Same Old, But Less Engaging...

I've read every P.F.H book now, and I had always enjoyed the slow build up, the blind siding plot twist and the brilliant combat sequences, but this series and in particular this volume has left me cold and feeling I have wasted my time.

The storylines are all becoming 'two timelines, futuristic socialism and the machinations of humanity's elite' and the obligatory, knock down and stand up before the bell plot driver.

The boy sure likes his Cherenkov radiation these days.

8 people found this helpful

better than the second book...

... but still nowhere near what I'd call "on form" for Peter Hamilton. This third book of the trilogy is far better than the second book, slowly building up to a fair middle and a good idea in how the Olyix fight back in the enclave but after that it all feels a bit rushed - almost a summary, like the deadline was looming and it had to be finished come what may... now if the effort that went in to the yawn-weaving "street gang" detail from the second book was instead put in to the end of this book then this series would have concluded much better. I have the greatest respect for Hamilton's creative worlds and diverse space opera style but ultimately it has to be entertaining: swapping action and adventure for glum detailing of characters that don't relate to the big picture is a project with limited appeal. The result of which is that I won't be reading a new Hamilton book until I've poured over the reviews of the last in its series - if it sounds like the reviews of the Salvation Sequence then I won't bother. Where was a great character like Mandel and his peers or Melanie Rescorai, Kazimir McFoster, The Waterwalker or Justine Bernellie? Kandara is a pale imitation of Paula Myo. Yirella and Dellion were good characters with good detail and character development but they're almost stuck on a fixed path throughout the 3 books which limits what they bring to the story. Emanuel (the book 3 Deus Ex Machina) was totally flat. Ainsley (the Deus Ex Machina from the second book) was like Nigel Sheldon with zero depth. The Saints were pretty much just along for the ride... the importance of the Mcguffin style "God at the end of time" has its importance built up to critical then is glossed over to almost irrelevant by the end...

In summary, Salvation (1st of 3) was by far the strongest and most enjoyable of the trilogy, Salvation Lost (2nd of 3) was weak and dull in my opinion (too much "world building", characters that don't go anywhere and not enough action or even direction), and this book was a well thought out and passable ending but often hollow in details and characters, especially by comparison to the grindingly excessive and unnecessary details of the second book. There are a lot of absolutely brilliant ideas in these 3 books but due to lots of irrelevant exploration of the world he's created and not enough fleshing out of key plot points I don't come away with half the experience I had with any of his other sci-fi books... also does anyone else feel that, considering the sheer number of Utopials mentionned, they all turned out to be incredibly 1 dimensional? Like they were only ever allowed to be a backdrop?? Lolo was the only Utopial to get a little character development and she didn't feature much... ultimately ending up with a few honourable mentions... such a potentially fascinating concept and perfect way to eliminate sexual inequality is consigned largely to dull exposition and the background - this seems a shame.

In conclusion if you haven't read Hamilton's Greg Mandel trilogy, or "Pandora's Star" , "Judas Unchained", the Void Trilogy and Faller books then start there (and in that order) - they are far far far superior.

4 people found this helpful

Patience of a Saint

I have a library of around 200 titles on Audible and this book, the Saints of Salvation, proved to be the very first time, ever, I just couldn't finish a book!

Alright, firstly, I want to say that I have loved Hamilton's work on the epic Commonwealth and Faller's Chronicle series of books. While waiting for this final instalment to release, I whetted my appetite by re-reading the superb Pandora's Star and the equally brilliant Judas Unchained. So, fully primed for more Hamilton excellence, I got started on this final part of the Salvation Sequence trilogy. For a long time, I held out on getting the first part of this trilogy, mainly based on the initial batch of Luke warm reviews. However, I eventually took the plunge when revisiting the reviews a year or so later and finding a much more overall positive consensus. Sure enough, Hamilton opened the series well with a book that built up the main characters, gave us back stories to reinforce them and set a slow build starting to come to the boil in preparation for the middle act of the series.

Now, let me digress a moment and state that I love Hamilton's ability to "world build". The slower, more in depth form of story telling he uses worked well in the first in this series as well as the aforementioned Commonwealth series, that's one of the main reasons I really liked the way Hamilton wrote. Sure, it isn't perfect, even the Commonwealth and Faller's series got bogged down in the weeds here and there, but overall, it flowed nicely.

OK, so the middle act of this series didn't really give us a sense of the scale of the alien invasion, such as it was depicted. Sure, millions were affected, cities were shielded, but the focus was far too narrow to give the reader a real sense of scale and loss. I really didn't get the menacing sense of the-scope of the invasion, not really. There were some well written combat scenes, but not-much else, The sense of a ghost city, a city in hiding and fear was done well, but I had really hoped Hamilton would kick things up a notch. As it was, I don't think we even had any Olyixground troops. It was more a containment strategy, a war of one sided attrition, a waiting game. This brings me to the basic premise, which I have issues with. The whole bringing humanity to their God at the end of time and space just felt, well, how can I put it, silly. So, in summary, book two had been largely wasted in terms of delivering an epic story.

So, finally, onto the last in the trilogy, The Saints of Salvation. Well, I tried, I really did. I kept waiting and waiting for the pay off, the clever twist, the ramping up of something, anything of real interest to happen. Sure, I gave up at around 38% into the book, but by that time I had found it such hard going, so uninteresting, that I reluctantly had to call it a day. I'll keep the book and may come back to the point I left off if, or when, I have nothing else to read. However, there are better books, far more engaging stories with much tighter narratives out there to read. My-biggest gripe in this book was the sheer mountain of mostly unnecessary dialogue. I couldn't believe it, pages of back and forth in meetings, every tiny detail, it was all-there and like a sack of potatoes tied to your ankles, slowed the story down to an absolute crawl. It was like having to endure the transcript of a House of Commons debate at times. Although, as alluded to earlier, Hamilton can get stuck in the weeds sometimes, there were one or two lengthy meetings resulting in mounds of dialogue in the Commonwealth saga, they were nothing compared to the page after page of dialogue seen here. It began to feel like filler or padding, it was so bad at times. While I understand that world and character building are one of Hamilton strengths, this is ridiculous.

I love a well written slow burner, a book or series of books that build a compelling world into which are written interesting characters. The first instalment did this and boded well for a wonderful middle act, which sadly was not the case in my opinion. Saints of Salvation, admittedly the first third I struggled to get through, dropped off a cliff in terms of the three book story arc. It might be that had I endured, I would have been rewarded with something worth the wait, but for me, I just couldn't bare it any longer, even with the patience of a saint.

On a slight tangent, as much as I appreciate how science fiction often takes cues from the current sociological-and geopolitical situation, good sci-fi has done that many times, I really didn't care for the non binary humans aspect. The use of those socially constructed non binary gender pronouns leaves me cold. I have to wonder if it's as much where Hamilton's sociopolitical views are and have been injected into this series. Having mentioned that in this current political climate, I may find this view never sees the light of day.

Final thoughts: I like and respect Hamilton as a writer, but I felt this Salvation Sequence really missed the mark, let down by a particularly bad final part. Writers, like us all, have their peaks in their careers, a time where they are at their best, so I have to wonder, sadly, whether Hamilton has crested that peak.

3 people found this helpful

Good end to the series

Nice to see all does tied up. The narration wasn't great:-) although he's a stalwart of the genre, his accents are dodgy.

2 people found this helpful

No heading

Another nice book from Peter F. Hamilton, but somehow the action feels rushed and incomplete.
The narrator is not really my type but probably is matter of taste.

1 person found this helpful

Absolutely brilliant

This was a great ending to the Saints series. Hopefully there is more to come. Brilliant narration by John Lee.

1 person found this helpful

Glad it's over

Mammoth space opera the bit in space in this book not as enjoyable as the previous tomes. John Lee is starting to ware on me which is sacrilegious as he is a giant in Audiobooks ill have a break now.

anticlimatic

i must say i am dissapointed in this trilogy. i really like Hamilton's work but this series was not very original and inspiring as his previous works. the universe was very much built from borrowed ideas from the commonwealth and nights dawn books and didnt have many new ideas. am notnsure how it would seem to a new reader having notnread those other books. perhaps it would be very enjoyable.

excellent series

Engaging and flawed characters, expansive storyline, lots of sci-fi fantasy technology ideas and a bizarre villain!

A Fitting End

Momentum was good throughout this finale. Unlike the second in the series which dragged on a bit. This was very good with some really nice ideas.