Haze by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

Keir Roget is a major in the armed forces, and a deep cover infiltration expert. When he's sent to a strange planet called Haze that may harbor actual aliens, he's part of a five-man team who penetrate the strange atmosphere to find out what may lie beneath, and report back to his superiors on what he finds there.

But Keir feels he isn't being given all the information his superiors have on Haze, and as his career has been damaged by an earlier misstep while undercover, he's not given a choice as to whether or not he wishes to go. But as far as he can tell, his capsule is the only one that makes it down to the surface, as the atmosphere is inundated with some strange kind of nanotech compound that blocks viewing of the surface of the planet from space, and blocks radar and any kind of other information-gathering as well.

He lands on the planet, he is met by a woman named Lyvia, who is human, and she says she will introduce him to her culture. She and her people left Earth long ago and settled here, and she is annoyingly vague about the information Keir wishes to know. But he does learn that the people call Haze, "Dubiety", and she claims they have no secrets to hide. But do they?

As Keir travels across Dubiety, he learns more about the planet. But while the Federation claims to want to know the truth about Haze, the people on Dubiety warn him that the Federation already knows the truth- they want to destroy Haze because Haze is open and truthful to all its people, while the Federation hides knowledge to keep power over its people- and they are able to back up the truth of what they say.

As Keir learns more about their society, they ask him if he will leave the Federation behind and stay as part of their society. He has skills they can use, and much greater technology than even the Federation has- or allows its people to use and know about. Which will Keir choose? And how will the Federation resolve its dislike of Haze?

I was deeply disappointed with this novel. I have noticed a common thread in many of L.E. Modesitt's latest novels where a young man starts out feeling his homeland is best and soon learns better from his masters, but those have been his Fantasy novels, generally. I was hoping for something slightly (or even mostly) different with this Science Fiction novel, but yet again we are bashed over the head with another "Haze/Dubiety is so much better than the Federation!" plank so often that my head began to hurt long before the novel was even half over.

Worse, it's not a particularly subtle message, nor surprisingly deep, either. And the novel lacks any trace of humor or sympathetic characters. He attempts to make Keir Roget sympathetic (I suppose) by having him keep this image of a Dog that he purchased on his last operation, but it's only a picture! Not even a real dog for him to interact with, so any sympathy you feel for him "Oh, he likes dogs!" is distant and muted because- he's sympathetic to an image of a dog, already removed from a real animal that barks when it's not supposed to and pees and poops where it likes. It's "Idealized Dog" shall we say.

The other thing that annoyed me about the story is how sterile and actionless it is. The main character doesn't get into any real confrontations. it's all sort of propoganda that he absorbs like a sponge while not reacting to the information in any way. I was waiting for him to do something- make a real decision on his own, something to make the book have a point, but the decision, such as it is, comes too late to make the novel seem anything but a boring slog through "L.E. Modesitt's Perfect Society Land".

This book made me glad I read very quickly, because honestly, if I had spent any longer reading it, I'd be even more annoyed at the number of hours of my life I'd wasted and be never getting back. If I'd purchased this book, I'd have sent it back to the store or set it on fire- that's how unhappy I was with this book. And if I was the kind to throw books (I'm not- I have too much respect for books to throw them at the wall and possibly damage them), my wall would be filled with Haze-shaped dents by now. Avoid this at all cost unless you like being beaten over the head by a story of what the author feels is a perfect society, and which has all the humor, charm and depth of a micron-thin slice of moldy potato.