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''The Parafaith War'' (1996) is a science fiction novel by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.. It is set in a future where humanity has spread to the stars and divided into several factions. Two factions, the Eco-Tech Coalition and the Revenants of the Prophet ("revs") are engaged in a futile war over territory and their competing social philosophies. The ecologically-aware Coalition must hold back the zealous rev hordes constantly seeking new territory for their ever-expanding theocratic society. ==Overview== The protagonist, Trystin Desoll, is a lieutenant in the Service, the military of the Eco-Tech Coalition. He is an elite soldier, a product of the Coalition preference for quality over quantity. He begins as duty officer in East Red Three, a perimeter station at the east border of the planoformed region of the planet Mara, in the Parvati solar system. Mara is currently undergoing extensive planoforming by the Coalition, and as such has become a choice target of the revs. The revs invade through the use of massive asteroid "troid" ships full of soldiers in cryogenic sleep. Troids carry dozens of low-power paragliders, invisible to (otherwise) highly accurate energy-detection scanners, which dump several squads each of rev soldiers in the badlands beyond the borders of planoformed regions. It is the responsibility of the perimeter stations to protect the planoforming machines, and are extensively armed and armored to do so. Trystin faces increasingly powerful assaults by the revs, who almost literally walk into the guns in waves. The difficulties begin when one of the revs he takes captive turns out to have been fashioned into a living bomb, a high explosive that Trystin evades only thanks to the jumped-up reflexes enabled by his neural implant, standard to all Coalition soldiers. The conflict escalates further as the revs begin bringing in rocket launchers and stealth armor, making Trystin's job more and more trying. He is forced to abandon East Red Three temporarily after one attack, and a final assault with hovertanks nearly causes him to lose a leg and the base itself. He discovers only later that his is one of only two bases to survive at all against the rev hovertanks, the other being East Red Four, under Major Ulteena Freyer. Trystin is offered pilot training in the Chevel system and accepts, along with Major Freyer. Pilot training is difficult and the duties of a pilot almost certainly condemn them to isolation from those they know and love - the faster-than-light "translation" engines cause some time lag between initiation and arrival, sometimes only hours but up to days, weeks, or even years or decades. Even the smallest translation error adds up eventually, isolating Service pilots who may be called upon to make numerous jumps over long distances in sub-optimal conditions, all factors that increase translation error. Serving as a pilot mimics Trystin's time on the perimeter, especially since he is sent to a cruiser in the Parvati system. He serves on board the ''Willis'', under Major James Sasaki, a tactically brilliant man who is unfortunately deficient in piloting ability, and considered by many to have gotten his ship due to being from a powerful family in the arms industry. The missions against the troids are not very difficult at first, but the constant repetition and ever-increasing danger wear down Trystin and the ''Willis'' both. Trystin's skill and Sasaki's brilliance pull the cruiser through battles that newer and better ships fail to survive, until Trystin is once more offered a new job: spy. Due to the fissioning of human society along roughly racial lines, much of the Coalition's population is somewhat dark-skinned and dark-haired, or very obviously of east-Asian stock. Trystin comes from one of the rare few old-Anglo families in the Coalition, however, and his pale skin and light hair make him look just like a rev, who are predominantly Caucasian and fair-haired. For this reason, Trystin is taken by the Service's intelligence division as a potential field agent. Many intelligence agents are drawn from the pilot ranks, since much of the work requires piloting in rev systems. He is pressed through an intensive conditioning process to learn to act like a rev, and adopts the name of Brother Hyriss to infiltrate the rev capital world of Orum. There, he is to assassinate a rev general, in hopes of throwing rev planning into disarray and stalling the war for just a little while. Through this time, Trystin has also been participating in a medical and social study of humanity being performed by the Farhkans, one of the only other sapient races known to humanity. The Farhkans have highly advanced technology, and share some of their knowledge with the Coalition in exchange for permission to conduct the study. Several times, Trystin has to go through a physical, and endure short discussions with one Farhkan or another - most frequently, one named Rhule Ghere. The Farhkans press Trystin on matters of ethics, asking about the thieving nature of sentient life and semantic questions. In their last meeting, Ghere gives Trystin an implant-transmitted code to access the great Temple at the heart of the revs' capital city of Wystuh on Orum, and tells Trystin that he (Ghere) is his patron. Trystin reaches Orum safely and begins to experience rev society and the war from their point of view. He poses as a returnee, one of the very, very few men to come back from the assaults upon the Coalition. This makes "Brother Hyriss" popular to the women he meets on his way to Wystuh, for returnees are given special place in rev society for having been blessed enough to survive the brutal war, including permission to have up to six wives. He sees the strains upon the rev society and economy, and realizes they want a way out of the war as much as the Coalition does; what began as a holy mission against the infidels and "golems" of the Coalition has become a quiet terror and drain upon the Revenants, one that cannot be turned aside from because of its "holy" nature. From this, Trystin devises a way to turn a simple assassination into the end of the war. Trystin studies the ''Book of Toren'', the rev holy book, and produces a theologically sound means to divert the holy war. He acts and speaks in a manner as might befit an extremely holy man, or even a prophet. Finally, he discovers the systems of the great Temple can be controlled through his implant. During a Ceremony of Remembrance, Trystin gets into the Temple, takes to the pulpit, and proceeds to denounce the war as if speaking for God. He condemns the war for killing people instead of spreading the holy word of Toren to them. Trystin uses a concealed, modified laser to "miraculously" burn his target to death, then makes the Temple's hidden holo systems project an image of his own burning and disappearance as he makes his escape. He rushes out of Wystuh and off Orum itself, getting back to his ship in time to be chased down as a possible Coalition agent. In the hurried escape, he sends his ship slewing sideways just before initiating translation, having heard earlier from Major Freyer that to do so would increase the translation error sevenfold at least. Trystin arrives, his ship and himself nearly dead, 13 years later in a Farhkan system. The Farhkans take him in after he declares Rhule Ghere as his patron, and restore his body over two years. Part of the process requires inflicting biological immortality upon Trystin, to aid the necessary natural healing processes. After, he returns to base in the Chevel system, to find nearly everything changed. War has ended, and been replaced with a tense peace. "Brother Hyriss" was named a new prophet, one without his own holy book but with a popular collection of sayings taken from Trystin's few days on Orum. Many of the scriptures had been reexamined, and some even rewritten in light of the message of the new prophet. Trystin has also been promoted twice to Commander in the intervening time, though most had considered it a posthumous promotion. In the meantime, however, Trystin's only surviving relative, his father, has finally died and left the family home to him. He returns home, leaving an invitation to now Commander Freyer to retire and join him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Parafaith War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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