"Perhaps the science fiction tale of the year"

Four hundred years or so into the future, technology and climate has changed the world, as we readers know it. The North American east coast mostly resides under the sea so that the capital of NorAm has moved to the center of the nation Denv. No one lacks sustenance, as there is an abundance for everyone. However, problems remain mostly with self-actualization since people do not need to accomplish much to insure a full belly and a roof.

In Denv, police lieutenant Eugene Chiang studies crime statistics seeking patterns when he observes an apparent link between seemingly unrelated events including suicide among the under twenty-five crowd. Music professor Laura Cornett struggles with today's popular music that makes her style antiquated and unacceptable with the fad being resonant amplification of the emotional impact causing behavioral conditioning that would shock Skinner. Senator Elden Cannon adheres to his values trying to do the right thing, but his re-election is in trouble due to unknown forces wanting the do-gooder out of the way. Media expert Jude Parsfal learns some questionable things about the Martian Republic. Businessman Chris Kemal deals on anything to make for money for his family's business. These five people will clash in a dangerous convergence.

As highly regarded L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is for his speculative fictions, ARCHFORM: BEAUTY is his best work to date and perhaps the science fiction tale of the year. Satirizing the art vs. science war, the author provides a powerful insight into society through his five narrators. His ability to provide distinct lucid voices for each members of the quintet makes the action-packed story work.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 22, 2002

Summary

Most readers recognize L. E. Modesitt, Jr., as the author of a favorite fantasy series, be it The Magic of Recluce or The Spellsong Cycle. It's always a special treat when he turns his hand again to SF and Archform: Beauty is no exception. Four centuries in the future, the world is rich-- nanomachines watch the health of the wealthy and manufacture food and gadgets for everybody--but no Utopia, as we see in the lives of five very different people. A singing teacher suffers for her music and fights bureaucracy and apathy. A news researcher delivers the essential background details but can't help looking deeper and wondering about the real story behind the grim incidents that make the headlines. A police investigator, assigned to study trends, begins to see a truly sinister pattern behind a series of seemingly unrelated crimes and deaths. A politician aids his constituents, fights the good fight, and tries to get reelected without compromising his principles. A ruthless businessman strives to make his family powerful, wealthy, and independent. Theirs is a society where technology takes care of everyone's basic needs but leaves most people struggling to extract a meaningful life from a world crowded with wonders but empty of commitment and human connection. Alternating the voices and experiences of these five characters in a tour de force of imaginative creation, Modesitt overlaps, combines, and builds their disparate stories into a brilliant tale of future crime and investigation, esthetic challenge and personal triumph. In the same way that he has built fantasy landscapes of surpassing fascination, Modesitt creates a believable future, one imbued with a deep understanding of the way politics works and how people act and react when their sense of themselves, of justice and truth, is exploited by others for power and control. When there's nothing left to need or want, will beauty live on in people's lives or disappear forever? L. E. Modesitt, Jr. asks difficult questions, sets himself unlikely challenges, and once again delivers an absorbing tale that enlightens, entertains, and uplifts all at once.