetfall in secret, find out, and report back to his superiors in the Federation, the Chinese-dominated government that rules Earth and the colonized planets. For all his effectiveness as a security agent, Roget is troubled by memories of an earlier mission. When he was assigned to covert duty in the Noram backcountry town of St. George, he not only discovered that the long-standing Saint culture was neither as backward nor as harmless as his superiors believed, but he barely emerged with his life and sanity whole. Now, scouting Haze, he finds a culture seemingly familiar, yet frighteningly alien, with hints of a technology far superior to that of the Federation. Yet he is not certain how much of what he sees is real—or how to convey a danger he cannot even prove to his superiors, if he can escape Haze. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 16 reviews)
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Not very good. by P. H. Myrvang (Norway)  1 Stars
November 05, 2009
I'm usually greatly enjoy Modesitt's stories, but I was very disappointed by Haze. It is too short, rather raw and seems unfinished, and I'm surprised that it passed the publisher's editors. It is almost as if the book was written by somebody else. The narrative jumps back and forth in time, which, when done correctly, can give awsome results (the first example that comes to mind is Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton). In the case of Haze, the result is just flat.
If you're a Modesitt fan, I strongly urge you to leave Haze until there is nothing else to read, and istead pick up Imager. Sigh.
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Investigating Dubiety by Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA)  4 Stars
October 24, 2009
Haze (2009) is a standalone SF novel. It is set more than a millennium from the present on Haze, a newly discovered planet. The world has a hazy gray atmosphere and three shells of very small satellites. The surface is obscured and electromagnetic signals cannot be detected.
In this novel, Keir Roget is an operative of the Federation Security Agency. The FSA Mandarins have assigned him to an FIS task force trying to penetrate Haze. He reports to the battlecruiser WuDing.
Lyvia Rholyn is an agent of Dubiety. She works for the Ministry of Education and Culture.
In this story, Roget's dropboat is the third of five that are entering Haze in staggered order. When his turn arrives, he lets the boat approach the outer shell. Then he overrides the automatic pilot to reorient the boat to the next shell. He does the same for the last shell and then lets the boat control entry into the atmosphere.
His boat takes a beating in the exoatmospheric shells, but it finally arrives on the surface. The surface is dinged and is even holed in one place. The energy level is very low. The boat will have to be repaired and refueled before it can take him back into space.
Roget locks the boat and walks along a path. Although he doesn't know where he is going, the path looks well traveled and maintained. It even has watering facilities.
After a while, Roget notices another path higher up in the hills above him. He heads across the forest to the upper path. Before he reaches the path, a woman addresses him in Federation English and introduces herself as Lyvia. She tells him that she will meet him at the next rest stop.
When Roget reaches the place, he discovers that the FIS is correct in expecting the world to have been settled by Thomist colonists. As also expected, Lyvia answers his questions. However, most things are not explained, but shown.
Roget learns that the world is called Dubiety by the natives. Lyvia takes Roget to the capital, where he meets her superior. Then Lyvia takes him on tours and also lets him travel on his own. He gets the impression that Dubiety is very advanced and much more peaceful than the Federation. Yet Dubiety is not perfect by any measure and some of its customs are difficult to accept.
Roget discovers that Dubiety has extensive knowledge of the Federation. He also learns that the Federation knows more about Dubiety than he was told. The Ministry gives him some documentation to take back to the Federation.
Roget also has flashbacks on his career with the FSA. He has been an Anglo in a Chinese society. Moreover, he has succeeded in his tasks in unconventional ways. Naturally, he is not trusted by his superiors.
This tale explores two successor cultures to the collapsed American society. One is the Chinese Federation that took over Earth. The other is the Thomist society that left the Earth with the best of the American culture and technology. Read and enjoy!
Recommended for Modesitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of different cultures, security operations, and competent investigators.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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Use your brain, and think! by Lupine Smile (California) 4 Stars
August 24, 2009
This book is not filled with explosions and people running around shooting at each other. This is a book that was placed in front of its reader to provoke thought and discussion. It is allegorical in every way, following themes in our current reality and other Modesitt realities. Ultimately the underlying theme is that we as a civilization have forgotten what it is to question and to use the intelligence that has been gifted to us. If you enjoyed Parafaith War and Gravity Dreams, you will like this book. If you prefer the Recluse series, you may not. I happened to have enjoyed this book very much and appreciate the discussions it has led to with my friends and family. I think Modesitt went out on a limb writing this book, and I hope it will be followed by others that are out of the current assembly line literature modality that we have been fed recently.
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Pretty Good by Robert I. Katz (Port Jefferson, New York USA) 4 Stars
August 24, 2009
I'm not sure why this book is getting such poor reviews. The plot is basically the same as Adiamante, from the point of view of one of the invaders. The theme is a standard one for this author, who has spent many volumes describing utopias of his own devising, almost all of them based upon environmentalist principles.
Keir Roget is a security agent for the "Federation," a Chinese dominated interstellar empire, after the United States has fallen. The Federation is corrupt, hidebound and hierarchical. Haze seemingly has technology beyond that of the Empire, and its people seem to be primarily of American ancestry. They have mastered time travel, and so their society is almost twice as old as that of the Federation. The plot is predictable but entertaining. The hero is intelligent and talented but with ambivalent support from his own side. In the end, it was a little too pat, but still an enjoyable read.
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One star is for the Black and Tan Dachshund by Susan Haseltine (Los Angeles, CA USA)  3 Stars
August 21, 2009
Unfortunately she is only a image of a painting - which isn't even planted by the Thomists.
Readable, but Modesitt hasn't cracked the nut of having exciting action on a well regulated planet, so almost all the action is in flashbacks and we know the protagonist is going to overcome those problems.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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While Mykella develops a solid idea of who stands behind it all, her every attempt at a solution is used to...
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| Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories
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This is the first story collection ever from bestselling fantasy and science fiction writer L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Modesitt began publishing short fiction in the SF magazines in the 1970s, and this collection includes a selection of stories from the whole of his career. Some of the early stories are kernels for his early SF novels, others display the wide range of his talents and interests, from satire to military adventure.
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