Wow! Peter F. Hamilton, who should be considered the Master of Technological Space Opera, does it again. The author of multiple acclaimed works of hard military sci-fi (The Night’s Dawn trilogy, The Void trilogy, The Abyss Beyond Dreams/A Night Without Stars, Great North Road and Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained) has returned with a new trilogy that begins with Salvation.
All of Hamilton’s signature story elements appear here: a futuristic advanced society, disruptive technology, culturally opaque aliens, incredibly wealthy/powerful tycoons, secret/hidden agents, detailed action sequences, ubiquitous artificial intelligence and apocalyptic threats. In his more recent novels, Hamilton has been combining these familiar elements with brand-new ingredients. For example, in Great North Road these space opera tropes are deployed in the context of a murder-mystery police procedural. In the Void Trilogy he cleverly embeds a classic epic fantasy tale within a space opera plot.
In Salvation, Hamilton has all his usual space opera components present in a story built around two main plot threads. The main one is set in 2204 and tells the story of throwing a cadre of travelers together and recounts the background stories of each member of the group. In the second thread, Hamilton has a several hundred-year time jump from the main story line where a subset of the travelers in the first time line have become “The Five Saints” of humanity, which in the future is preparing for an epic existential battle with evil unnamed aliens who have apparently been exterminating all forms of civilization when they come across them. AND from a prologue we know there’s another alien species which has discovered and is secretly watching humanity.
Here the primary Hamiltonian disruptive technology involves quantum entanglement portals that allow instantaneous travel across interstellar (or intercontinental) distances. This of course has a dramatic effect on all forms of locomotion after its discovery in the 21st century and allows for many of the effects of climate change to be ameliorated. Other technological advances include telomere treatments for increased longevity and the use of alien biotechnology for beneficial and malignant purposes. The presence of highly developed artificial intelligence used as personal assistants and for many other purposes is another highlight of Salvation.
One of the central tensions in structuring the book in the way the author has are the questions it raises in the reader: Which of the travelers gain immortal status as the five saints of humanity? Which of the two alien species we know about so far that are portrayed as benign in the earlier time are actually trying to exterminate us? Or is there a third alien species we don't know about that takes this role in the time period that elapses between our two story threads?
For most of the book I was pleasantly entertained, enjoying Hamilton’s imagination and reveling in the familiarity of his plot structures and characterizations. I was generally thinking that this would be a very good but not extraordinary (a 4 out of 5 stars) read. However, the last two chapters of the book provided revelations that set up the next two books in the trilogy and completely blew me away, catapulting the book easily into five star territory.
Title: Salvation (Salvation Sequence, #1).
Author: Peter F. Hamilton.
Paperback: 426 pages.
Publisher: Macmillan.
Date Published: September 6, 2018.
Date Read: February 17, 2019.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★★ (5.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).
PLOT: A+.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A-.
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