Julia Evans, billionairess owner of Event Horizon, has for 15 years been the power behind England’s economic renaissance – but now she’s in trouble. With her husband missing, and rival companies suddenly claiming to have acquired a technology impossibly superior to anything on Earth, she has no time to take notice of a single flower delivered anonymously. But this flower possesses genes millions of years in advance of any terrestrial DNA. Is it a cryptic alien message, or a poignant farewell token from her husband?
One man might discover its origin – but Greg Mandel will not be alone in his desperate search. And, as they both now discover, simply being first in the race isn’t nearly good enough when the Nano Flower begins to bloom.
©2011 Peter Hamilton (P)2011 Audible Ltd
"Sci-fi mastery in full bloom for the nanoflower"
Nanoflower completes the Greg Mandel trilogy. Compared to the first two installments, Greg is now comfortably middle aged, a father with 4 kids (and one on the way), and a respected and successful fruit grower. Over the intervening 15 years since Quantum Murder, Julia Evans has healed Royan, they've become lovers, and have their own children all while continuing to run Event Horizon.
The story unfolds with Julie receiving a "flower" that appears to be of alien origin and points to Royan who has been missing. Julie engages Greg to track him down. At the time, rumors of a next generation technology begin surfacing resulting in a second made scramble. Greg goes up against a psychopathic techmerc following the same leads for the flower and the technology. The action is fast and furious, and nearly nonstop. While the eventual resolution is not unexpected, the denouement is still surprising.
Hamilton really begins to flex his muscles as a sci-fi grandmaster with this tale. The resulting alien biology (and microbiology) is refreshingly original and well detailed. Computer personalities are extended and space mining and colony settlements are ongoing. At its heart, this is a love story with multiple couples, each re-enforcing the theme. Perhaps the only legitimate criticism is the introduction of some new psy powers for Greg that while critical to the plot could have nevertheless been at least alluded to earlier. The narrator also deserves kudos for a fantastic range of voices.
"A great sci fi adventure"
All three of these stories are great, fast moving stories set in a world it is easy to believe in that still has plenty of surprises. Peter Hamilton is a master and it is great to have these three stories online now also. Highly recommended, although I think the first one was the best one.
futurist
"The best of Mandel"
This was a really fantastic book and the connection to 'modern' Hamilton books is much more evident in this book than in the first two of the series. Don't get me wrong, the first two are great also but the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy are all masterworks of space operas and that quality can be seen in the third and final Mandel book. If you already read the first two, you don't need to read my review to convince you to get the third so i'll just say that its worth it. If you haven't read the other Greg Mandel books, look up Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder, all three are really great detective stories.
Toby Longworth did a great job and it was nice to hear a British voice that wasn't John Lee. I think John Lee is fantastic but every book by a British author that i listened to prior to the Mandel series is narrated by John Lee and i was starting to think that maybe they only had one male narrator over there..(kidding).
"I love Toby Longworth"
I love Toby Longworth and would really enjoy hearing him again. I also really enjoy this book's post apocalyptic but uplifting setting.
Thanks Audible for your continued support of "This Week in Tech" over at TWiT.tv
"Last case for Psychic Detective Greg Mandel"
Well this is the last case that Greg gets pulled into by his long time friend Julia Evans a young beautiful owner of Event Horizon one of the top 5 biggest companies in the World, this time there is some things that take place in Space which is really cool.
The first 2 books had Greg introduced to some strange cases but this one is the strangest of them all, I don't want to give anything away here but there is parts in Space and an Alien, but its not what you think just like the last book you probably didn't guess how the murder happened, same with this one.
Like I said in the past reviews this is a totally different story as the first 2 but just has most of the same characters but this one is not better than the others but not worse, I guess being the 3rd and last book I was thinking it would be just great but it could have been better I guess but I can say that for the whole series - don't let this put you off but do request Audible.com get the next trilogy that Peter F. Hamilton has The Nights Dawn, its already in audio format you can find it on some torrent search engines I got it but I would still buy it if I can
The latter stuff by PFH like The Commonwealth Saga books and The Void Trilogy are better than this one so if you like this author give those a try
"sequels can be tough"
Yes, I wouldn't have the patience to read soft sci-fi but can listen to it whilst doing other things
Greg has to be my favorite - what a hero!
I liked the first book in the series so much that I'v enow listened to all three. The first book was far better for me (5 stars) than the others, but the whole package was an enjoyable foray into a genre I don't always enjoy
I enjoy good sci-fi and fantasy books. I also enjoy listening to Mysteries and Business marketing.
"A highly possible future"
This among the top 15% of the 100s of books I have listened to so far. It offers all that I want and expect from current science fiction.
I started this series on this book. But it can stand alone. This author creates a future that seems very possible. The action is fun and exciting too. I am going to try to the prequels too. The technology and the terminology of the possible future.
The performance is excellent. Toby brings it to life.
See what's a tech merch and a hard liner.
"Better than book 2, but not as good as book 1"
The first book in this series I enjoyed. Book 2 and 3 were good, but not as good, and there's no real reason to read the final two books. Read some of his more recent books, they're better.
"Best of the three"
This is the best of the trilogy. Hamilton has created an interesting, exciting, and engaging SciFi book; Longworth does a magnificent job of presenting it. I found the other books in the Mandel series sort of mundane but this one is very well done.
"Hamilton's turning point as an author"
Where the first two installments of the Mandel Trilogy showed great potential, The Nano Flower has Hamilton hitting his stride as an author showing why he is one of the best fiction writers working today. Excellent character development, well conceived plot, believable human reactions and an incredibly well conceived universe make for a great listen. While not offering up the multiple plots and immense complexity of his later works, the plot is complex and interesting in a way not often seen in SciFi. Excellent editing keeps the pace high enough to hold your interest but not at the expense of dialogue and scene setting. Toby Longworth's excellent narration made the book even better as his consistency of individual characters and variation among voices is first rate.
This book makes me hope Audible is working hard to bring even more of Hamilton's works to the format!