The Evolutionary Void

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 24 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Peter F. Hamilton’s startling perspectives on tomorrow’s technological and cultural trends span vast tracts of space and time, his stories are as compelling as they are epic in scope, and yet they are always grounded in characters – human, alien and other – who, for all their strangeness, still touch our hearts and fire our imaginations. Now, in The Evolutionary Void, Hamilton concludes the highly acclaimed Commonwealth saga that has unfolded in The Dreaming Void and The Temporal Void.

©2010 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2010 Tantor Media

Satisfying conclusion to a hard core Sci Fi series

This book concludes the Void trilogy: (1) Dreaming Void (2) Temporal Void (3) Evolutionary Void.
If you are new to the series then you have to start with Dreaming Void, if you can get it : "The Dreaming Void" seems to have disappeared from the Australian store but there it sits in my audible library.

What a thrill

Would you listen to The Evolutionary Void again? Why?

Yes,it's one of those books that you can't wait to get back to. I listen to books on long car trips but for this book it was worth switching it on for the short ones.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Paula Myo, everyone loves a hero and she is the greatest hero in the story, she just never gives up!

What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I read the first two books in this series myself so I was a bit sceptical about someone else reading it to me but I found John Lee interpreted it the same way I did.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes but I managed to listen to some of it everyday so the enjoyment lasts longer.

The Void Series

This was an easy way to dive into Peter Hamilton's luscious story. It's so filled with overlapping storylines I thought I would be lost...but it was easy and quite fun to move between storylines across books. Thank you.

Worth it.

I was struggling a bit due to the length, but really every part of this book is interesting and moves story forward. Great structure, great ending (could have been better. i guess), some interesting twists, and plenty of logic in the story ;)

I like it.

Time for a next PFH book!

Great ending of a superb trilogy

By now I’m a big fan of Hamilton’s Commonwealth universe, starting with the two-part Commonwealth Saga, and continuing with this Void Trilogy. Part 1 took its time to get the two main stories started - one scifi story and one fantasy story are cleverly combined into one big saga - and also had a different narrator than parts 2+3 AND the Commonwealth saga, all of which earned it 4 stars from me. Part 2 was even better on both counts (John Lee returned as narrator) and gained one of my 5 stars reviews. Since 5 is the maximum I cannot give it more, but part 3 is in my opinion superb.

It offers a great climactic ending of everyone’s adventures, combining the two hitherto separate storylines into one in a suprising and creative way, and it also ties up all loose ends afterwards.

Two minor warnings:
1. You don’t necessarily have to read/listen to the Commonwealth Saga first, but it would really deepen your experience if you did so anyway;
2. All of these books are long and require your continuous concentration. So you’ll have to really plan the 25 hours each book will require from you. Grocery shopping or doing chores while listening to these is probably not an option for you’ll most likely immediately lose track of the story and its myriad of characters and plotlines.

With this trilogy you’re getting 60 hours of action-packed saga(s) with very well-fleshed out characters - which is a LOT of bang for your 3 credits!
I highly recommend the entire trilogy.

A fantastic listen

Once again, Hamilton outdoes himself topping the first Commonwealth saga with a sequel to equal the first

I really liked it.

I was always intrigued to find out what was going to happen. As a former pandoras star reader I liked the references back.

A great ending! To a wonderful series

I have really enjoyed the commonwealth series books, Peter Hamilton is one of the best writers I know and this is a really strong series in his writing.
The only complaint is that we heard a lot of Eddieard in this story, I really enjoyed the Sci Fi, but not so much the goings on in Macathran. But the way it all tied up at the end was amazing, and defiantly worth the listen.
The voice acting as well was top notch!
I would recommend this to all Sci Fi fans as he is a very good writer!!
Defiantly a five star book, performance and story!

Great end to the trilogy

All reviews are by their very nature subjective and so this is only worth what my opinion is worth. From my view point this was an excellent end to the series. I really enjoyed this book and Hamilton delivers an excellent tale that finishes off the saga nicely whilst leaving a few characters around with the door open for fresh adventures in the Commomwealth 'world'.

Like Terry Pratchett, or Iain M Banks, Hamilton produces novels which whilst set in a 'world' can still stand alone in its own right. The plot is solid but for me, if you want to know what happens to a character the author has done an excellent job and Hamilton does this in spades.

Given what I have said why only 4 stars? Well sorry to say but any audiobook is 'a game of two halves' - the author and the narrator, whilst I find Hamilton work superb I have to say that I am not as keen on Lee's narration. I have listened to some good work by Lee but I really don't think that this genre is his best, for example I thought that he was very good with his narration of 'Cochrane' but must admit that I found this much harder work. I felt that Toby Longworth's narration of the first book was much more engaging and to be honest if I hadn't gotten into Hamilton work I might not have been so keen to listen to the later Lee narrated volumes. That being said I don't think Lee's work is as bad as some reviewers have suggested (if you want someone really dire then try Charlton Griffin - the only audiobook I have failed to complete, a pretty good book absolutely ruined by the narration, I would rather stick pins in my eyes than listen to it again - no wonder some people hate History if it was present to them like that).

The bottom line is an excellent book that draws the arcs of the various story lines together in a masterly fashion, the narration is okay but I feel that Toby Longworth or Peter Kenny might have been a better choice for this book.

Not as Satisfying as I had hoped

Although I enjoyed The Void series overall, this final installment just fell a bit short for me. The story is still split between sequences inside the void and the universe outside of it. However, the Edeard sections inside the void were getting more and more tedious. By the time the narator announced what seemed like Inigios 550th dream, I would groan inwardly and put the audible app at 2x speed. As for the goings-on in the outside universe, after an exciting build-up over 3 hefty tomes, I was expecting a big ending. I don't necessarily mean fireworks and pyrotechnics but I was hoping for something "more" and finished feeling slightly dissatisfied. Joh. Lee is not my favourite narrator, he does what he always does, an adequate job but nothing more.

stunning sci-fi saga

This series of five books takes a huge investment of time to get through but it is absolutely worth it. This is a breathtakingly good story, with well developed characters and such a solid and believable setting you'd think the author lives there (which in a way I suppose he does!). I had no issues with John Lee's narration, finding him very engaging to listen to. It's taken me some months to get through the whole sequence but I feel much richer for it. For me this is one of those stories that will never leave me, it's up there with the likes of Dune, The Culture novels and Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series.
What makes the Void series stand out is the double storyline, one high-tech sci-fi and one fantasy, working together perfectly. Anyway, I could go on piling on superlatives but you get the picture.
I have a collection of 150 audiobooks now and this is the first I've felt I had to review!
Highly recommended...

Great book let down by poor narration

Peter F Hamilton does not disappoint in his final book of the Void Trilogy. At times you get the feeling that he doesn't want to finish the book, but things all come together very nicely. Some of the twists are fantastic. The only let down, once again, is the abysmal narration of John Lee, who brings no life to the Characters. His lack of talent in distinguishing voices between our heroes in this book, can make things very confusing. You have to concentrate on who is saying what. This is especially difficult at the end where just about everyone is in the same place.

hmmm

Commonwealth saga is excellent this is ok! its a shame as the first two books of the trilogy are very good. final book disappoints as it seems rushed.

Excellent!

Really enjoyed listening to this mammoth series. Was a little bit disappointed with the end but maybe that's because I'll miss the books. Waiting eagerly for his next installment!

First Class

Excellent conclusion to the series. Took me a while to get back into all the characters because of the time between installments, but once I remembered everyone, it was as good as its predecessors. The narration is excellent, and I had no problem distinguishing the different characters. John Lee does a fantastic job, as with the last one. If you enjoyed the previous two in the series, then I am preaching to the converted - this is a great story.

I will be listening to more PFH soon!

Great

Pretty epic, well written and performed. Looking Forward to more writing by the author! Thanks

Epic... But complex.

Huge scale. Huge story. Complex characters. Massive descriptive sequences. All three books combine to make a truly epic tale. Perhaps a little too massive. Overall, an experience you won't soon forget.

What a great book.

Seriously great end to the void trilogy. Good work Mr. H kept me enthralled from start to finish. 10/10