Customer Reviews

The Evolutionary Void

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Here it is, the book I've been waiting nearly two years for: The Evolutionary Void. The conclusion to the Void Trilogy, started with The Dreaming Void and followed up by The Temporal Void, is by far my most anticipated book of the year and the series is making very strong noises to be my favourite finished series ever. So, with expectations that simply couldn't get any higher, does The Evolutionary Void meet these? Simple answer: Hell yeah!

The Evolutionary Void picks up immediately where The Temporal Void left off with no break in pacing, continuing the story in an effective, confident fashion. The many plot threads that have been built up over the first two novels are now dealt with convincingly, some with immediate effect while others come to the fore in preparation for the grand finale. It's very difficult, in fact nigh on impossible, to find any fault with this aspect of The Evolutionary Void. It is clear from many references and clues laid down in Dreaming and Temporal that the Void trilogy has been intricately plotted and even has details that go all the way back to the Commonwealth Saga. This is rather unsurprising when you consider that many of the characters present here have their origins in the duology.

Some of the story lines that I was most anticipating delivered the goods. The Deterrence Fleet is hinted at many times and the revelation of what it is and the capabilities it has still manages to surprise. This can be said of many of the plot points in Evolutionary. For example, Araminta is the descendant of two Silfen friends and this is used during Temporal to show how she is able to share her dreams of the Skylord (albeit unknowingly) with the Living Dream movement. This heritage plays a fairly big role in Evolutionary and leads to some aspects that I just didn't see coming, despite how obvious they are when looking back.

The format of Evolutionary Void also follows a similar path to that of the previous books, with the Commonwealth elements mixed with Inigo's dreams of life in the Void. While The Dreaming Void was roughly a 60/40 split in favour of the Commonwealth sections and The Temporal Void was roughly 70/30 in favour of the Void sections, The Evolutionary Void switches right back to focus more on the issues in the Commonwealth and the Void aspects taking a back seat, leading to the split being in the region of 80/20 in favour of the Commonwealth. This really does work in its favour and allows Peter to do what he does best: epic space opera. To say that Peter is ambitious in his plotting would be an understatement, but past good form is present here in every way possible, from bringing together plot threads to concluding the story in a fantastic way.

Peter has developed all his characters throughout this series, with familiar faces from the Commonwealth Saga continually being developed nicely and new faces to the Void trilogy satisfying all aspects I could hope for. Each development that forms the story is conveyed convincingly through the characters, from Araminita taking the bull by the horns to the eventual discovery of Aaron's identity and past. Edeard's progress is perhaps the most controversial and seeing him change during his sections left me somewhat non-plussed. However, Peter does do an exceptional job at showing how extreme power can affect all while still managing to portray Edeard's life in a most realistic way. The eventual outcome is all the more satisfying for this exploration of his character and serves the story very well.

One of the main aspects I loved about Dreaming and Temporal was Edeard's story, a story that is both gripping and emotional. I mentioned briefly above about his character in Evolutionary so I won't go into more detail here, but what did surprise me is that the format of consecutive Dreams is not followed here. It turns out Inigo had a lot of Dreams of Edeard's life and all that is covered in the first two novels is only a small aspect of it. Instead of sticking to the known, Peter goes outside this pattern and does not tell us everything, but rather select and important times of his life that have the greatest effect on the plot and story. Yes, I would have liked to read them all, but quantity does not always mean quality, and it is the quality and overall story that makes this approach powerful and meaningful to The Evolutionary Void.

There were two particular questions that I had before starting The Evolutionary Void, one relating to Inigo's Last Dream and the other relating to just how effectively Peter could conclude this trilogy. While I wanted them to hit the right notes I was just that little bit sceptical that they may miss the mark, just not being able to convince myself to ignore those doubts, unfounded as they were.

Inigo's Last Dream is one of the most beautifully written and poetic pieces of writing I have ever read. Seeing it coming from Peter was one of the biggest surprises and most pleasant finds in Evolutionary. While fairly short, it conveys so much emotion and feeling that I had to put the book down after reading it simply to absorb what I had read. Stunning is one way to describe it, awe inspiring would be another, but without a doubt it is the highlight of the novel.

The conclusion of the trilogy was something I hoped would be a fitting end and able to silence previous critics of Peters work. Not only does it do this, it manages to bring aspects laid down throughout the trilogy together in an ending that is grand in scale and perfectly suited to what has been laid out in the trilogy as a whole.

If I had to put forward one quibble it would not be about this book, but rather the fact that the Commonwealth Saga, which consists of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained and is set 1200 years prior to the Void Trilogy, really needs to be read to gain a full appreciation of this epic story. While both are fairly separate, the story they form as a whole makes the experience much more fulfilling. There are aspects present in the Void trilogy, particularly Evolutionary Void, that hark back to this previous saga. While I wouldn't say it's a compulsory read, you will get the most enjoyment if you take the time to get around to them first.

So, I think you can probably tell from the above that I really did love this book, thought the trilogy has been exceptional and would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat. It's intricately plotted and you'd be hard pressed to find another author who can pull off such a vision. For grand scale, epic space opera on a huge canvas it doesn't get much better than this. Highly, highly recommended.

The 'Void' trilogy as it's called is actually five books. The first two take place about twelve hundred years prior to the Void Trilogy but while not required, will add much more to the overall story. The story is magnificent. It's magnificent in the Clarke's upbeat, positive sense rather than magnificent in the "My mind is blown but I want to cry" Stephen Baxter sense (I'm a fan of both types).

The events take place in a society called the 'Commonwealth'. It's basically the whole of human civilization, which by this time consists of hundreds of words and trillions of human beings. There are also many alien civilizations to contend with. The two books before the Void Trilogy, 1200 years ago, deal with an anomaly witnessed by one of the outer worlds in the commonwealth and the resulting investigation and conflict with the new race of aliens called the 'Primes'. One thing that I should mention is that the universe does allow for relatively easy alien-to-human communications (aided by technology of course), and allows for FTL travel, which may be slightly annoying to traditional hard sci-fi fans.

The trilogy itself takes place 1200 years after that conflict, when humans have become one of the most dominant species in the galaxy and consist of many factions. The civilization is nominally democratic, but each of the factions vie for control, hoping to push the humanity in the direction they wish.

The maneuvering of the factions and their agents is essential, but the central theme of the books is The Void. The black hole in the middle of the milky way is actually something created billions of years ago by the First Lifes, and it's threatening to swallow the whole galaxy because some humans have formed a religion around what's inside, and want to feed it by making pilgrimage there, which will in essence cause it to expand and destroy the galaxy. As you can imagine, the rest of the galaxy wants to pass on that idea since it will result in their destruction. What's inside the Void, why it was created, why people want to go there, and how the galaxy and the races deal with that is what the book is about. The last book is probably the best of the lot - there is no sense of the author just milking the franchise. It is clear the book was designed as a trilogy from the beginning. The loose ends are tied up satisfactorily and you can see the story arc progressing very smoothly between the three novels.

The book is probably 60-40 in terms of events outside the Void with the events inside the void. The story is extremely character driven, and has a large cast of characters, whose backstories are fleshed out in enough details so that you actually care what happens to them, and their actions actually make sense considering their background and psyche. This is perhaps unique in hard-scifi, and Hamilton and Reynolds are probably unique in managing to pull that off. If you're a fan of scifi, you'll enjoy the story, but if you've never really read hard-scifi before or are intimidated, this is a fantastic series to start with. It's easy to get into, extremely fun, and highlights much of what is so great about the genre.

The biggest compliment I can give the series, and the last book in particular, is that despite me being a cynical scifi reader, the twists and revelations were completely logical and yet were utterly shocking and surprising. That is hard to pull off in hard-scifi, especially when you've read pretty much every novel that comes out in the genre. I was not exactly sure what to expect, but this book was the best in the series and was a fantastic read from the first page to the last. I planned to read it over the course of a week, but I finished it at 6AM the next morning after starting it the night before. I think that alone should tell you everything you need to know about the novel.

I wanted to go slow. I really did. I'm a huge Peter F. Hamilton fan, and I really wanted to slowly savor each chapter of The Evolutionary Void, but it's like trying to eat M&Ms one at a time. I don't have that kind of control. Other reviewers have given you a pretty good blow-by-blow account of the over-all story, so I'll stay away from that. And, as others have mentioned, the Void Trilogy actually began in Hamilton's earlier works, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. And while you don't need to read those books to enjoy this trilogy, they do lay the groundwork for a lot of what plays out in these three books. Peter F. Hamilton is known for his grand epics and this is no exception. (We actually follow two major stories throughout the trilogy, and I found myself so engrossed in one that would completely forget about the other.) Hamilton takes his huge cast of characters from the Dreaming Void and Temporal Void and brings them, ultimately, to a conclusion that is extremely satisfying. In fact, the very end of this book was so touching and pitch-perfect, it was the ending I didn't know I wanted until I read it. I can't recommend this book, and the Void Trilogy, highly enough. And as I mentioned in the title, I've been a big fan of the unabridged audio versions, along with the narrator, John Lee. When it comes out, I'm getting it.

Lots of exciting build-up and story arcs with a resolution that is.....bleh. Like many of Peter Hamilton's work, all the complexities once again get resolved by a deux ex machina with the the big twist this time being that the main characters travel to it rather than it appearing at the last moment to solve all problems. The bad guy (girl, thing, whatever) is a big fizzle and half the action leading up to the big finale makes no sense (why did Justine have to travel seperately to the Void from the rest of the group, what was Ozzie doing in the story at all, why did everyone follow Aaron around, etc). Perhaps the Void "reset" function could be done on this book and Mr Hamilton could give his universe another try and do it better next go around. All and all pretty disappointing at the end of an otherwise gripping journey.

By the end of this series, Hamilton's universe is stretched so far beyond the realms of science that it really belongs more in the fantasy genre. The effects of hyper-relativistic travel, conservation of mass/energy, really, any scientific concept worth considering are simply overridden by fiat. "Advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" works as a saying, as science fiction, not so much.

Also, the Edeard story, which started out as a sort of endearing "juvenile" story nested within the larger work, really devolved. It ended, not to give too much away, as a kind of adolescent wish fulfillment. Come to think of it, this is a bit of a recurring theme in Hamilton's work.

Finally, if you stuck it out this far hoping that Ozzie was going to turn into a major character, don't bother. Hamilton ruined his character in the final installment. It's a shame, because he was one of the few continuity pieces from the first trilogy.

So, anyway, despite some fun stretches, I'd classify this novel as a disappointment.

Two stars.

I had great expectations for this book, but in truth, I barely finished it. I just only managed because of all time I invested in reading the preceding Commonwealth and Void novels. To save you time, and without spoiling anything for those who will read this unfortunate literature, the book ends happily ever after--the universe isn't destroyed.

I can't begin to speculate about why the book turned out so poorly, but here are some examples of how poor it is. The remaining dreams that accounted for so much of the previous Void books go stale. The only relevant dream is the final one, and thankfully, it's short. Too much of the non-Void narrative is taken up by pointless conversations and travelling from one location to the next and so on. Most of the conversations do nothing but waste paper and ink (good thing I read the ebook), and frequently take on the following patter: let's try this, it won't work; let's try that, that won't work; let's try this approach, it is unrealistic; and etc. Too much of the dramatic tension is artificial and takes place during gun fights, where, despite an equal technology base, the antagonists always have unexplained weapons and strategic superiority. Allowing them this just because is not satisfying and leaves me, as a reader, feeling cheated.

Peter's ideas are very good as a base for a story setting - but his epic story termination is problematic.
From a hard SF writer to get an ending that looks a bit like something out of a fantasy novell where the mighty wizard will be vanquished by a miracle magical device and all ends.
Without placing a spoiler - this is something like his endings, seems he got a deadline (or got bored writing the book) and he just up and ended it the easiest way he could.

First off, I've read Judas Unchained, Pandora's Star, and the previous two books in the trilogy before The Evolutionary Void, so I'm up to date on what's happening. While Hamilton's writing style switches from interesting to overly descriptive (especially with settings), it's never really bothered me. Neither has his Sci-Fi tech, and much of the technology found in the series is pretty darn interesting to me.

However, the Void trilogy started on a mediocre note, continued with its mediocrity, and ended in a slow descent below Hamilton's usual quality.

WARNING: THERE ARE (light) SPOILERS BELOW. SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU DISLIKE SPOILERS!!

As ever, the sections with Edeard are the weakest. They were the weakest in the previous two books, and after Inigo's last dream in the Temporal Void, I wasn't looking forward to Edeard's continued presence in Evolutionary. Edeard takes a dive off the deep end in Evolutionary, which actually held my interest better than the previous two books as it finally gave Edeard some more depth beyond a horny teenager with a unique capability. However, as a whole, the mixing of genres (as I can't think of another way to describe it) just doesn't play out well. The visualization of the futuristic, hyper-advanced civilization outside the Void is constantly interrupted by a Fantasy story so generic that it can't stand on its own. Since it comprises a significant portion of the trilogy, it results in the entire trilogy being weaker for it. There's very little character development outside of Edeard, abrupt changes in behavior from others without explanation, and a narrowing of focus by Hamilton to barely more than what was necessary to motivate events outside the Void. At times I skipped entire chapters of Edeard's story, and honestly feel like I missed nothing integral to the book.

Ozzie's brief reappearance was a tad heartening, but his exit was *baffling*. I sort of understand why Hamilton wrote it the way he did. Not every avenue can end in success - sure. Sometimes people end up disappointed, and this time the reader was one of them. Okay. However, I'm sure there was a better way than to change the Ozzie character as he did and paint a big "He's Not Coming Back" sign right in front of the reader, as-if to stem the tide of speculation about a possible spin-off series involving people that left the Milky Way after the Starflyer War.

The Delivery Man's character ended up satisfactorily for me. Who he was working for ended up being unexpectedly obvious, but the history with Cat and the Knights was well done.

Araminta's character was well done. How she solved her problems was realistic to me, and I found her as one of the most believable. I was worried she was going to turn out flat and minimally developed, but Hamilton surprised me.

The "secrets" of the series - origin of the Void, purpose of the extremist Advancer faction, what Makkathran is, and a few others were mostly good with few faults. The good bits were the Void's origin, Makkathran, and how ANA was caged. The secret Navy fleet was okay, but could have used more description. Ilanthe's purpose for trapping ANA and threatening the Milky Way was almost cartoonish, even if the execution of her plans was entertaining.

Gore's storyline ended abruptly and confusingly. It was a disservice to the character, and after reading the last few pages of the book, I'm not even sure what Gore's end actually did. How did his actions help? Was it just for the ability to see the Void differently and give some advice? It felt unsatisfying to see so little come out of such a big action.

END SPOILERS!

Overall, as much as I criticize the first two books of the setting (Judas/Pandora's) for their over-described locales, plethora of undeveloped characters, and Hamilton's ability to build up more than he can deliver, I preferred them to the trilogy.

The Void trilogy becomes too disjointed with the introduction of Edeard's generic storyline, and while the mix of characters has strengths (Delivery Man, Araminta, the Knights, occasionally Inigo), it also has plenty of weaknesses (Ozzie, Ilanthe, Paula Myo, the Cat). The ending was pseudo-satisfactory in that I liked how it ended, but also thought the ending was too clean and Disney-esque after the final confrontations.

The technology is where Hamilton's real bread and butter sits. OC Tattoos, wormholes as train stations, Dyson spheres, and similar ideas and integration of ideas held much of my attention in the first two books. The trilogy displayed more of Hamilton's creativity, but falters at a few key points (like how multiples share one mind across thousands of lightyears) and ends with the same "It's so advanced it's like magic!" excuse for what may really be an inability to accurately describe the action that Judas/Pandora's did. Satisfying, but not quite the clarity and wonder that would've put Hamilton's work another notch above.

Thankfully Hamilton decided no to indulge every storyline with the unnecessary amounts of sex that was in the previous books in the setting. Where sex occurred, it seemed natural and evolved the characters.

My personal verdict? It's good enough. I enjoyed Judas Unchained and Pandora's Star more than I've enjoyed the Void trilogy, but the stories are adequate, the technology usually fascinating, and the characters a mixed bag with a few gems. I'd probably recommend it to a friend who has had some exposure to the Space Opera/Sci-Fi genre and wanted something meaty before introducing them to philosophical and hard-Science titans like Alistair Reynolds and Frank Herbert to really cement a life-long love.

This is probably the worst Peter F. Hamilton book that I have read. The plot was confusing and wandered around, the book lacked tension, the twists weren't that exciting, and the dazzling technology was incomprehensible. [Warning vague spoilers] The bad guys' plot was so vast that it lost its sting -- they want to control the universe and all aspects of reality -- it just seems kind of preposterous. And Gore's intricate counter plan is designed to . . . . get a good negotiating position. Why was it necessary to get everybody to Ozzie, I was never quite clear on that. Why did Aramantia have to lead everybody into the void if she knew that it might doom the universe? The Aaron revelation was a disappointment. Has that character appeared in any of the previous books, why should I care that he is who he is? Furthermore, Hamilton failed in technology department. His previous books all had very cool future tech -- living starships, houses made out of coral, trains that ran through worm holes, etc . . . All that tech was cool because it was relatable. I could make myself believe that I understood how it worked and it seemed possible that somebody could invent it. But the technology in the Evolutionary void might as well be magic. How do the dark sphere's work? Nobody knows. The deterrence fleet is a quantum thingee . . huh? Ultra drives go ummm real fast . .

Having said all that, I still enjoyed reading the book. A subpar Hamilton book is still a good read. The true natures of the void and Makkathran (spelling?) were interesting. There was some good action and it's always fun to see Gore, Oscar, Justine, Paula and the rest racing around the galaxy. But the book is really only for those already invested in the trilogy. If you haven't read the other two books or if you didn't love them, go read the Reality Dysfunction series and then read the first Commonwealth series. THEN, go read a bunch of Ian Banks books.

After waiting anxiously for the third book in the Void trilogy to be released, then soaking up every last twist and turn, I have to ask the question... "Peter, what happened?" What happened to the ending of this book? I love your work but found this to be one of the most disappointing endings I've come across in a long time.

SPOILER ALERT
What happened to Illanth? You built her up as such a huge threat to the galaxy even the Silfen were wetting themselves. Then, facing the Voids creators, the expected confrontation simply whimpers out, with Illanth simply saying "You've made the wrong decision." Really? That's it?

I truly hope you return to the Commonwealth Universe in a future book, because there are some amazing tales left to tell. However, judging by the way you ended this series, you need a break from this story line.