The Elysium Commission (2007)

L. E. Modesitt is best known for his fantasy works and has been on my radar for a while now. However given that the various fantasy series he's written (such as the Saga of Reclucce) have a large number of volumes, most of them hefty door-stoppers at that, I wanted to dip my toes in the waters with a stand-alone book first, before starting yet another long fantasy series. The Elysium Commission, a stand-alone science fiction work seemed to fit the bill.

The story follows an ex-special forces fellow who is now a private eye named Blaine Donne. The action takes place on the far future world of Devanta and begins with Donne receiving a mysterious commission to investigate the connection between a corporate moghul, a research scientist and the word "elysium" (hence 'The Elysium Commission'). Of course, in true PI fashion, Donne soon finds that the connection is far more convoluted and mysterious and dangerous than he had bargained for.

Modesitt's prose is workmanlike but fluid. Its an easy read. The world he creates is an interesting one, with some thought given not only to the technology, the society, but also to wider galactic politics. Beyond the setting though, one gets the feeling that the story itself is a little vanilla. Donne is so hyper-competent and has so many technological gizmos at his service that he seems like more than a match for the villains. This is a PI who hasn't bitten off more than he can chew. The bulk of the book seems to consist of Donne calling up people asking about his various commissions and googling (sorry, "diving into the datastacks"). This is punctuated by the odd failed attempt to kill him. The sense of mystery is further disappointed by inter-spaced chapters where we switch to the main villain's perspective. This does little for the story except informing us of what's going on well before Donne figures things out and also slowing down the pace of the story. Thankfully Modessitt abandons this approach halfway through and the chapters from the villain's perspective become much more infrequent later on. The characters are nothing to write home about. Overall, I would say its a decent read, but not outstanding in any particular way. ( )

Very good read ( )

Combining a mystery with sci-fi worked very well. Lot's of suspense. Exciting action. Reads easily. Reminds me a lot of David Weber's stories. ( )

The Elysium Commission is the story of ex-special ops soldier now private eye Blaine Donne as he tried to make a buck and save the world. In addition to being a detective, he spends his evenings as "The Shadow Knight" defending the citizens when the police can't (apparently there are only 3 police officers and a bunch of cameras).

The setting borrows heavily from France and French literature, with most of the geography named after areas of Paris and France, and a number of characters named for French authors or characters. Reynard the Fox being the most obvious. Modesitt lets you in on all the others eventually, just to be sure you get all of the literary references.

The Elysium Commission is the name for one of several investigation jobs that Blaine has going at one time. Since he makes a point of how the detectives in stories never have more than one investigation going at a time, unlike a real detective with bills to pay, it is inevitable that his various commissions will all turn out to be related. In addition to determining the relationship between Maraniss, Legaar Eloi and "Elysium" he has to find a missing heiress, vet a potential husband for a wealthy doctor, and trace down a patent infringer.

It is hard to tell if the society Modesitt has invented is entirely made up of hedonistic aristocrats, or if that is the only part that Blaine ever interacts with. In any case the story moves along at a reasonable pace. Any element of actual mystery is removed by the periodic jumps to tell the story from Maraniss's point of view rather than Blaine's. Since they are both told in the first person some of the changes are jarring as you try to figure out if you're reading a continuation of the previous scene or an entirely new one. Modesitt also insists on making up new words where none are really needed. For time the characters regularly refer to "hours" interchangeable with "stans". I figured out that a stan was the same as an hour, but it was annoying bit of business, and it wasn't until about 2/3 of the way through that there was a reference to "standard hour" that made clear where stan came from. Even then it still felt unnecessary.

If you can get past some of the self-indulgent language The Elysium Commission is a reasonably entertaining light read. ( )

A fun read as all SF books by Modesitt. There are as usual many elements he used before in the book.
If you enjoyed reading other SF books by Modesitt you will like this one too.
::downs a cup of sustain:: ( )