The Ghost of the Revelator

If John Le Carre tried his hand at alternate history the result might be similar to The Ghost of the Revelator. Maybe -- assuming Le Carre grafted elements of science fiction and fantasy onto his creation, enjoyed opera, and was feeling particularly quirky. As with the best Le Carre, Modesitt's characters live in shades of grey, struggling to make ethical decisions in a world where good is ambiguous but evil can be absolute.Professor Johann Eschbach, hero of Tangible Ghosts, is a newly tenured professor of Natural Resources at Vanderbraak State University, former Subminister for Environmental Protection, and former highly successful covert operative for the Spazi, a state security agency every bit as warm and cuddly as its nickname. Not surprisingly, Eschbach is far more enamored of his retirement from government service than his former employer despite his "insurance policy". The one bright spot in Eschbach's life is his recent marriage to Doktor Llysette duBois, a once famous opera singer who came to the university in exile after the fall of old France. Between the Ghost books and his acclaimed Spellsong Cycle fantasy series, Modesitt demonstrates extraordinary interest in and insight into the character of beautiful, supremely talented sopranos. Revelator's world, although contemporary, diverges from our own by presuming changes in a few key historical events, particularly the failure of the English colony at Plymouth and the early death of George Washington. The result is a North America which is far more politically fractured than in our world. Columbia, Eschbach's Dutch-Anglo home, is bordered to the south by New France, to the north by Quebec, and to the west by Deseret -- a Latter-Day Saint republic that still permits polygamy. Europe is mostly united, albeit forcibly under the bloody heel of Ferdinand, Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian empire.Modesitt creates a subtly detailed universe which weaves an eclectic yet on-target cast of characters along with politics, economics, energy security, technology, the environment, and matters of the heart into a novel which, in the best literary tradition, enlightens us about our own world as well as offering an escape. More importantly, Revelator is a flat-out fun read. As usual with Modesitt's books, Revelator's dry humor includes a number of thinly disguised persons famous and obscure. Readers will be able to find such names as Blair, Chirac, and Hartpence among others.Ghosts is also enlivened by the not-so-minor matter of, well, ghosts -- human spirits released into haunting mode by prolonged and violent death. Not only tangible, Modesitt's ghosts can be destroyed and even replicated by those few, including Eschbach, who posses and know how to use the right technology. Llysette is invited to give her first major performances since exile in Great Salt Lake City, the capital of Deseret. The concerts are important to on many levels various people and

This was an enjoyable return to the world of "Of Tangible Ghosts". It tries to stand alone from the first novel, but doesn't quite succeed; certain character and background details are repeated (and repeated...), while others are omitted. His treatment of an evolved Mormon society is interesting, particularly in comparison the one in the author's novel "The Parafaith War". I look forward to future stories in this series that explore some of the other cultures in this world-line, such as the New French. About my only other complaint is that the main ghost (you knew there had to be one from the title) appears quite late in the story, and doesn't have the depth of character of the first novel's. I enjoyed the ghost construction details -- kinda like building a Web page on steroids.