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Haze
What lies beneath the fog of 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.Now, scouting Haze, he finds a culture both seemingly familiar, yet frighteningly alien, with hints of a technology far superior to that of the Federation. Yet he is not quite 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 the planet...
339 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
31 people are currently reading
476 people want to read
About the author
L.E. Modesitt Jr.
191 books2,591 followersL. E. (Leland Exton) Modesitt, Jr. is an author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He is best known for the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, lived in Washington, D.C. for 20 years, then moved to New Hampshire in 1989 where he met his wife. They relocated to Cedar City, Utah in 1993.
He has worked as a Navy pilot, lifeguard, delivery boy, unpaid radio disc jockey, real estate agent, market research analyst, director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant for a Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer and writer in residence.
In addition to his novels, Mr. Modesitt has published technical studies and articles, columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first short story, "The Great American Economy", was published in 1973 in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact.
-Wikipedia
He has worked as a Navy pilot, lifeguard, delivery boy, unpaid radio disc jockey, real estate agent, market research analyst, director of research for a political campaign, legislative assistant for a Congressman, Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues, and a college lecturer and writer in residence.
In addition to his novels, Mr. Modesitt has published technical studies and articles, columns, poetry, and a number of science fiction stories. His first short story, "The Great American Economy", was published in 1973 in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
December 20, 2010
The Curious -- Due to our recent L.E. Modessit Jr. month in the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club, my introduction to Modesitt's writing was his through his first novel, The Magic of Recluce, and his most recent novel, Haze. I've never before read an author's works in that order (at least not to my knowledge), and it was a fascinating experience.
Time's improvement of Modesitt's writing is obvious. His prose in Haze is slicker and more polished, with far less waste (not that the waste in his first book was bad, only noticeable). But far more interesting is a quirky similarity between the books. Both novels contain protagonists seeking answers, surrounded by people who answer their questions with deflection, vagueness, or unexplained example. Or they refuse to answer their questions at all. In both cases, Modesitt provides us with fine justifications for the manner of answering (or the lack of answers), but the protagonists are consistently annoyed by their situation, and I found their annoyance transferring to me. Times the annoyance by two so close together, and the quirk makes for less than enjoyable reading the second time through.
The Preachy -- Too much preachiness in Haze for my taste. There were times when it felt like Modesitt was intruding on the pages of his story, that his soapbox would pop up in the corner of the page and he'd stand there with his little megaphone, kinda like the Mayor of Whoville, and scream his opinions in case we weren't already listening. He went about expressing the ecological, political and spiritual messages of Haze inelegantly, and it really disappointed me (despite agreeing with many of the ideas he put forth).
The Annoying -- There are red herrings galore in Haze, the most annoying of which is Hildegarde the Dachshund, and these misleading bits harm what would have been an otherwise exciting and fulfilling end. Plus, how many loose ends can one story leave? How many should it leave? Not as many as Modesitt left here.
The Cool -- There is some cool stuff in Haze, though, which made it worth my time. The Saints in the book, the far future of Mormonism, are a nice touch. The efficacy of train travel as the future of environmentally friendly transport is convincing. Roget's visit to the Manor Farm Cottages, Dubiety's home for the mentally and criminally ill, is the novel's finest moment (I wanted much more, actually). And there is the brave choice to make Roget a character without any relationships. I don't know if that choice worked all that well, but it was brave, and it raised Modesitt in my estimation despite my general disappointment in Haze.
Time's improvement of Modesitt's writing is obvious. His prose in Haze is slicker and more polished, with far less waste (not that the waste in his first book was bad, only noticeable). But far more interesting is a quirky similarity between the books. Both novels contain protagonists seeking answers, surrounded by people who answer their questions with deflection, vagueness, or unexplained example. Or they refuse to answer their questions at all. In both cases, Modesitt provides us with fine justifications for the manner of answering (or the lack of answers), but the protagonists are consistently annoyed by their situation, and I found their annoyance transferring to me. Times the annoyance by two so close together, and the quirk makes for less than enjoyable reading the second time through.
The Preachy -- Too much preachiness in Haze for my taste. There were times when it felt like Modesitt was intruding on the pages of his story, that his soapbox would pop up in the corner of the page and he'd stand there with his little megaphone, kinda like the Mayor of Whoville, and scream his opinions in case we weren't already listening. He went about expressing the ecological, political and spiritual messages of Haze inelegantly, and it really disappointed me (despite agreeing with many of the ideas he put forth).
The Annoying -- There are red herrings galore in Haze, the most annoying of which is Hildegarde the Dachshund, and these misleading bits harm what would have been an otherwise exciting and fulfilling end. Plus, how many loose ends can one story leave? How many should it leave? Not as many as Modesitt left here.
The Cool -- There is some cool stuff in Haze, though, which made it worth my time. The Saints in the book, the far future of Mormonism, are a nice touch. The efficacy of train travel as the future of environmentally friendly transport is convincing. Roget's visit to the Manor Farm Cottages, Dubiety's home for the mentally and criminally ill, is the novel's finest moment (I wanted much more, actually). And there is the brave choice to make Roget a character without any relationships. I don't know if that choice worked all that well, but it was brave, and it raised Modesitt in my estimation despite my general disappointment in Haze.
August 7, 2017
2.5/5 ali posto volim ovog pisca ide na 3 :)
Moram da priznam da sam razocaran ovom knjigom. Volim Modesita kao pisca i samo pisanje ovde nije bio problem ali kniga cini ono sto ne bi smela. Dosadna je. Velikim delom se malo sta desava sem puno ekspozicije, puuuuno ekspozicije. Ovo je klasican primer de ti autor sve govori umesto da pokaze. Ima par finih scena i filozofija koju pokusava da progura je dosta interesantna ali pakovanje je jakoooo dosadno.
Cak i nacin na koji se prica razvija je cudna. Pratimo glavnog lika kroz dve misije koje se pricaju naizmenicno. Licno ne vidim poentu posto price su manje vise totalno odvojene i mogle su biti fino namestene da idu hronoloski.
Sve u svemu steta.
Moram da priznam da sam razocaran ovom knjigom. Volim Modesita kao pisca i samo pisanje ovde nije bio problem ali kniga cini ono sto ne bi smela. Dosadna je. Velikim delom se malo sta desava sem puno ekspozicije, puuuuno ekspozicije. Ovo je klasican primer de ti autor sve govori umesto da pokaze. Ima par finih scena i filozofija koju pokusava da progura je dosta interesantna ali pakovanje je jakoooo dosadno.
Cak i nacin na koji se prica razvija je cudna. Pratimo glavnog lika kroz dve misije koje se pricaju naizmenicno. Licno ne vidim poentu posto price su manje vise totalno odvojene i mogle su biti fino namestene da idu hronoloski.
Sve u svemu steta.
April 3, 2019
Haze is a standalone science fiction book by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. When I first started the book, it seemed like it was going to go in a direction that I would enjoy reading about. However, I ended up not caring for it much at all and was a bit bored by it. This is one of those occasions where I probably would have been better off abandoning it, but I’ve never been good at that and it’s not a terribly long book.
The story is set a few millennia in our future. Our existing governments are long gone and the ruling organization is the Federation. They’re in charge of everything, but there are a few rebel/splinter groups. Humanity has ventured into space and colonized other planets, but they haven’t discovered any aliens. The entire story is told from the third-person perspective of Roget, an agent for the Federation who gets sent on various missions, ranging from an undercover mission to investigate a murder on Earth to a mission to a mysterious planet to penetrate the haze surrounding it and make contact with the life forms on the planet, if any exist.
Roget was neither very interesting nor very likeable. He kind of bumbles along, reacting to things and doing what he’s told as best he can, all the while thinking Deep Thoughts and obsessing over the painting of a dog. I’m being a little melodramatic; there’s more to the story than that, but I personally didn’t get much out of it. There’s one point where Roget thinks something that I found quite offensive. This doesn’t really spoil anything about the plot, but I’ll put it in spoiler tags for those who don’t want any advance preconceptions. I don’t know, I don’t usually seem to get offended that easily at things I read in fiction books, but that one evoked some anger. I don’t think it was necessarily the author’s viewpoint so much as a method of reiterating what he’d already conveyed about the low status women have in Federation society, but it certainly didn’t do anything to make me like the main character more.
The story is very political, with lots of discussion of different ways to handle different political concerns. I often enjoy stories with political intrigue, but there wasn’t really any intrigue here and it wasn’t very nuanced. There were times when I was interested in the story and curious about what would happen next, but over-all this was an easy book for me to put down. I also felt like some things were a little too repetitive or over-explained. We flip between two timelines a few years apart, and I kept trying to guess what the major connection between them would be. Unless I missed something, there really wasn’t much of a connection aside from showing us the events and thought processes that led to Roget’s final actions.
There were glimmers of promise in the story, but it mostly fell flat with me. This was the first book I’ve read by the author, and I do plan to try some of his fantasy work eventually.
The story is set a few millennia in our future. Our existing governments are long gone and the ruling organization is the Federation. They’re in charge of everything, but there are a few rebel/splinter groups. Humanity has ventured into space and colonized other planets, but they haven’t discovered any aliens. The entire story is told from the third-person perspective of Roget, an agent for the Federation who gets sent on various missions, ranging from an undercover mission to investigate a murder on Earth to a mission to a mysterious planet to penetrate the haze surrounding it and make contact with the life forms on the planet, if any exist.
Roget was neither very interesting nor very likeable. He kind of bumbles along, reacting to things and doing what he’s told as best he can, all the while thinking Deep Thoughts and obsessing over the painting of a dog. I’m being a little melodramatic; there’s more to the story than that, but I personally didn’t get much out of it. There’s one point where Roget thinks something that I found quite offensive. This doesn’t really spoil anything about the plot, but I’ll put it in spoiler tags for those who don’t want any advance preconceptions. I don’t know, I don’t usually seem to get offended that easily at things I read in fiction books, but that one evoked some anger. I don’t think it was necessarily the author’s viewpoint so much as a method of reiterating what he’d already conveyed about the low status women have in Federation society, but it certainly didn’t do anything to make me like the main character more.
The story is very political, with lots of discussion of different ways to handle different political concerns. I often enjoy stories with political intrigue, but there wasn’t really any intrigue here and it wasn’t very nuanced. There were times when I was interested in the story and curious about what would happen next, but over-all this was an easy book for me to put down. I also felt like some things were a little too repetitive or over-explained. We flip between two timelines a few years apart, and I kept trying to guess what the major connection between them would be. Unless I missed something, there really wasn’t much of a connection aside from showing us the events and thought processes that led to Roget’s final actions.
There were glimmers of promise in the story, but it mostly fell flat with me. This was the first book I’ve read by the author, and I do plan to try some of his fantasy work eventually.
June 9, 2009
Major Keir Roget, an agent for the Chinese-dominated Federation government, is sent to investigate a mysterious world - mysterious because it is entirely enveloped by a "haze" of shielding particles. When he arrives on Haze, he finds a friendly and seemingly very advanced civilization of humans who give him such complete access to their society that it almost seems as if his perceptions or thoughts are somehow being controlled.
Roget's story is told in alternating chapters, going back and forth from the Haze mission to the events leading up to it, including an earlier mission among the "Saint" (read: Mormon) culture on Earth that reveals many things about the Federation. This way, the reader slowly gets an idea of what shaped Roget's opinions and character while reading the main story set on Haze. Modesitt Jr. really shows off his writing skills here, keeping both story threads separate but slowly building up to a strong climax connecting both tales.
Longtime readers of Modesitt Jr. will quickly recognize several themes and elements that frequently pop up in the author's works: a cerebral main character, lovingly detailed world-building, focus on environmental issues. There are several direct and indirect references to current political and societal issues, but also hints of a galactic history spanning thousands of years. That Modesitt Jr. can pull all of this off without resorting to endless info-dumps speaks to his considerable skill as a writer. This is an excellent standalone SF novel, and one I wouldn't hesitate recommending both to longtime Modesitt fans and to anyone who isn't familiar yet with the author.
Roget's story is told in alternating chapters, going back and forth from the Haze mission to the events leading up to it, including an earlier mission among the "Saint" (read: Mormon) culture on Earth that reveals many things about the Federation. This way, the reader slowly gets an idea of what shaped Roget's opinions and character while reading the main story set on Haze. Modesitt Jr. really shows off his writing skills here, keeping both story threads separate but slowly building up to a strong climax connecting both tales.
Longtime readers of Modesitt Jr. will quickly recognize several themes and elements that frequently pop up in the author's works: a cerebral main character, lovingly detailed world-building, focus on environmental issues. There are several direct and indirect references to current political and societal issues, but also hints of a galactic history spanning thousands of years. That Modesitt Jr. can pull all of this off without resorting to endless info-dumps speaks to his considerable skill as a writer. This is an excellent standalone SF novel, and one I wouldn't hesitate recommending both to longtime Modesitt fans and to anyone who isn't familiar yet with the author.
December 27, 2009
Haze reminds me of a Heinlein novel, with a receptive but clueless protagonist immersed in a society he doesn't understand only to have that society explained to him, usually on socioeconomic terms. The end result is polemical and usually dry, and this book is no exception.
There's actually two stories going on, both featuring Keir Roget as their protagonist. One is the main plot as advertised by the title; the other occurs a few years prior. Up until the end of the book, I found the latter more interesting than the former. Roget's mission to Haze turns out rather dull, since he spends most of his time just listening to an explanation of how parts of the society on Haze—Dubiety to its denizens. There's no real conflict in this part of the story, just exposition disguised as Roget's bewilderment that such a society could function under the nose of the Federation for so long. The mission in Roget's past, however, is more interesting because it holds more mystery and the promise of conflict. Roget is undercover in a small, close-knit religious community in the former United States of America. He's smoking out a conspiracy while posing as an environment and water monitor. When taken together, these two stories demonstrate the importance of conflict in any story, however well written it may be.
Maybe it's unfair of me to be so demanding. There just isn't much about Haze that excited me. Roget is a decent main character: he's capable and intelligent, able to think for himself instead of just blindly obeying and parroting the party line. Unfortunately, he's the only three-dimensional character in a universe populated by cardboard—on both sides. The only two people with whom he has much contact on Dubiety are flimsy, unquestioning mouthpieces for Dubiety philosophy. Likewise, Roget's superiors on the orbiting ship, including the colonel who orders the ill-fated attack on Dubiety, are one-dimensional puppets of a doomed dystopian society. They disbelieve Roget's data and his opinions not because he's unconvincing but because the plot requires them to disbelieve. So not only are they idiots, but they're plot-induced idiots.
Indeed, Roget doesn't have any sort of relationship in Haze. And I don't mean romance. A book can work fine without any romantic overtones, as long as the character forms some sort of relationship with the people around him. In the subplot set in rural America, Roget doesn't spend enough time undercover to do anything except take a woman he suspects of being a conspirator out to lunch (and even then, it's made clear she suspects he's an undercover agent). We don't see him get to know anyone in the town, form friendships or make enemies; all he does is buy an image of a dog painting and then go infiltrate suspicious buildings and shoot paralysis darts at people. On Haze, he forms a tentative friendship with Lyvia. We never learn how this turns out (the book hints that he meets someone else later on), and it's never more than the uneasy alliance of someone assigned as a guide to an essentially alien man.
This is a thin book. It has a credible main character, but from there the rest of the trappings are rather familiar and decorated in an unoriginal manner. There's the aptly-uninspiringly-named "Federation" that has dominion over all of human society, with the exception of this small splinter colony on Haze. The odd mention of "nanotech" and "trans-temporal entropic" technology reminds us that this is a science fiction novel and not some sort of alternative utopian fantasy dream or whatever, but that's pretty much their primary function. The Federation never feels like a threat to Dubiety, so we know before the book ends how the climax is going to play out, and it feels lifeless as a result.
And maybe it's just me, but Modesitt has a serious obsession with describing in detail every meal that his characters have. I'm noticing this in most of his books as I re-read them; he does this for Roget in this book, careful to emphasize that Roget likes lager. Good to know.
No praise for Haze.
There's actually two stories going on, both featuring Keir Roget as their protagonist. One is the main plot as advertised by the title; the other occurs a few years prior. Up until the end of the book, I found the latter more interesting than the former. Roget's mission to Haze turns out rather dull, since he spends most of his time just listening to an explanation of how parts of the society on Haze—Dubiety to its denizens. There's no real conflict in this part of the story, just exposition disguised as Roget's bewilderment that such a society could function under the nose of the Federation for so long. The mission in Roget's past, however, is more interesting because it holds more mystery and the promise of conflict. Roget is undercover in a small, close-knit religious community in the former United States of America. He's smoking out a conspiracy while posing as an environment and water monitor. When taken together, these two stories demonstrate the importance of conflict in any story, however well written it may be.
Maybe it's unfair of me to be so demanding. There just isn't much about Haze that excited me. Roget is a decent main character: he's capable and intelligent, able to think for himself instead of just blindly obeying and parroting the party line. Unfortunately, he's the only three-dimensional character in a universe populated by cardboard—on both sides. The only two people with whom he has much contact on Dubiety are flimsy, unquestioning mouthpieces for Dubiety philosophy. Likewise, Roget's superiors on the orbiting ship, including the colonel who orders the ill-fated attack on Dubiety, are one-dimensional puppets of a doomed dystopian society. They disbelieve Roget's data and his opinions not because he's unconvincing but because the plot requires them to disbelieve. So not only are they idiots, but they're plot-induced idiots.
Indeed, Roget doesn't have any sort of relationship in Haze. And I don't mean romance. A book can work fine without any romantic overtones, as long as the character forms some sort of relationship with the people around him. In the subplot set in rural America, Roget doesn't spend enough time undercover to do anything except take a woman he suspects of being a conspirator out to lunch (and even then, it's made clear she suspects he's an undercover agent). We don't see him get to know anyone in the town, form friendships or make enemies; all he does is buy an image of a dog painting and then go infiltrate suspicious buildings and shoot paralysis darts at people. On Haze, he forms a tentative friendship with Lyvia. We never learn how this turns out (the book hints that he meets someone else later on), and it's never more than the uneasy alliance of someone assigned as a guide to an essentially alien man.
This is a thin book. It has a credible main character, but from there the rest of the trappings are rather familiar and decorated in an unoriginal manner. There's the aptly-uninspiringly-named "Federation" that has dominion over all of human society, with the exception of this small splinter colony on Haze. The odd mention of "nanotech" and "trans-temporal entropic" technology reminds us that this is a science fiction novel and not some sort of alternative utopian fantasy dream or whatever, but that's pretty much their primary function. The Federation never feels like a threat to Dubiety, so we know before the book ends how the climax is going to play out, and it feels lifeless as a result.
And maybe it's just me, but Modesitt has a serious obsession with describing in detail every meal that his characters have. I'm noticing this in most of his books as I re-read them; he does this for Roget in this book, careful to emphasize that Roget likes lager. Good to know.
No praise for Haze.
December 28, 2015
It was pretty good, 3.5 stars, but obviously a political speech about our country & where it is heading. I don't disagree. There aren't partisan politics, but a broader view of civilizations & their basic political theories. Lots of holes in the theory since it's basically an action story, but it raises some interesting questions.
The characters are his same ones. The hero could be picked out of any of his books. The time is about about 1000 years from now. While technology has gotten better, people & politics are the same & that's the point of the book.
Our hero is a highly trained, elite servant of a civilization in which he is a second class citizen. He is surviving, but lonely & without real choices. Contrasting his birth civilization is another that he is tasked with gathering data on. This civilization works very efficiently - if you buy into their POV.
The good & bad of both are shown through the eyes of our hero in two different stories; one starts about 5 years before the other & the other is his current mission. The end is pretty obvious, but it is still a fun ride.
If there had been less formula, I would have been happy to rate the book higher. The same old character was a bit tiring. At least he left out the romance, which I'm thankful for. There were enough interesting extras that I almost rated it higher, though. Tough call.
The characters are his same ones. The hero could be picked out of any of his books. The time is about about 1000 years from now. While technology has gotten better, people & politics are the same & that's the point of the book.
Our hero is a highly trained, elite servant of a civilization in which he is a second class citizen. He is surviving, but lonely & without real choices. Contrasting his birth civilization is another that he is tasked with gathering data on. This civilization works very efficiently - if you buy into their POV.
The good & bad of both are shown through the eyes of our hero in two different stories; one starts about 5 years before the other & the other is his current mission. The end is pretty obvious, but it is still a fun ride.
If there had been less formula, I would have been happy to rate the book higher. The same old character was a bit tiring. At least he left out the romance, which I'm thankful for. There were enough interesting extras that I almost rated it higher, though. Tough call.
September 17, 2017
Audio; a bit confusing. Not all the flashbacks seemed to coalesce to make the plot come together at the end, or maybe I just "read it wrong".
August 5, 2025
Felt like I was reading a food diary. There were no less than 30 visits to different fictional restaurants with descriptions of everything they served. 5 probably took up 25% of the book.
The remaining 75% was a convoluted mess with three different storylines that didnt seem to tie to each other at all
The remaining 75% was a convoluted mess with three different storylines that didnt seem to tie to each other at all
September 6, 2020
This book was not for me and it made me very angry. I was lured in by the promise of first-contact situations and exploration of alien worlds as well as the dual time period structure but it was all a RUSE! I actually had to check when this book was published because I was so taken aback by some of the views expressed (the answer to this is 2009!!! OH DEAR).
Our main character, Roget, is a cardboard cut out masquerading as a man and when hints of a personality break through his flat cellulose face they only make him less palatable.
Roget is completely devoid of empathy and categorises others in the military as lower than him and superior officers as undeserving of their rank. Civilian men get a pass and are ignored but he views women in a frankly terrifying manner where he HAS to know their marital status and if they are single he expects them to be attracted to him. There is one woman who isn't into him and he boggles over this occurrence just as much as any of the mysteries of the planet until he finds out she has a wife and is then like "oh I guess that's Ok then." WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? And then the icing on the cake is that he is vaguely racist towards his Chinese colleagues - although this might be more that most of his colleagues are Chinese and they are the same level/higher than him on the hierarchy and his stance regarding other men is that he must establish himself as the alpha.
Anyway the world building is also a bust. This book is really an examination of what the author thinks the a utopian political system looks like. This is something I am not interested in. I read this book to find out about the token carnivorous butterflies that appear once near the beginning and are NEVER EXPLAINED. Also he bases his 'utopia' on top of technology that might never exist - if your solution to ending ableism and acessability problems is just to 'fix' all medical conditions then I'm afraid it's not going to go particularly well with what we have now (and disabled people might have something to say!). Potential revelations about how the shields were made or the existence of the carnivorous butterflies were occasionally dangled teasingly but never elaborated on - I suspect the Author himself has no idea and besides it is just window dressing to showcase the government he has concocted.
Another problem is the writing style. Everything is described in painful detail. I hate Roget's bike almost as much as Roget because it extended scenes in the past to an excruciating degree. Speaking of the past, that whole half of the book was pointless, tedious and didn't relate to the main plot in any way.
A final problem is the dog subplot: Roget obsesses over the painting of a dachshund throughout the story. It feels like it has to be foreshadowing or relate to something in an important way but it doesn't mean anything! At all!! This made me mad. The only thing it could possibly relate to is that at the end he sees a dachshund and is like pseudo-hitting on it and then sees the owner of the dog is a woman and is like 'you'll do'. The end. Can I just say EW! NO!!
I am never going to read anything else by this author - and if I do I am a fool! Cannot not recommend this enough.
November 23, 2010
Look, confession time...the shelf maybe should be "read, sort-of". This book is, I believe better than I'm rating it. I just couldn't get into it, but I believe it to be at least partly me. I just wasn't in the mood for this book. I picked it up because it was the choice of a reading group.
I like Mr. Modesitt's books in general and can't think of one I've really hated...it's just this one isn't reaching me. Religious and political conflict, old alien technology....what's not to like? But I can't get into the story. Probably me. My choice of Mr' Modesitt's work is/are usually his fantasies.
I'd say, try it yourself and see what you think. maybe....in a year or ten I'll try it again, who knows? As for now, I can see good writing and the world is interesting. As I said, I'm left with the feeling that the book is better than I'm seeing it right now. I barely scanned it in the end and put it down, as I said, just not in the mood for this book. I'll leave this one to your own discretion, I just couldn't and didn't get into it.
I like Mr. Modesitt's books in general and can't think of one I've really hated...it's just this one isn't reaching me. Religious and political conflict, old alien technology....what's not to like? But I can't get into the story. Probably me. My choice of Mr' Modesitt's work is/are usually his fantasies.
I'd say, try it yourself and see what you think. maybe....in a year or ten I'll try it again, who knows? As for now, I can see good writing and the world is interesting. As I said, I'm left with the feeling that the book is better than I'm seeing it right now. I barely scanned it in the end and put it down, as I said, just not in the mood for this book. I'll leave this one to your own discretion, I just couldn't and didn't get into it.
June 9, 2012
Keir Roget is a Federation agent sent to the surface of a mysterious planet they call Haze because of the impenetrable layer of fog that covers the planet. His job is to make contact with the inhabitants and find out as much as he can about them and their world. There is also a second story line that involves an earlier time in Roget's life. I'm going to assume they criss-cross at some point but I didn't finish reading the book. I made it to page 168 and gave up. This was one of the most boring books I have ever tried to read. I kept pushing on because I thought something has to happen, but it never did. Two different story lines and neither was interesting. All Roget did for the 168 pages I read was talk to people, walk places and go out to dinner. When he met an agent on the planet and started asking questions I was expecting fireworks. Instead they spent pages discussing government, transportation and infrastructure. If felt like I was watching CSPAN. Very disappointing for a sci-fi novel.
November 29, 2015
Updated Ecotopia w a little Walden Two thrown in--ie, not terribly original. Very tedious writing style--this one of those authors where no one can get on a bike. They have to pull the bike away from the wall, turn it, swing their leg over it, center themselves over the seat, put their foot on the pedal, take off slowly, and then pick up speed. Also, we have to know exactly how far someone walks down a tunnel or a street. He went for 200 yards and then turned left before walking 50 feet, etc. AND we always are aware of public transportation schedules, no matter where we are on any planet. How long we have to wait for this or that tram, cab, bus, or subway. Just way way way more detail than I need, thanks anyway. Which is not to say that some of the info about Haze wasn't cool.
June 23, 2009
Kinda disappointing, especially for this author - not sure it even deserves 3 stars, at least looking at the book as a whole. The alternating chapters seemed mostly pointless (a current and a previous mission by the protagonist). Was almost as if the author had written two novellas and decided to mash them together. Each was fine on its own (maybe even worth 4 stars each), but had little relation to each other when blended into one book. Some interesting political discussions in both parts, but again, no coherent whole to be discerned.
January 1, 2024
This book was a quandary. I should have stopped reading it but he did have me intrigued with what a post America society is like under communist Chinese rule aka the “Federation.”
Spoiler not spoiler- it’s horrible and you have no freedom and, in his book, you’ll have environmental spies monitoring your energy out puts and making your life miserable.
I also don’t understand for the life of me why editors let authors write 2 books and mix them together without connecting them somehow which happened here. He left a lot of questions for me:
1- Does he like Mormons or not cause they’re rebels in this book who did something to the main character Roget (French Roger?) that made no sense to the plot that I could discern. St George, Utahs connection to a mysterious planet- none.
2- What’s his environmental beef? No backstory except brief mentions of cities destroyed. The implication is big war, America destroyed, environmental overlords (who had no problem destroying the environment to take over though) take over and through vast spy service keep those rebellious Mormons under control.
3-What’s with the dreams/blackout visions? What did they have to do with anything?
4. What’s his beef with pets yet fascination with dachshunds? On the Thomast world you have to apply to be allowed to own a pet making me think the author doesn’t like how his neighbor in real life let his dogs poop on his yard and is therefore irresponsible. At the same time a picture of a dachshund makes everything better to our hero Roget?
5- Why would the communist Federalists even send Roget down to the Thomast world “Haze” or “Dubiety” (or whatever you’re going to call this world if you would just pick one please!)? They were planning on attacking anyway -spoiler-3rd times the charm the commies think.
(Read another review where the reader was upset that the author implied that a professional woman(Thomast woman in charge of showing Roget around Haze) cant keep it in her pants around professional men (Roger the Dachshundian) unless shes a lesbian. That got you upset with this disjointed book?!?
Wow- more to dislike than that convoluted line of reasoning.)
Hate it when I’m left with so many questions from a book that I’m hoping will all wrap it up nicely in the end but doesn’t. I like apocalyptic books but this one is depressing.
I think for this author the future is bleak.
Spoiler not spoiler- it’s horrible and you have no freedom and, in his book, you’ll have environmental spies monitoring your energy out puts and making your life miserable.
I also don’t understand for the life of me why editors let authors write 2 books and mix them together without connecting them somehow which happened here. He left a lot of questions for me:
1- Does he like Mormons or not cause they’re rebels in this book who did something to the main character Roget (French Roger?) that made no sense to the plot that I could discern. St George, Utahs connection to a mysterious planet- none.
2- What’s his environmental beef? No backstory except brief mentions of cities destroyed. The implication is big war, America destroyed, environmental overlords (who had no problem destroying the environment to take over though) take over and through vast spy service keep those rebellious Mormons under control.
3-What’s with the dreams/blackout visions? What did they have to do with anything?
4. What’s his beef with pets yet fascination with dachshunds? On the Thomast world you have to apply to be allowed to own a pet making me think the author doesn’t like how his neighbor in real life let his dogs poop on his yard and is therefore irresponsible. At the same time a picture of a dachshund makes everything better to our hero Roget?
5- Why would the communist Federalists even send Roget down to the Thomast world “Haze” or “Dubiety” (or whatever you’re going to call this world if you would just pick one please!)? They were planning on attacking anyway -spoiler-3rd times the charm the commies think.
(Read another review where the reader was upset that the author implied that a professional woman(Thomast woman in charge of showing Roget around Haze) cant keep it in her pants around professional men (Roger the Dachshundian) unless shes a lesbian. That got you upset with this disjointed book?!?
Wow- more to dislike than that convoluted line of reasoning.)
Hate it when I’m left with so many questions from a book that I’m hoping will all wrap it up nicely in the end but doesn’t. I like apocalyptic books but this one is depressing.
I think for this author the future is bleak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2010
Meh.
I can’t believe I spend this much time analyzing a book I didn’t care for. But anyway, here’s what I cam up with. I actually wrote it for the discussion over at the SF/F group, so if you want to see follow-up, go there.
• • • • • • • • •
Throughout its length, Haze barely kept me reading. Actually, if this hadn’t been a group-read book, I probably would have dropped it. But I wanted to see what the discussion would be about.
And once I got into it, I wanted to try to figure out why this guy gets bestseller cred.
Frankly, for me the problems were myriad.
The political aspect was integral, but crude and labored. Modesitt created cardboard cut-outs of the three cultures he wanted to illuminate, and then proceeds to show how absurd one is, how pathetic another is, and how wondrously rational the third is. But these are cartoon versions of real societies, so we really can’t take their flaws too seriously. Yeah, the Federation as he depicts it is stupendously arrogant and bureaucratic — but isn’t this the same empire that won (or at least survived) the wars that brought down Noram more than a millennia before? If it had been so idiotic all those thousand years, then the puzzle is how it survived. If it hadn’t been so stupid, then what brought it to this end? The snapshot view of the Federation at the end of a long life makes it far too easy of a topic.
But, perhaps the author wanted just that, as an analogy to the United States as an overstretched imperial power, too arrogant and bureaucratic to change. Well, that’s even less interesting to me, since the U.S.A. I live in is a much more nuanced and dynamic place. Among its huge population are drastically differing ideological viewpoints, and in a still-functional democracy that means policy can change quickly. The book’s Federation simply isn’t a decent analogue for the United States.
It is not a decent match for China, either. As a culture, they are historically non-expansionary and non-aggressive. In our own time, they are more aggressive than they’ve been in centuries, but the hyper-aggressiveness we fear from them in coming decades has a lot of projection in it, and this book uses China as a grossly simplistic element in a straw-man argument.
My second objection is one of style: every page was rife with superficial descriptions of things. The walls are blue; her hair is auburn; the seats are soft; windows are translucent. The “singlesuits” have reflective threads, for goodness sake. We’re informed very severely that Roget’s eyes are a silver gray on page one. We’re also told his hair color, and height. Why? This overabundance of adjectives is just fluff, hiding the fact that we’re never going to know anything that isn’t superficial.
A trivial example: we learn on page 143 that Lyvia has a female partner and a daughter. A few lines later, she says she’d “like to get home to see Aylicia.” So, is that the name of the partner or the daughter? (We can later infer that it is the daughter). How old is she? Does she like to read? Does Lyvia like to read?
By the end it is apparent that Roget has quite a bit of affection for Lyvia, but he knows almost nothing about her. He knows how many members there are in their House of Tribunes, but almost nothing about the humans in his midst.
Now, maybe Modesitt wanted to portray Roget as the laconic type. But then why does everyone else have the same affliction? The officials on Dubiety claim that they won’t speak of complex things before the observer experiences them in order to avoid false impressions. Does this mean they have to be as laconic as he is? Will someone be sued for creating a false impression if they claim their favorite color is red when it is really crimson? And Roget spots the flaw in their logic (p. 175): “Roget couldn’t help but wonder if overwhelming people with experiences that they were unprepared for did exactly the same thing but saw no reason for voicing the point, not given Lyvia’s attitude.” So, normally brusque Roget wants to talk? If this were really a novel “of ideas”, this would have been an excellent time to dive into the dilemma, but it isn’t. This is a polemic in which the author, bizarrely, tried to discover whether he could write the story with nothing but robots as characters.
Polemic? Certainly. On page 217, Director Hillis makes her final two “observations” for Roget:
“First, the longer a culture or society exists without external pressures or conflicts and the more successful it is in maintaining its institutions unchanged, the more likely the slightest pressure, even the pressure of knowledge, is likely to result in unplanned change. Second, the speed of technological development is directly proportional to the true effectiveness of education and markets and to the amount of resources behind the discovery and dissemination of knowledge, as well as being inversely retarded by the degree of governmental control and regulation.”
Roget is a soldier, spy and assassin. Not a post-doc in theoretical political economy. But he doesn’t even blink at this cartload of hypotheses. Well, of course he doesn’t blink; he never even stops to ponder what he’s supposed to think about this message. Because it isn’t for him, or for his Federation masters, but for the readers. Modesitt provides a lot of ham-fisted delivery of political diatribes from various characters. When they are coming from the Federation stooges, they are laughably arrogant and paranoid; when they come from the religious extremists, they are delusional and pathetic, and when they come from the earnest Thomists, we are expected to nod in agreement at this sage wisdom.
• • • • • • • • •
This was the science fiction selection for the Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club for the month of November 2010. Visit this link to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
I can’t believe I spend this much time analyzing a book I didn’t care for. But anyway, here’s what I cam up with. I actually wrote it for the discussion over at the SF/F group, so if you want to see follow-up, go there.
• • • • • • • • •
Throughout its length, Haze barely kept me reading. Actually, if this hadn’t been a group-read book, I probably would have dropped it. But I wanted to see what the discussion would be about.
And once I got into it, I wanted to try to figure out why this guy gets bestseller cred.
Frankly, for me the problems were myriad.
The political aspect was integral, but crude and labored. Modesitt created cardboard cut-outs of the three cultures he wanted to illuminate, and then proceeds to show how absurd one is, how pathetic another is, and how wondrously rational the third is. But these are cartoon versions of real societies, so we really can’t take their flaws too seriously. Yeah, the Federation as he depicts it is stupendously arrogant and bureaucratic — but isn’t this the same empire that won (or at least survived) the wars that brought down Noram more than a millennia before? If it had been so idiotic all those thousand years, then the puzzle is how it survived. If it hadn’t been so stupid, then what brought it to this end? The snapshot view of the Federation at the end of a long life makes it far too easy of a topic.
But, perhaps the author wanted just that, as an analogy to the United States as an overstretched imperial power, too arrogant and bureaucratic to change. Well, that’s even less interesting to me, since the U.S.A. I live in is a much more nuanced and dynamic place. Among its huge population are drastically differing ideological viewpoints, and in a still-functional democracy that means policy can change quickly. The book’s Federation simply isn’t a decent analogue for the United States.
It is not a decent match for China, either. As a culture, they are historically non-expansionary and non-aggressive. In our own time, they are more aggressive than they’ve been in centuries, but the hyper-aggressiveness we fear from them in coming decades has a lot of projection in it, and this book uses China as a grossly simplistic element in a straw-man argument.
My second objection is one of style: every page was rife with superficial descriptions of things. The walls are blue; her hair is auburn; the seats are soft; windows are translucent. The “singlesuits” have reflective threads, for goodness sake. We’re informed very severely that Roget’s eyes are a silver gray on page one. We’re also told his hair color, and height. Why? This overabundance of adjectives is just fluff, hiding the fact that we’re never going to know anything that isn’t superficial.
A trivial example: we learn on page 143 that Lyvia has a female partner and a daughter. A few lines later, she says she’d “like to get home to see Aylicia.” So, is that the name of the partner or the daughter? (We can later infer that it is the daughter). How old is she? Does she like to read? Does Lyvia like to read?
By the end it is apparent that Roget has quite a bit of affection for Lyvia, but he knows almost nothing about her. He knows how many members there are in their House of Tribunes, but almost nothing about the humans in his midst.
Now, maybe Modesitt wanted to portray Roget as the laconic type. But then why does everyone else have the same affliction? The officials on Dubiety claim that they won’t speak of complex things before the observer experiences them in order to avoid false impressions. Does this mean they have to be as laconic as he is? Will someone be sued for creating a false impression if they claim their favorite color is red when it is really crimson? And Roget spots the flaw in their logic (p. 175): “Roget couldn’t help but wonder if overwhelming people with experiences that they were unprepared for did exactly the same thing but saw no reason for voicing the point, not given Lyvia’s attitude.” So, normally brusque Roget wants to talk? If this were really a novel “of ideas”, this would have been an excellent time to dive into the dilemma, but it isn’t. This is a polemic in which the author, bizarrely, tried to discover whether he could write the story with nothing but robots as characters.
Polemic? Certainly. On page 217, Director Hillis makes her final two “observations” for Roget:
“First, the longer a culture or society exists without external pressures or conflicts and the more successful it is in maintaining its institutions unchanged, the more likely the slightest pressure, even the pressure of knowledge, is likely to result in unplanned change. Second, the speed of technological development is directly proportional to the true effectiveness of education and markets and to the amount of resources behind the discovery and dissemination of knowledge, as well as being inversely retarded by the degree of governmental control and regulation.”
Roget is a soldier, spy and assassin. Not a post-doc in theoretical political economy. But he doesn’t even blink at this cartload of hypotheses. Well, of course he doesn’t blink; he never even stops to ponder what he’s supposed to think about this message. Because it isn’t for him, or for his Federation masters, but for the readers. Modesitt provides a lot of ham-fisted delivery of political diatribes from various characters. When they are coming from the Federation stooges, they are laughably arrogant and paranoid; when they come from the religious extremists, they are delusional and pathetic, and when they come from the earnest Thomists, we are expected to nod in agreement at this sage wisdom.
• • • • • • • • •
This was the science fiction selection for the Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club for the month of November 2010. Visit this link to see all of the discussions, group member reviews, etc.
October 14, 2012
This is an oddly constructed novel with two different stories running in alternating chapters separated in time by about five years. Keir Roget, an agent of the Federation Security Agency is the main character in both.
The earlier story has Agent Roget investigating a ‘Saint’ (Mormon) terrorist cell. His cover story during this is as an energy monitor, ostensibly responsible for ensuring people are not wasting energy. In the course of his investigation, the terrorists infect him with some memories of a long dead senator from Utah, a former part of the United States, a political entity absorbed by the Federation a thousand years ago. The senator was popular at the time, but he seems otherwise unexceptional. Why the cult chose him for their attempt to ‘convert’ Roget is unclear, as are their long-term goals or even their beliefs.
This is also true of the Federation, which seems to have come about after a long period of Chinese economic hegemony. At times, the Federation seems benign and patient, concerned mainly about maintaining order, and at other times, it seems oppressive and even paranoid.
The second story follows Agent Roget as he is inserted onto a mysterious planet protected by high-tech shielding. It is populated by a ‘Thomists,’ a group that splintered from Earth about two thousand years ago, although there is some suggestion of non-linear time hanky-panky going on. Roget is supposed to assess the threat these people pose and report back.
He discovers an unashamedly elitist society even more obsessed with energy efficiency than the Federation, and which has some odd societal practices regarding politics, commerce, production, and the like. None of these are well explained or, quite frankly, seem to make much sense, but in daily life the place is pleasant enough. This may be because they are ideologically and culturally less diverse than Earth and so are subject to less social strife. Their advanced technology helps, too.
One discontinuity that did strike me, however, was that in this technologically advanced society, many people seem to hold menial service jobs. I would think that a society that could develop underground trains that travel three times the speed of sound or teleport ships into low orbit could develop artificial intelligence systems to handle baggage or wait tables.
I believe this book is supposed to be a cautionary tale about energy overuse, national arrogance, and possibly a few other things, but it doesn’t quite pull it off. The political and philosophical dichotomies are poorly presented. There is no clear cause and effect established between decisions, actions, and eventual results. Ignoring the possible thematic element for the moment, the story itself is not especially interesting and the characters are lackluster.
Although I’ve enjoyed many of Modesitt’s other novels, I cannot honestly recommend this particular book.
The earlier story has Agent Roget investigating a ‘Saint’ (Mormon) terrorist cell. His cover story during this is as an energy monitor, ostensibly responsible for ensuring people are not wasting energy. In the course of his investigation, the terrorists infect him with some memories of a long dead senator from Utah, a former part of the United States, a political entity absorbed by the Federation a thousand years ago. The senator was popular at the time, but he seems otherwise unexceptional. Why the cult chose him for their attempt to ‘convert’ Roget is unclear, as are their long-term goals or even their beliefs.
This is also true of the Federation, which seems to have come about after a long period of Chinese economic hegemony. At times, the Federation seems benign and patient, concerned mainly about maintaining order, and at other times, it seems oppressive and even paranoid.
The second story follows Agent Roget as he is inserted onto a mysterious planet protected by high-tech shielding. It is populated by a ‘Thomists,’ a group that splintered from Earth about two thousand years ago, although there is some suggestion of non-linear time hanky-panky going on. Roget is supposed to assess the threat these people pose and report back.
He discovers an unashamedly elitist society even more obsessed with energy efficiency than the Federation, and which has some odd societal practices regarding politics, commerce, production, and the like. None of these are well explained or, quite frankly, seem to make much sense, but in daily life the place is pleasant enough. This may be because they are ideologically and culturally less diverse than Earth and so are subject to less social strife. Their advanced technology helps, too.
One discontinuity that did strike me, however, was that in this technologically advanced society, many people seem to hold menial service jobs. I would think that a society that could develop underground trains that travel three times the speed of sound or teleport ships into low orbit could develop artificial intelligence systems to handle baggage or wait tables.
I believe this book is supposed to be a cautionary tale about energy overuse, national arrogance, and possibly a few other things, but it doesn’t quite pull it off. The political and philosophical dichotomies are poorly presented. There is no clear cause and effect established between decisions, actions, and eventual results. Ignoring the possible thematic element for the moment, the story itself is not especially interesting and the characters are lackluster.
Although I’ve enjoyed many of Modesitt’s other novels, I cannot honestly recommend this particular book.
October 30, 2010
This is the first Modesitt I have read and I think I'll be reading more! The two stories woven together, each revealing something of the other is a really nice device - and a very effective way to keep me reading "just one more chapter" =)
July 1, 2020
I just put this book down less than 5 minutes ago.
The premise had a lot of promise. A great idea for a story that was so horribly told. His writing style doesn’t jive with me. There’s no flow to it.
The first 2/3 of the book spends more time describing what he’s eating for breakfast lunch and dinner whilst skipping lots of potentially cool detail on things relevant to the story.
There’s so much irrelevant waste in this book.
Some sentences will catch you when reading them because they are amateurishly written . Excessive words in sentences that could be shorter.
Dialogue - wooden
Characters - not that interesting. He tries to give Roget some character by introducing his sister 2/3 of the way through the book but she has not purpose in the story. There’s a dozen more of those.
World - not too bad but too much detail on some areas and severely lacking in others
Premise - great
Story and character arc - non-existent.
I agree with other reviewers that this book is preachy. He’s trying to install conviction in characters that are fleeting and not developed properly.
It’s like I was reading a young writers first work before the editor (or a writing course instructor) told him the do’s and don’ts.
2 stars for the really good story idea, it was just horribly told. Or as Modesitt would write that last sentence- The book had 2 stars for its story was great but was lacking in how well it was told.
The premise had a lot of promise. A great idea for a story that was so horribly told. His writing style doesn’t jive with me. There’s no flow to it.
The first 2/3 of the book spends more time describing what he’s eating for breakfast lunch and dinner whilst skipping lots of potentially cool detail on things relevant to the story.
There’s so much irrelevant waste in this book.
Some sentences will catch you when reading them because they are amateurishly written . Excessive words in sentences that could be shorter.
Dialogue - wooden
Characters - not that interesting. He tries to give Roget some character by introducing his sister 2/3 of the way through the book but she has not purpose in the story. There’s a dozen more of those.
World - not too bad but too much detail on some areas and severely lacking in others
Premise - great
Story and character arc - non-existent.
I agree with other reviewers that this book is preachy. He’s trying to install conviction in characters that are fleeting and not developed properly.
It’s like I was reading a young writers first work before the editor (or a writing course instructor) told him the do’s and don’ts.
2 stars for the really good story idea, it was just horribly told. Or as Modesitt would write that last sentence- The book had 2 stars for its story was great but was lacking in how well it was told.
November 7, 2019
After passing by the shelves filled with this author's books at the library, I finally gave in and found a stand alone novel to test the waters of his writing as I was not interested in starting a series. If this book is reflective of his other works, than I will definitely pick up some more in my future reading.
This novel is really 2 stories set into alternating chapters. We follow the main character, Roget Keir, an agent of the Federation, as he works different assignments at different points in his career. The author ties them together and lays out a background of how the world came under Chinese control.
With all the technological advances and interstellar space travel, this sci fi story really comes down to the human drama. The technology seems plausible enough, given just enough explanation to feel realistic, but not overdone to where it takes away from the real story.
Language and content are suitable for younger readers and I would place this as accessible to YA & higher tween readers.
This novel is really 2 stories set into alternating chapters. We follow the main character, Roget Keir, an agent of the Federation, as he works different assignments at different points in his career. The author ties them together and lays out a background of how the world came under Chinese control.
With all the technological advances and interstellar space travel, this sci fi story really comes down to the human drama. The technology seems plausible enough, given just enough explanation to feel realistic, but not overdone to where it takes away from the real story.
Language and content are suitable for younger readers and I would place this as accessible to YA & higher tween readers.
April 6, 2020
Not what I normally read, but I still enjoyed it.
The chapters alternate between the main story of Roget exploring the planet Haze and the background story of a mission Roget carried out on Earth. There is way too much going on for me to successfully summarize the story in any way, but if you don’t mind a lot of description and the way the chapters jump back and forth, I would recommend it.
Content: the main character (a man) stares at two women running while wearing minimal clothing
The chapters alternate between the main story of Roget exploring the planet Haze and the background story of a mission Roget carried out on Earth. There is way too much going on for me to successfully summarize the story in any way, but if you don’t mind a lot of description and the way the chapters jump back and forth, I would recommend it.
Content: the main character (a man) stares at two women running while wearing minimal clothing
July 6, 2020
As I read this book, I kept waiting for "something" to happen. I came to realize it was more a comment on our society and where the author thought it was headed (and should be headed in the alternate story). There are two parallel stories being told, set apart in time and space. I did finish the book, which says it wasn't terrible, but it will not be in my re-read category. In fact, it is headed to the used bookstore for someone else to read.
February 1, 2019
The eternal outsider viewing two societies. He makes many good observations and has several suggestions for modified democratic systems, but he doesn't seem to have cut to the core enough to espouse a fully fleshed out, new foundation for democratic thinking.
His thought model of a possible future Chinese dominated stellar society is looking disturbingly possible at this time.
His thought model of a possible future Chinese dominated stellar society is looking disturbingly possible at this time.
March 15, 2018
I really don't care for books that go back and forth continuously throughout the book. I was constantly confused and felt like I was listening to two separate books. The narrator didn't help any at all either, it was like he was trying to read a great shakespearean oration instead of a novel
June 20, 2021
The story was pretty good, not great. I listened to the audio book and the switching back and forth with the flashbacks was a little confusing at times. I also would find that while listening it would not hold my attention and I would miss parts.
April 8, 2023
Slow. Thoughtful. Politically contemplative. It's a thinker - not brain candy. I love me some L.E. Modesitt. I'm glad this is not my first Modesitt book. I believe I just wanted a bit more space action, but I'm glad I finished it.
June 3, 2025
Couldn’t find this book club book in written form at any library or hoopla, so I had to listen to an audiobook. The switching timeline made this complicated and I am not sure I really “got it”. But it kept me interested despite that and the world building was quite complex.
March 10, 2011
This isn't so much a review as an unstructured reaction to
Modesit's Haze.
I enjoy Modesit's love of the details of doing work. He could make
reading about mopping a floor enjoyable ... "Michael put the
mop in the bucket, allowing the warm water with the crude odour of
pine to be absorbed by the mop, and squeezed the mop in the
bucket tray to remove the excess liquid. He put the mop on the floor. The
floor was shaded by the day's dirt of staff walking between offices,
& the dust that had settled out of the night's still air. He swung
the mop from left to right, a scythe, three times, four times, leaving
arcs of clean damp where the mop had taken the dust. He put the mop back
in the bucket, soaking and squeezing it to remove the dirt, before
cleaning the next section of floor. The corners were stubbed, extra
attention was paid to a particular piece of stubborn dirt, then the floor
was clear. Michael gathered the bucket, and left the fresher floor for the uncaring attention of another day's shoes."
That's not from Modesit. It's what I didn't really find
in this book. I listened to "Haze" as an audio book, rather
than reading the tree leaves. And I missed those working patterns. But, you see, it could be the format, I'm new to it, and it might not bring
so much to my attention that style of writing---but I think not.
Having said that, the descriptions of simple actions are still in the
book, and still enjoyable; there's just not enough of them.
Much is set on the far future earth, a far future earth with working
practices of today's earth. There hasn't been much progress. But this is a key part of the story: most of the rest of the tale takes place on Haze, a future world which has developed. Mysteriously, Haze is the United States upgraded, whereas Earth is inherited by the nasty communists. The book still echoes the propaganda of the cold war, except this time the nasty nasty reds are the Federation --- no, not that one, but a Chinese Federation. I do wish he'd drop the United States nationalism: it's like believing your wife is a goddess to be polished once a day rather than a flawed woman to be loved. Sex is much more fun, and productive, than cleaning something so obsessively it blinds you.
The story: yawn militarism. Oh, it worked, it carried me, and Modesit had
the decency to have the hero question all the deaths, question the social
order that hosts then, and carry on regardless, pretty much. But the
militarism is back to the US obsession with nasty nasty foreigners, who
ultimately fail because they don't have the good fortune to be born ... gosh ... truly American. It's either ironic or politically simplistic. It's certainly culturally naïve.
A lot of the story is awe science & technology, which Modesit has the
decency not to flub. His hero is neither a scientist nor an engineer, he
simply observes, and doesn't entirely believe what he sees. He comes from one post-American society, the invaded and occupied America, and is introduced to, and given tours around, another. It's something like a propeller plane pilot being introduced to a TGV, but add a millennium of technological progress without giving up the train sets, if you get the drift.
Yet the new social order of the highly advanced freedom loving America is
actually very Brave New World. This is no police, except for looking after the insane, although there are courts and lawyers. A society that doesn't need policing is a society that doesn't contain ordinary people, with their ordinary arguments, and their ordinary stupidity. The nasty nasty communists do have the police, and the equivalent special forces (indeed, the hero is a special operative), and they're nasty, but not out-of-their-way malicious. There, people can chose to disobey, but if they cause too much bother, or are caught, or both, they get (severely) punished. But they're left alone if they don't upset the social order: the police enforce order, not obedience. On the other hand, in Brave New America, they're not entirely people, so there's no trouble, so there's no need for policing. No drunks. No violence. No stupidity. No family rows. No flawed humanity. Except for the insane. I suspect this is less a nasty comment on Brave New America, more a weakness of nationalist idealism, or perhaps libertarianism, which is naïvely idealistic about humanity when those humans live in a libertarian society: somehow, libertarianism makes humans lose their animal ancestry. That's why I find the supposedly ideal libertarian society to be no such thing. You can see the rain on the road to fascism shining in this gleaming innocence.
This book certainly has more depth than many. The author has clearly added some puzzles I didn't bother to work out; some of the characters say so at the end. But it has some very ordinary American nationalism flaws, a political crudity that lets it down --- unless that really is irony peeking his sharp nose out from under nationalism's bedsheets?
If you're a Modesit fan, it's worth seeking out. Otherwise, if you come across it, grab it, you'll enjoy it. But is it worth a special search? Probably not.
Modesit's Haze.
I enjoy Modesit's love of the details of doing work. He could make
reading about mopping a floor enjoyable ... "Michael put the
mop in the bucket, allowing the warm water with the crude odour of
pine to be absorbed by the mop, and squeezed the mop in the
bucket tray to remove the excess liquid. He put the mop on the floor. The
floor was shaded by the day's dirt of staff walking between offices,
& the dust that had settled out of the night's still air. He swung
the mop from left to right, a scythe, three times, four times, leaving
arcs of clean damp where the mop had taken the dust. He put the mop back
in the bucket, soaking and squeezing it to remove the dirt, before
cleaning the next section of floor. The corners were stubbed, extra
attention was paid to a particular piece of stubborn dirt, then the floor
was clear. Michael gathered the bucket, and left the fresher floor for the uncaring attention of another day's shoes."
That's not from Modesit. It's what I didn't really find
in this book. I listened to "Haze" as an audio book, rather
than reading the tree leaves. And I missed those working patterns. But, you see, it could be the format, I'm new to it, and it might not bring
so much to my attention that style of writing---but I think not.
Having said that, the descriptions of simple actions are still in the
book, and still enjoyable; there's just not enough of them.
Much is set on the far future earth, a far future earth with working
practices of today's earth. There hasn't been much progress. But this is a key part of the story: most of the rest of the tale takes place on Haze, a future world which has developed. Mysteriously, Haze is the United States upgraded, whereas Earth is inherited by the nasty communists. The book still echoes the propaganda of the cold war, except this time the nasty nasty reds are the Federation --- no, not that one, but a Chinese Federation. I do wish he'd drop the United States nationalism: it's like believing your wife is a goddess to be polished once a day rather than a flawed woman to be loved. Sex is much more fun, and productive, than cleaning something so obsessively it blinds you.
The story: yawn militarism. Oh, it worked, it carried me, and Modesit had
the decency to have the hero question all the deaths, question the social
order that hosts then, and carry on regardless, pretty much. But the
militarism is back to the US obsession with nasty nasty foreigners, who
ultimately fail because they don't have the good fortune to be born ... gosh ... truly American. It's either ironic or politically simplistic. It's certainly culturally naïve.
A lot of the story is awe science & technology, which Modesit has the
decency not to flub. His hero is neither a scientist nor an engineer, he
simply observes, and doesn't entirely believe what he sees. He comes from one post-American society, the invaded and occupied America, and is introduced to, and given tours around, another. It's something like a propeller plane pilot being introduced to a TGV, but add a millennium of technological progress without giving up the train sets, if you get the drift.
Yet the new social order of the highly advanced freedom loving America is
actually very Brave New World. This is no police, except for looking after the insane, although there are courts and lawyers. A society that doesn't need policing is a society that doesn't contain ordinary people, with their ordinary arguments, and their ordinary stupidity. The nasty nasty communists do have the police, and the equivalent special forces (indeed, the hero is a special operative), and they're nasty, but not out-of-their-way malicious. There, people can chose to disobey, but if they cause too much bother, or are caught, or both, they get (severely) punished. But they're left alone if they don't upset the social order: the police enforce order, not obedience. On the other hand, in Brave New America, they're not entirely people, so there's no trouble, so there's no need for policing. No drunks. No violence. No stupidity. No family rows. No flawed humanity. Except for the insane. I suspect this is less a nasty comment on Brave New America, more a weakness of nationalist idealism, or perhaps libertarianism, which is naïvely idealistic about humanity when those humans live in a libertarian society: somehow, libertarianism makes humans lose their animal ancestry. That's why I find the supposedly ideal libertarian society to be no such thing. You can see the rain on the road to fascism shining in this gleaming innocence.
This book certainly has more depth than many. The author has clearly added some puzzles I didn't bother to work out; some of the characters say so at the end. But it has some very ordinary American nationalism flaws, a political crudity that lets it down --- unless that really is irony peeking his sharp nose out from under nationalism's bedsheets?
If you're a Modesit fan, it's worth seeking out. Otherwise, if you come across it, grab it, you'll enjoy it. But is it worth a special search? Probably not.
July 14, 2017
Author version of utopia. Interesting political ideas but ...
February 5, 2019
It was an okay story. Compared to other books it was mundane.
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