The Elysium Commission by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor, 2007) [B&T Books] PS3563.O264 E94 2007.

Let me just get this out of the way from the start. I hate the cover. The 1950’s space opera battle scene was almost enough to set it aside until I recognized the author. There, I’ve said it, and it’s out of the way.

Modesitt is known for putting forward interesting and well defined characters in well paced plots. As with his previous book, The Eternity Artifact, we are placed in a future some thousand years or so after the human race fled mother earth. The political realities of this future is so sprawling, however, that it need have no connection at all with Modesitt’s previous works. Like previous works, The Elysium Commission is a rapid-fire piece of short chapters with snappy, sometimes elliptical headings and changing perspectives. This can sometimes throw off a new reader. Fortunately, there are only two (or perhaps three, depending on what one counts) perspectives to deal with.

One might, however, ask whether The Elysium Commission (unlike The Eternity Artifact) is really a work of science fiction. If Edgar Allan Poe had set detective stories in the early 21st century rather than the mid 19th would we class them with his mysteries or science fiction works? This is exactly the thing, while Modesitt convincingly sets his story far into the future, it really has nothing to do with the future or (save for one critical exception) with science. This is not to say that Modesitt is not scientifically informed (his previous works more than satisfy that). Rather, his characters inhabit the technology and the mind-set of their time to the extent they converse with the theoretically underpinnings about as much--or as little--as we do with our own. The one bit of science really worth knowing concerns pocket universes. One can, without any real background, get a general idea of what is going on there. If you are inclined to think that Modesitt is simply employing a cheap science fiction slight-of-hand, you may want to see Leonard Susskind’s The Cosmic Landscape.

The Elysium Commission is (as alluded) a mystery; a detective story that unfortunately is pulled into being a political thriller. The main character, Blaine Donne (that’s Seignior Donne, get use to various gradation of titles), is a Sam Spade like individual (former military type now working as a private investigator) who is suddenly (unlike Spade) thrown a number of seemingly disparate cases, some of which tie in together and a few that do not.

It is Blaine and his world that are of primary interest. He’s a shamus (always interesting) and a part-time vigilantly in a highly ordered world that borders on being a matriarchal oligarchy. If things weren’t exotic enough, Seignior Donne’s world fancies itself as the epitome of French rationalism. You might as well get use to the well-suited place-names and manners as well. As for the case, the reader often knows just a little more about his one big case than he does. By the way, cases are called “commissions,” and you can pretty well guess the name of the central commission in this tale. At any rate, the commission involves intrigue, double-dealing, over-blown egos and dueling megalomaniacal schemes and counter-schemes.

I hate what I am about to say because I really did enjoy the book, but it becomes clear that this commission is simply too big for any investigator, no matter how many hi-tech toys he has at his command (and he has the sort of toys one would expect of the erstwhile James Bond--had he the capital to go private and was living in the 35th century). The cheesy cover is not entirely gratuitous after all. By the end, in order to solve the case and tie up the loose ends (both professional and personal) Donne must draw upon his past and enter into a quasi-military operation. The shift from Dashiell Hammett to Robert Ludlum is just too much and is one of the few flaws (along with an all-too-tidy ending) in an otherwise enjoyable adventure.

Jimm Wetherbee

If The Elysium Commission looks good, here are some other interesting Baker and Taylor Books. . .

• Voices From the Street by Philip K. Dick.
  Call Number:PS3554.I3 V65 2007
• Event, by David Lynn Goleman.
  Call Number: PS3607.O4555 E94 2006
• Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds
  Call Number: PR6068.E95 P87 2006
  

Updated August 14, 2008