The Evolutionary Void

Void Trilogy, Book 3

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 24 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

An innovator praised as one of the inventors of "the new space opera", Peter F. Hamilton has also been hailed as the heir of such golden-age giants as Heinlein and Asimov. His star-spanning sagas are distinguished by deft plotting, engaging characters, provocative explorations of science and society, and soaring imaginative reach. Now, in one of the most eagerly anticipated offerings of the year, Hamilton brings his acclaimed Void trilogy to a stunning close.

Exposed as the Second Dreamer, Araminta has become the target of a galaxywide search by government agent Paula Myo and the psychopath known as the Cat, along with others equally determined to prevent - or facilitate - the pilgrimage of the Living Dream cult into the heart of the Void. An indestructible microuniverse, the Void may contain paradise, as the cultists believe, but it is also a deadly threat. For the miraculous reality that exists inside its boundaries demands energy - energy drawn from everything outside those boundaries: from planets, stars, galaxies...from everything that lives.

Meanwhile, the parallel story of Edeard, the Waterwalker, as told through a series of addictive dreams communicated to the gaiasphere via Inigo, the First Dreamer, continues to unfold. But now the inspirational tale of this idealistic young man takes a darker and more troubling turn as he finds himself faced with powerful new enemies - and temptations more powerful still.

With time running out, a repentant Inigo must decide whether to release Edeard's final dream: a dream whose message is scarcely less dangerous than the pilgrimage promises to be. And Araminta must choose whether to run from her unwanted responsibilities or face them down, with no guarantee of success or survival. But all these choices may be for naught if the monomaniacal Ilanthe, leader of the breakaway Accelerator Faction, is able to enter the Void. For it is not paradise she seeks there, but dominion.

Into the Void? Listen to more in the Void Trilogy.

©2010 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2010 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"Epic, multi-stranded, full of wonders." (SFX)

A confusing end to the Series

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Personally, I found this book to be very confusing compared to the other books in the Void series or the Commonwealth Saga. There are a lot of 'high' theoretical concepts that the reader is meant to grasp but that coupled with the frequent character story-line changes made it difficult to follow for me. Granted I listen to audiobooks all day long while at my office job so my attention isn't always 100% on the story. However, i do go back and relisten to hours of books if i find a part confusing but even that didn't help much this time.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The way Hamilton writes and integrates the story-lines is borderline genius but not using an actual name for a character and instead using an occupation (the delivery man) confused me from the very first book in this series. I thought two story-lines were the same character until they clearly weren't at the end of this book and that is not a spoiler in any way, i was just confused. The first book i listened to in this 'universe' was Pandora's Star (so i skipped misspent youth) but i found the beginning of that book to be very confusing b/c of all the character jumps and seemingly random events that happened. I felt about the same way in this book (but Pandora's Star turned out to be one of the best books i've listened to on Audible).

Do you think The Evolutionary Void needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Not really a follow up book but a new series in the same universe would be nice, preferably with all new characters.

What happened?

First, I've disliked the narrator's reading style throughout the trilogy. John Lee's method of reading, to me at least can only be described as "funereal". His voice deflects downward at the end of each sentence, and indeed, at times, if feels as if it's at the end of each phrase, a style of reading that I immediately found extremely annoying. Still, through the first two books, and into the thrid, the story carried me along, despite the reader.

Until the very end... The story became so contrived it seemed that Mr. Hamilton just wanted to end it. For maybe the third time in my life I failed to complete a book. Between the annoying narrrator and the deteriorating story line, I just simply couldn't get through it. It's really too bad. The trilogy was great up to the end. I'm sure the narrator's style didn't bother others. But for me his "style" was very annoying. In the end, I could only give this volume a 3 rating, and that was based more on the greatness of the over all trilogy, than this book standing alone.

And that's all folks

I have to say, Peter Hamilton's writing style is very immersive. My complaint however, after waiting months and months, is that the ending is just plain crap. With all three volumes I listened to 70+ hours of storytelling. The ending felt as though it were thrown together in a ramshackle fashion. It seemed as though the author was looking at the word count and realized he had to wrap things up rather too quickly. He threw in the ending as a magical farce to an otherwise fun and fulfilling story. Surely Hamilton could have done a better job putting the final touches on this story rather than ending it with the abrupt surprise solution that he did. I was very disappointed and felt that I wasted my 70 hours getting to the end.

tedious

this final segment was tedious, but I did finish it, so it apparently held my attention to some degrew.the narrator was very good.

Good, but a letdown

A continuation of "The Commonwealth Saga", the void trilogy does tie in enough nostalgic characters and places to remind you of the well-written universe in Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Unfortunately, the technology in this series has moved a little too far ahead, and it's hard to really believe that society itself is so far behind when the technology is so far ahead. The dreams of this series could be a story themselves, and are very engaging. But like the technology, the advancement of the psychic talents in the Makkathran world have progressed too much, ultimately just becoming a let down... like the end of the book also is. The first book in the void trilogy was the best of the three, but Hamilton should have just ended the commonwealth with Judas Unchained.

Good but really too much

The Void series takes a LOT of concentration; it has many threads, timelines, dreamlines, and characters (several with multiple instances). Some of the themes are so wild that they cross from science fiction to fantasy then to philosophy. The author writes very intelligently and many of the characters are interesting and well developed. I enjoyed some of the themes and some of the characters but it is just way too much for three novels. By the end of the series quite a lot of stuff had happened, but due to the abstract nature of some subthemes I found it difficult to really care. This is a talented writer but I really prefer a little less. Judas Unchained was complex, but Judas was simple minded compared to the Void.

Awful

Hamilton is in love with his words. I am not. There are too many characters, too many plots/stories. Characters are one-dimensional. Science is uninteresting. Avoid this claptrap

Love the characters but story drags in parts

Halfway through, the story starts to drag and it became a chore to finish. Great and complete ending.

Brilliant end to the trilogy

Any additional comments?

An amazing conclusion to Hamilton's “Void” trilogy!
Humans have colonized a large part of our galaxy, and have met other sentient, civilized species. And then, the powerful “Living Dream” political-religious movement has become aware of a quasi-medieval human civilization that exists inside the “Void,” the enormous black hole at the core of our galaxy, in which a form of bio-organic “magic” takes the place of our science -- The “Living Dream” movement has become mesmerized by its "vision" of the Void, believing that it is paradise in reality -- and has taken steps to have the Void engulf the entire galaxy… Will the galactic civilizations react in time to avert universal destruction? There can be no doubt that Hamilton is a great science-fiction writer!

A Fantastic Conclusion

I think the outstanding points were all resolved in a quality manner. This is a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy I didn't expect to even like in the first place. Enthusiastically recommended.