Adiamante [Paperback]

Though L.E. Modesitt's greatest success is the ongoing Recluce fantasy series, his first novels were SF- -to which he returns in Adiamante. Far in the future, Earth is still scarred by old wars and pollutants, and infested with deadly new predators. Nevertheless it's a low-key, appropriate-technology Utopia, thanks to a genetically enforced social code known as the Construct which prohibits distrust, threats or pre-emptive violence. No such rules apply to the 12 giant invader ships from the computer-happy colony world Gates, sent to punish Earth for exiling their ancestors after a conflict so ancient that it's become folklore. Our planet's hastily appointed co-ordinator Ecktor has the job of steering through the crisis without violating the Construct, while the visitors hope to provoke some incident that'll give them the excuse to lose their terrible weapons. Earth's mind- linked elite have a secret defence of their own, but a painful and expensive one. Physically unable to lie to or threaten the grim visitors, Ecktor offers diplomatic hints and parables: for example, their ships are armoured in utterly unbreakable adiamante, the toughest substance known to science, shattered fragments of which are strewn through the world's topsoil ... It's a tense, thoughtful story, as pressure piles up and the situation escalates towards disaster. --David Langford

'Modesitt creates a deeper and more intricate world with each volume' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY; 'An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world' - Robert Jordan on THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE; 'Modesitt follows the very real concerns for food, latrines, shelter, medicine, and the struggle for power within the group, while tracing the lives of gifted men and women in the process of becoming legends ' - LOCUS on FALL OF ANGELS

`An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world'

In the far future, Earth is just one planet inhabited by humanity, the capital of a long-abandoned interstellar empire. The people of Earth have built a new society and slowly the planet is recovering from millennia of selfish exploitation and the destruction of wars. Suddenly, a former colony's fleet of twelve warships built of nearly indestructible adiamante appears in orbit and tries to intimidate the people of Earth into submission. The people of Earth will not surrender, but their principles also don't allow them to take defensive measures until the fleet actually attacks. Ecktor deJanes is the newly appointed planetary coordinator and has the terrible responsibility of protecting the lives of all the Earth's inhabitants. Somehow he must maintain his society's principles while preventing the fleet from turning the planet into a lifeless ball of rock.

In addition to the Saga of Recluce, L.E. Modesitt is author of numerous science fiction novels and THE SOPRANO SORCERESS, the first volume in a new epic fantasy series.