Isolate: A Novel in the Grand Illusion

by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Book Overview

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of The Mongrel Mage, has a brand new gaslamp political fantasy Isolate.

BookBub--The 24 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of Fall 2021

Industrialization. Social unrest. Underground movements. Government corruption and surveillance.

Something is about to give.

Steffan Dekkard is an isolate, one of the small percentage of people who are immune to the projections of empaths. As an isolate, he has been trained as a security specialist and he and his security partner Avraal Ysella, a highly trained empath are employed by Axel Obreduur, a senior Craft Minister and the de facto political strategist of his party.

When a respected Landor Councilor dies of "heart failure" at a social event, because of his political friendship with Obreduur, Dekkard and Ysella find that not only is their employer a target, but so are they, in a covert and deadly struggle for control of the government and economy.

Steffan is about to understand that everything he believed is an illusion.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250777429
• ISBN13: 9781250777423
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 864 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 4.1" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

This will be a polarizing read, but I liked it!

As the headline suggests, the lack of intense action except in small bursts between day-to-day life and political groundwork might not be for everyone. This is very much a book about debate and the nature of politics and society in a world slipping into pseudo-dystopia from corruption. A friend of mine said it best, that this book 'lays a lot of pipe' to set up something great and offers the reader small snippets of moving forward while it does it. The day to day detail of Dekkard's life as a security aid might seem drab to some, boring even, while it continues to subtly throw names, locations, and political affiliations at you in-between, until slowly building up to major events. The payoff was worth it at the very end to me, and I am excited to read Councilor when it releases, as now with the foundation laid in Isolate it can hopefully shift gears to more action and intensity. My only gripe is the reader appears to be on the outside of major events, and NEVER leaves Dekkard's perspective safe some newspaper headlines. The impact of certain political events might have been more felt if the perspective switched to Obreduur in the council hall, or even from the other political parties points of view behind closed doors. I understand the author's choice to keep us in Dekkard's point of view to keep the reader in a sense of mystery, but a bit might have been lost that way.