Book Review: Adiamante by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

In the distant future an Earth slowly continues a millennia-long recovery from a catastrophic war and ecological abuse. The Demis, a genetically-engineered variant of humanity with telepathy and highly trained, Mentat-like minds, lead a society based on mutual trust and environmental accountability. The Demis previously shared the Earth with the Cybs, whose dependence on integrated cybernetics and unwillingness to give up their expansionistic behaviors and rejection of the whole-body human experience lead them to attempt a power-grab that annihilated a huge portion of the Earth's ecosphere and population. The Cybs were exiled, but now, ten thousand years later, they've returned with 12 almost indestructible Adiamante warships and a gleam in their cold, hard eyes. The main plot revolves around the dilemma of the just-widowed and reluctant Planetary Coordinator, who must strike a constant balance between saving his people and violating the Construct, the framework that has kept their society stable for ten thousand years. This is both a military sci-fi thriller and an interesting treatment of two different worldviews with great relevance to modern society.