Isolate

L. E. Modesitt
DNF 8/4/2024, Reviewed 8/6/2024
1 star

Trying to read this book was a miserable experience.  I got to about page 100 after ten days and decided I couldn’t do it anymore.  Nothing happened in this book.  I’m not even sure what this book was about.  I can tell you a little about the main characters and what they wore and what they ate and what their jobs were.  As for a plot, I got nothing.

If you look at the cover of the book, you see a man and a woman standing in front of a car like they are body guards.  That’s the book in a nutshell.  Dekkard and Ysella are body guards.  Ysella is an empath.  She can read people.  Dekkard is an isolate.  Empaths can’t read him.  They protect a councilor, which to us would be a congressman.  Dekkard likes quince jam on croissants.  They kind of like each other.  They both mostly wear grey.  Another councilor dies under mysterious circumstances, but the news reports it as a heart attack.  The councilor Dekkard and Ysella protect gets shot at occasionally and the two have to rush him to safety.  

The world is a sort of steampunk near future.  I couldn’t tell if the government was supposed to be fascist or communist or late-stage capitalism, or some combination, but it was pretty corrupt.  There were people demonstrating demanding the councilors reveal how they voted.  

One hundred pages and there was no semblance of a plot.  It was mostly the day to day activities of two body guards.  This was a book club selection.  There are bets as to how many people will finish the book.  One friend who finished it sent me a scathing synopsis of the rest of the book, where nothing else happens.  I may publish it in my blog, but I won’t include it public site reviews where she will publish herself.  

This is a 1 star book.  Bleah.

My friend’s eloquent response to this book:

If you don’t like it at page 100, nothing changes. I soldiered along because sometimes there’s a payoff when Stuff Finally Happens…. But this is the whole book. Bureaucracy. Lists of people introduced who don’t show up again. Minutae of what the main characters are wearing (spoiler: uniforms). Not what anyone else is wearing… just him and her. Slowburn attraction. Beginnings of snatches of what might be mysteries. More bureaucracy. Laborious detail over ever meal including what everyone ordered, what the first bites were like, whether they were pressed for time while eating. Quince paste shows up 55 times in 100 chapters, and is referenced more than that when he mourns over his tomato jelly and guava jam.

There are more assassination attempts, which always occur when the pair are on duty, and are always easily thwarted with no damage or danger to anyone but the assailants— who die, easily and conveniently. There are potential plots— who is trying to kill Dekkard notCain? Or his boss? Or his girlfriend’s sister’s husband? But 50 pages from the end we’ve forgotten about resolving any of that in favor of detailed exposition on his boss’ stump speeches while he campaigns for office. Lower tariffs are promised. I mean, that’s a whole-ass chapter 60 pages from the end.

Sorry higher tariffs are promised. And regulations for the manufacture and distribution of the not-cars and not-trains.