kyonshi reviewed The Ethos Effect by L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Review of 'The Ethos Effect' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This book fails so hard. What starts as a competently written space opera/conspiracy plot turns into a lengthy essay on ethics and what it means to be ethical. Which would be ok, if the author had any idea what he was talking about, and if he didn't force the words ethics and ethical into any longer conversation the characters have. Because sure, why not spend a romantic date with the main character gushing about how ethical he is?
But even that would be alright, if it wasn't for the fact that the ethical solution the author goes for is to genocide the hell out of a planet. Twice.
So the main character is a really, really ethical hyper-competent dudley-do-good wrecked by guilt over things he couldn't control, until the author decides that he needs to end the book and hey, he still has this backup doomsday weapon lying around and …
This book fails so hard. What starts as a competently written space opera/conspiracy plot turns into a lengthy essay on ethics and what it means to be ethical. Which would be ok, if the author had any idea what he was talking about, and if he didn't force the words ethics and ethical into any longer conversation the characters have. Because sure, why not spend a romantic date with the main character gushing about how ethical he is?
But even that would be alright, if it wasn't for the fact that the ethical solution the author goes for is to genocide the hell out of a planet. Twice.
So the main character is a really, really ethical hyper-competent dudley-do-good wrecked by guilt over things he couldn't control, until the author decides that he needs to end the book and hey, he still has this backup doomsday weapon lying around and the bad guys are all on that one planet...