/lit/ - Literature

>>20829325
Isolate, The Grand Illusion #1 - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (2021)

Reading this book was a vicarious experience. If you aren't able to appreciate the details, then I don't think you'd enjoy it, because it was almost entirely details. The characters, the setting, the plot, and everything else were subordinated to the minutiae of day to day life. Modesitt said he wrote this to be a realistic account of working in a fantasy government. It had me thinking a lot about comparative governments. Even though I'm accustomed to Modesitt's style I struggled for the first quarter to settle into reading it. Over time it became more and more comfortable to read. If this doesn't happen, then it may be rather difficult to enjoy. Unlike the author's other works, no map is provided, which was intentional. Despite the protagonist's daily life as a bodyguard and aide to a government official who is under constant threat of being assassinated being so detailed, everything outside of their direct experience is vague. Several contemporary issues are addressed from a different angle which provided a lot for me to contemplate.

It'd be easy to call this steampunk, but that'd be wrong. The aesthetic is almost the opposite of punk, and what are punk derivatives if not their aesthetic? The author describes it as a High-Tech Coal-Power Fantasy. The technology level is early 20th century, minus anything to do with electricity. Modesitt said that he did a lot of research into what would be possible without electricity, and it had me doing the same for a bit as well. They have cars, guns, and even automated manufacturing using punched card computing. The primary fantasy aspect is the Empaths, a tiny minority of which 75% are women, who are able to read and influence emotions. The protagonist is a male Isolate, which means he's impervious to empathic abilities. The deuteragonist is a female Empath. Susceptibles are those whom Empaths can take total control of and make into mindless slaves. Their treatment varies by country, but they're always the lowest social class. The average person has a slight mixture of these traits.

Everything takes place in Guldor, a single country in a secondary world. Its primary cultural influence is European. Other countries exist, but they almost only serve as reminders that there are worse places to live. Guldor is a constitutional empire with a unicameral legislature composed of sixty-six members. There are also district level government officials. The Emperor is mostly powerless, though revered. Their society is a political caste system of Commercers, Landors, and Crafters. The government is set up to where no party can get more than 45% of the elected positions, so it must always be a coalition government. Society at large treats women as inferiors who ought to to know their place and dress very modestly. However, in the previous century women covertly assassinated government officials until they were granted suffrage.

Rating: 4/5

>>20871092
Councilor, The Grand Illusion #2 - L.E. Modesitt Jr. (2022)

I can't possibly recommend reading this book unless you enjoyed the first and are predisposed to enjoying this sort of narrative. These are definitely for a niche interest. There's almost certainly nothing else that I've read that's simultaneously so banal and dull, yet intriguing and interesting. The primary way I enjoy is it through what it makes me think about, so if that's not of interest, then you really ought to not read this series. I admit that I'm somewhat baffled as to why I've enjoyed it as much as I have.

Steffan Dekkard, the protagonist, is now a councilor, which is basically a national legislator. Literally almost the entire book is just him going back and forth to work. There's no traveling like in the first. This is just hardcore bureaucratic process and daily life. In some ways there's an inexorable crawling madness to its repetition. I don't think I could read a long series like this, but according to the author this series, or this part of it at least, will be a trilogy. In an interview he said there was a slight chance of their being a fourth book.

There are three major political concerns that Dekkard engages with. The foremost is the reform of the Security Bureau because recently it's had a tendency to wantonly massacre protestors, which doesn't cause as much social unrest as you'd think. Secondly is improving the working conditions of laborers, because they're often wretched at best. Lastly is to expand the rights of women to where they are equals with men, especially in terms of pay. The latter is by far the most difficult and the one which he makes the least progress towards. The overriding significant practical concern is that he's under constant threat of assassination, though many government officials are, but especially him, but despite that he takes it relatively in stride, as does the government in general. Considering how unprecedented everything is said to be I thought there would be more of a response.

As a character Dekkard remains mostly opaque with regards to the specific reasons why he votes as he does, so much has to be inferred. This makes sense in a way since he's an Isolate which means no one can read his emotions, but it's also frustrating. Overall, relative to the context of his society, though not to our world, I'd call him a Progressive Conservative. A US example of this would be President Theodore Roosevelt, though various UK politicians identify as such as well, and there are a few other similar European politicians. As Roosevelt stated that he had "always believed that wise progressivism and wise conservatism go hand in hand." Dekkard has no interest in revolution or reaction, or anything smacking of populism, but rather wants to conserve the country's founding ideals while also gradually and cautiously improving the quality of life for everyone. That isn't something I see often in what I read.

Rating: 4/5

>>23159414
Contrarian, The Grand Illusion #3 - L.E. Modesitt (2023)

Dekkard is determined to reform his country through the legal procedures of government. Foremost is to hold the most powerful corporations and their executives accountable for their treasonous and ruinous dealings that have destabilized the country for their exclusive benefit. They are believed to have funded domestic terrorism in order take back power without it seeming like a coup attempt. For those involved, no one is above the law, not even former Premiers. Dekkard must constantly be on guard against assassination attempts, as there have already been several, and he expects there to be several more.

There's no denying that Contrarian is a repetitive book with a clearly defined routine. At over 200,000 words, 22.5 hours for the audiobook, that may be too much of roughly similar events unless it's something you specifically like, which I do. Almost every single chapter, excluding those chapters that are newspaper articles and book excerpts, is a new day that often begins with Dekkard's morning activities. Afterwards he goes to work, does his job, then enjoys a few hours of leisure, which may overlap with his work-related activities. This is surely the most Modesitt has ever done in detailing the daily life of a protagonist from what I've read and must be among the most for anything he's written.

Some of the daily life activities that Dekkard engages in are learning about the concerns of those in his district, house hunting, discussing legislation (including tax policies), forensic accounting, acquiring information, debating, committee hearings, and eating white bean soup. There's more than that, but as noted, it's often the same activities over and over again, though they're always different in execution, except the white bean soup. He eats other food, but there's so much soup in general.

My reading experience was very immersive, to the point where I wanted to be certain that I read every single word at a relatively slow place. I don't feel the need to do that usually, even for the books I most enjoy, because often I feel the need to read more quickly. A visual depiction of my enjoyment would be a horizontal line. On a heart monitor that would indicate someone is dead, and I have no doubt that's what many would find this to be, dead boring. For me though that instead indicates that it's consistent from start to finish with minimal variation. It doesn't reach anywhere near the highs of my favorite books, but it never becomes any lower than solidly enjoyable.

Modesitt hasn't decided yet whether this is the last book in the series, though the five responses he's posted about it by answering reader questions on his website shows that he's certainly considering doing so and has ideas for what he'd write. I know that I'll be reading whatever comes next.

Rating: 4/5

Previous
>>/lit/?task=search2&search_text=grand+illusion+&search_tripcode=sffg&search_ord=old