Salvation Lost

The Salvation Sequence, Book 2

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A powerful alien force threatens humanity. Can we rise to face it? Salvation Lost is the extraordinary second volume in Peter F. Hamilton's Salvation Sequence, a high-octane adventure from the award-winning author.

Fight together - or die alone . . .

In the twenty-third century, humanity is enjoying a comparative utopia. Yet life on Earth is about to change, forever. Feriton Kane’s investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and we’ve almost no time to fight back. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo.

Some factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few would make it out in time. But others refuse to break before the storm. As disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the face of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.

Salvation Lost is followed by the trilogy's stunning conclusion, The Saints of Salvation.

©2019 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2019 Tantor Media, A Division of Recorded Books

Critic reviews

'Humanity rises to meet a powerful alien threat, in this extraordinary sequel to Peter F. Hamilton’s Salvation. This is a high-octane adventure from 'the most powerful imagination in science fiction' - Ken Follett

'Everything readers of Salvation will have hoped for. A series emerging as a modern classic' - Stephen Baxter

'Brilliant and compelling. A masterclass in tension and spectacle' - Gareth L. Powell

Good story marred by bad narration

The overall story is good, but the narrator's attempts at non English accents is horrendous irrespective of the accent he tries to emulate

A masterpiece of a science fiction novel

Few words before I start my review:
I believe that the back-and-forth plot this book is based on is not for everyone. If you’re in for a straightforward science-fiction thriller going from a defined beginning to an ending point or conclusion, This is not the book for you.

The book is filled with twists, plot turns and goes back-and-forth in time considerably throughout its course.

I loved it.

The book goes around an alien invasion from its current point of view in which the aliens invade to a future time in which humanity’s plan to fight back kicks in. Even though you have the general idea of what is going to happen, the reader can’t escape the general feeling of impending doom, delivered masterfully by a slew characters with different points of view and social statuses.

Moreover, the book climaxes both in the future and current storylines at the same time connecting them together in a way one wouldn’t think possible at the beginning.

I do not want to spoil the book for anyone who is going to read it so I’m going to stop here and just wish you a great time reading this wonderful book

Not as good as the first book

An ok story but the character voices put me off, nearly every character has what sounds to me like an East London accent and the 'posh' characters all sound like reformed gangsters from East London. Ainsley's contributions are basically saying F#ck a lot, without actually coming up with any useful ideas - so much for the technical genius. Peter is one of the best in my opinion but I think I'll skip the final book in this series and wait for the next series.

Awesome author

After listening to many average authors you can really see the difference between Peter and others.

Much Better Than The Last One

I wasn't mad about the first book. This is better. (Not a spoiler) Actually the best bit is the stuff with the High Flyer.

I still mix up some of the guys from the assessment team apart from the Scottish guy which is a bit weak.

A lot of hate for John Lee in the reviews ? Maybe the American ear doesn't suit his voice but I think he & Hamilton go together like rejuvenation clinics and enzyme bonded concrete.

Great 2nd part of the series

I really like Peter F. Hamilton's books and this series is really good. Can't wait for the last one. I hope the ending will be as good as is in his other book series.

slow and unfulfilling... again

I cant really say what is wrong with this book, it follows a similar pattern as other sagas, but it feels fragmented and with many characters and events that seem unimportant, I understand that probably they will be crucial for the last book in the trilogy, but you can't have half of the books narrating stuff that doesn't quite connect to anything and seems unimportant that just makes it a bad book.

A little slow and meandering

I know that Hamilton’s books are long and detailed and full of individual story arcs that come together towards the end. And I usually like it (esp the Commonwealth saga). However, here it seems like a bit of pointless dithering. I had more or less lost interest in the “now” even during the first book, and the future setting is where all the action will take place so that is what I want to read about.

I think that he should have written the story more linearly, but I understand that he didn’t want to come to the point where “the plan” was set into motion and having to write “and then 10000 years passed” before kicking off the final part (which is what Neal Stephenson did in his absolutely horrible Seveneves).

So, I still enjoyed it, but 80% felt like filler, especially clearly felt in the audio book format.