Another excellent series starter from Peter Hamilton, my only complaint - it's just a duology. Set in a future so far ahead that humanity has evolved in myriad directions, the status quo is challenged by a knackered old ship with millennia-old, unevolved refugees from a long abandoned Earth. Will they be the nail in the coffin of an incestuous cartel fight?

A richly told space opera novel with impressive depth. Contains elements of adventure, politics, economics, palace intrigue, espionage, romance, humour and plenty of action. I was amazed at the skill in how quickly the author draws you in to this far future universe.

As a non-gamer I was initially concerned that this is a novel in support of an upcoming game, but it certainly stands well as a novel on its own.

I eagerly wait for the second half of the Exodus story.

This was my first Peter F Hamilton novel - it will not be the last.

This was my first novel by this author and I really enjoyed it! As a sci-fi newbie, I found some of the language and concepts a bit hard to grasp but that totally didn't take away from the fun I had. If you like well-described and fast-paced sci-fi then this is probabbly one you won't want to miss!

Thanks so much to both the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest review!

This was incredible. Such a vast world with such perfect writing. I am eager to see what is going to happen, in the story and other media.

I'm a big fan of Peter F. Hamilton, so I was extremely pleased to receive this ARC.

Before I being with the review proper, I want to say that, because I read my books on a Kindle, the formatting was quite messed up, including some tiny sections moved around. I found myself having to bring up the book in the NetGalley app on my phone to try and resolve the problems and catch up with what I should have been reading. This is purely a formatting error, and it does not reflect on the substance of the work, in any way.

As is typical of a Peter F. Hamilton book, this one is large and sprawling with a gigantic back story that can only be hinted at, despite it informing a lot of the actions and attitudes of the main characters. I mean, 40,000 years is kind of a large amount of history, more than human history so far. The author does a good job of finding a way to make some of the more advanced civilisations relatable to mere humans like some of the main characters (and the reader!).

The main concept involves a cluster of star systems where generation ships from Earth have all arrived at the same place, but in different waves. This book starts when the last generation ship arrives, 40,000 years after the first one. The star cluster is settled in its ways, and these new interlopers are causing some upset in the cultural norms of the age. Meanwhile, there's a sub-plot of revenge that only truly reveals itself quite a ways into the novel.

With such an advanced society, there's plenty of room for sense-of-wonder and some great Big Dumb Objects for the characters to explore. This is great hard science fiction space opera at its finest. In the meantime, there are some very interesting characters that run the gamut from completely self-involved to arrogant to downright malicious and several others in between. Some of the characters possibly aren't quite as well drawn as they could be (there's got to be a whole lot of backstory to several of them that gets glossed over), but overall what we get is sufficient to keep the plot moving and interesting.

Of course, the truly heart-breaking bit is when you get to the end and realise that you now have to wait for the next book in the series to come along. I really wanted to continue reading to see where this goes. I guess I'll just have to wait a while.

An epic space opera spanning millennia, across multiple star systems and a variety of advanced races, political machinations, and good old-fashioned humans. The skill of the author in building an intricate, inter-connected, believable set of worlds and cultures in which to set this story can’t be overstated. It’s quite an achievement.

**The Set Up**

The story is set 40,000 years in the future, in an area of space known as the Centauri Cluster. Playing the part of “advanced aliens” are humans that travelled to the Centauri Cluster, 16,000 light years from earth, “early” in the book’s timeline and made massive advances in technology and genetic engineering. They have highly sophisticated technology, and hugely extended lifespans. They are known as “celestials”.

And it’s just as well that they have extended lifespans, because there are no sci-fi tricks to allow anybody to travel or communicate faster than light: no hyperspace, no warp drive, no wormholes, no subspace communication. OK, so there’s one trick: a technology that allows very quick acceleration up to relativistic speeds (and deceleration), but this doesn’t change how relativistic laws still apply - including time dilation, where time passes more slowly for the people travelling than those left behind. And this is used to great effect in the story telling, where decades can pass on the planets while the plot follows some characters that are travelling between star systems.

The celestials originally arrived, as humans, in the Centauri cluster in generation ships - ships that travel at relativistic speeds, but still take millennia to travel between star systems (although it seems like less time to those on board). When they found an abundance of habitable worlds in the Centauri cluster, they sent out a “green worlds” signal to all of the other generation ships that had left earth. This ships then arrived in dribs and drabs over the next millennia, but aren’t especially welcome amongst the advanced (and now heavily populated) worlds of the Centauri cluster.

It is into this context that the latest generation ship arrives - the ‘Diligent’, which had been travelling away from the Centauri cluster when it received the “green worlds” signal, and thus has taken a somewhat circuitous route, to arrive late at the party.

And thus we have everything we need for an epic story of enormous scale. A downtrodden human population, into which new arrivals are injected. Plenty of opportunity for exposition, as the new arrivals have things explained to them about everything from technology, to politics, to celestial history. There are power structures amongst the celestials, with traditions and relationships that have spanned millennia, and are focused on retaining stability. There are secretive strategists, that have extensive information networks amongst their own, and their rivals, populations, and play the Great Game - a long game of strategy and political positioning.

And there is a rogue planet that is destined to enter one of the central star systems of the Centauri cluster, for reasons that nobody fully understands. And it is around consequences of the arrival of this planet that the main plot of the story revolves.

**But Is It Good?**

This book is… long. Obviously, I knew that when I started reading it. And it has to be reasonably long, given the scale and scope of the world building and the extensive cast of characters. And the length isn’t gratuitous at the paragraph level - there are no rambling descriptive passages that you can skip over. It’s wall-to-wall plot. However, the author does use plot to establish character and back-story, often telling entire sub-stories to flesh out a the background of a character, technology, or organisation. The fine details of these sub-stories aren’t always important - but they might add flavour or depth to a particular character or broader sequence of events.

So to really enjoy this book, you need to be engaged and interested enough to want to immerse yourself in the sub-stories, and for those to be satisfying in themselves. This is space opera in its “soap opera” sense - where you want to hear more stories of the characters, places and organisations for their own sake, and where the advancement of the overall plot can sometimes take second place. And this is where I had a problem. I’m going to compare this to Dune and Lord of the Rings, and not in a good way. Dune, because many of the characters aren’t particularly likeable, and I’m not particularly interested in political manoeuvring and power struggles; and Lord of the Rings, because many of the side quests don’t advance the plot as much as you might hope, and if you don’t care about the culture of dwarves in Middle-Earth (for example), you’re going to find it frustrating.

But Dune and Lord of the Rings are well liked, so perhaps it’s just me.

As I said at the beginning, there is no doubting the achievement of intricate world building that this book represents. If I was rating for that alone, it would get a solid 5 stars. But my personal enjoyment was hampered by my disinterest in the themes around politics and power struggles.

This is the first part of a duology. Will I read the second part when it’s released? I genuinely don’t know.

Thank you #NetGalley and Pan MacMillan Tor for the free review copy of #ExodusTheArchimedesEngine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

This is a very fascinating story taking place in 40000 years in the future and I loved reading Finn's story a quite interesting character. Still, its slow pace made me lose the concept of time dilation. I understand that some ideas had to be explained so we can understand the context but a bit too slow compared to the speed of light. Another point is 40000 years in the future and all this advanced technology and the evolution of humans into Celestials and the characters still use "Majesty" and "Yes, My Lord"? And I was hoping if not for a better world, future at least getting rid of titles and stuff like this. Maybe humans will be humans no matter where they live and how far in the future they go.
Anyway, overall Exodus is a great Sci Fi story and anyone who loves Sci Fi will enjoy this one as well.

Massively exhilirating. Few authors write 1000-page books that reel me in so effectively, and increase my pulse so much. The story has all the major components of what makes the author's previous sci fi sagas so amazing - exceptionally intricate and multi-layered world building (including politics, economy, etc), vivid and empathetic protagonists, political intrigue, ground-breaking ideas on what the future might hold, and, of course, attention grabbing writing and plot evolution.

It's equal to The Night's Dawn Trilogy and the Salvation sequence. Many ideas and concepts are shared, but enough is new. I think I would have found this book more groundbreaking if I'd read this first, but even as it is - it still comes across as among the best hard sci-fi books I've ever read.

I particularly liked the more sophisticated critique of class and privilege that is more visible in this book vs its predecessors. While the latter were often more action oriented, I do see a lot more nuanced meta social commentary here, and it's exhilarating - making the book so much better.

Highly recommended to any hard sci fi fan. If you loved any of the author's work, or frankly any other space opera at this scale of inventinevess (e.g., Culture, Expanse, or even the Foundation, for that matter), you'd love this book. I can't wait for the next part.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Personalmente, leer un libro de Peter F. Hamilton es volver a mi zona de confort, a esa ciencia ficción de imaginación desbordada y sentido de la maravilla a paletadas. Si bien es cierto que empecé el libro con cierto recelo por tratarse de una franquicia, una novela de un juego que todavía no se ha estrenado y del que no conocía el lore, he de decir que es una lectura totalmente independiente de la experiencia del videojuego. Es posible que el juego gane enteros una vez leída (algo que me gustaría probar cuando salga) pero como obra literaria en sí misma es perfectamente independiente (salvo de la segunda entrega, claro, porque nos encontramos ante una bilogía).


La premisa ya es espectacular. Hace cuarenta mil años la humanidad escapó de una Tierra moribunda y se estableció, tras siglos de viaje, en una serie de planetas habitables (terraformados por una antigua raza alienígena). Allí han evolucionado, dando lugar a los Celestiales, que ya no se pueden considerar humanos por su desarrollo intelectual y genético. Hay cinco familias de Celestiales que se reparten el poder de forma cíclica, y las Reinas de cada casa, si bien no son inmortales, sí que transfieren parte de su conciencia a sus herederas, dando lugar a una línea dinástica ininterrumpida, que obviamente ofrece muchísima estabilidad.

Mientras tanto, las naves generacionales que fueron saliendo de la Tierra continúan llegando y estos humanos base deberán adaptarse a las condiciones que imponen los Celestiales, que abogan por una especie de servidumbre, llevadera pero irritante en su consideración de los humanos como inferiores.

En esta compleja situación política, llega otra nave generacional con el último hombre que anduvo por la Tierra TM, en un punto álgido del Gran Juego que los Celestiales llevan milenios desplegando, porque hay un planeta que se dirige hacia esta parte del Universo sin que se sepa muy bien quién lo ha puesto en esta trayectoria. Y no voy a hablar más de la trama, porque os aseguro que casi mil páginas de libro dan para mucha trama.

El reparto de Hamilton es muy coral, ya que da voz a diversos Celestiales, a humanos y a otros seres que habitan los distintos mundos. Resulta muy interesante ver cómo la manipulación genética de los Celestiales les lleva a crear muchos tipos de Awakened, que son como animales dotados de inteligencia o constructos biológicos desarrollados para una tarea en particular, siempre con la salvaguarda de que los Celestiales podrán influir en sus mentes. Esto es un comodín muy útil para que el autor se vaya sacando de la manga una serie de razas que nos irá mostrando como una muestra de todo lo que se le va pasando por la cabeza y a su vez, desarrollando toda una cultura específica para cada especie. ¿Le vienen bien unos seres de los que se aprovechan sus fluidos cuales ciervos almizcleros para crear drogas? Ahí los llevas. ¿Ahora necesitas gigantes forzudos pero complacientes para realizar trabajos manuales pesados? Toma unos cuantos.

Uno de los inconvenientes de un libro tan largo y con tantos personajes es que a veces parece que alguno de los hilos se le escapan entre los dedos y pasa mucho tiempo sin que sepamos qué les pasa a estos personajes. A esto también contribuye la dilatación temporal propia de los viajes espaciales, “solucionada” en este caso por unas puertas anteriores a los Celestiales que permiten aceleraciones brutales, siempre que haya un campo protector que envuelva a las naves. Hamilton compensa este distinto reparto de protagonismo intentando dotar del mismo interés cada subtrama, pero hay algunas que son de mecha lenta y hasta que avanza bastante la lectura no se ve claro su utilidad. Para estos momentos en que vuelven a aparecer personajes que hace varios capítulos que no hemos visto, el libro viene con un utilísimo dramatis personae.

Es cierto que el principio del libro, mientras se van recogiendo los elementos necesarios para la consecución de los objetivos, se cae en una especie de correveidile que recuerda mucho a los RPGs en general y supongo que al de Exodus en particular. Entiendo que esto puede aburrir a algunos, pero a mí mientras me sigan hablando de unidades astronómicas, geoanillos y antimateria, me siguen teniendo muy entretenida.

En definitiva, un libro de ciencia ficción al que el calificativo épico realmente hace justicia.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest opinion.

I am a big Peter F. Hamilton fan and this totally lived up to my expectations. It was epic in scope, story and imagination! It's a slow burn and it took me a while to get to grips with the world-building and the politics but the battle scenes were intense and the ending was edge of the seat stuff. I can't wait until book 2.

Another great story from Peter F. Hamilton. I did save it for the summer holidays as I knew I would need to be able to concentrate on it. There are numerous characters, worlds, inventions, plot lines and at nearing a thousand pages, it isn’t a light read.

As usual, the world building is detailed and epic in scope. Initially starting with just a few storylines, new characters and their stories are gradually introduced. There is a lot of detail about the futuristic societies and the science they have developed. At times it can be hard to follow details of the technology but it doesn’t impede enjoyment of the story, there is plenty of action and intrigue happening throughout. There were a couple of places that the story started to lose my interest, both during side quests of Finn, one of the main characters. It soon picked up again though. There is a sequel and the story is left after a pivotal event happens, leaving it set up for the concluding volume.

Fans of Sci-Fi will enjoy this saga of the distant future when humans have left Earth in Arkships and created new civilizations within distant Galaxies and the tensions that evolve. Hamilton’s narrative is fast-paced and engaging, filled with vivid descriptions and complex, relatable characters. A big source of confusion for me was that there were three or four separate timelines being followed. Not an unusual scenario in books but because of the relativistic effects of near-light speed travel, time passed at different rates for each group of protagonists; the time passed could range from a few months to thirty years.

Fans of Sci-Fi will enjoy this saga of the distant future when humans have left Earth in Arkships and created new civilizations within distant Galaxies and the tensions that evolve. As with many sci-fi sagas, the characters take a little getting used to and three- or four-story lines take a long time to coalesce and start to make sense. It is at this point the book come to and end with the promise that the conclusion will be in the next book……

Great read but we need the next instalment now.

"Exodus: The Archimedes Engine" by Peter F. Hamilton is a thrilling addition to the science fiction genre, combining intricate world-building with high-stakes adventure. The story follows a diverse group of characters as they navigate the challenges of a massive space exodus, driven by the innovative and powerful Archimedes Engine. Hamilton’s narrative is fast-paced and engaging, filled with vivid descriptions and complex, relatable characters. The blend of advanced technology and human drama creates a compelling tale that keeps readers hooked from start to finish. "Exodus: The Archimedes Engine" is a must-read for fans of epic, space-faring sagas.

This is a very long book. There is a bit of background information to support the world building-which is impressively imaginative- but….
So many different characters, on different planets, in different star systems, even different species…. I was confused, to say the least. A ‘who’s who’ list for this book is an absolute must. I read an ARC, so perhaps the published book will contain this.
A big source of confusion for me was that there were three or four separate timelines being followed. Not an unusual scenario in books but because of the relativistic effects of near-light speed travel, time passed at different rates for each group of protagonists; the time passed could range from a few months to thirty years.
Once I eventually managed to work out (sort of) what was going on, I realised that I really didn’t care about any of the characters, with the exception of Koa and Keizen, very minor characters who were only in it for a few chapters.
I didn’t dislike the book, but I just couldn’t get into it, with the result that it took me far longer than normal to read, and felt disjointed. And discovering at the end of 900 + pages that - spoiler alert- it’s not the end of the story…..I don’t think I’ll be waiting impatiently for book 2.
The writing style is good, lots of action and intrigue, and as I already said, highly imaginative. But you just may have to take notes as you go through it!

I wish I had enjoyed this more, but I just didn't click with it. I used to really love Sci-Fi so I don't know if my taste has changed ,maybe I have been reading too many thrillers and biographies ,I hope I haven't lost my enthusiasm for SI-Fi and will try again next time I see a book that sounds good, but unfortunately this was not the book for me.

The first thing to say about the book is that it is EPIC - I read it on my kindle and so didn't really have a sense of how big the novel actually was before I started reading it. It's big!! As a result, the plot is complicated - multilayered, with different timezones and lots of characters. Some sections were slow and hard-going to get through; other parts of the book were more pacy. That being said, overall it was an engaging, sweeping story that felt very cinematic. This is very much 'hard' sci-fi (and I'm personally more of a soft sci-fi fan) but I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I became a fan of Peter F Hamilton over twenty years ago, after reading his Night’s Dawn trilogy. Its scope was vast, with a wide array of characters and planets. At the time I remember thinking the guy’s imagination had to be just as huge. Well, I seriously under-estimated him and his imagination. Exodus: The Archimedes Engine is truly epic. That is such a subjective term so let me clarify. This story doesn’t require world building but galaxy building. Literally. The story hops around from one planet to another within the Centauri galaxy, each location is detailed and utterly credible. His cast list is the equivalent of the Dramatis Personae of every Shakespeare play combined. The book opens with a background history that covers millennia. Now that is epic.
A century ago the term ‘space opera’ was invented by Wilson Tucker who wanted to define the ‘super-science epics’ of the time. Exodus is space opera at the extreme end of the term. Wager’s Ring Cycle is 15 hours long, that’s epic opera and it pales into insignificance against this book!
I’m focusing on the scale of the story because Hamilton must have taken the decision not to leave out anything. As a result, reading the book felt like a marathon, it took dedication and concentration. It’s densely packed with detail. Let me illustrate. In one section, Thyra wants to be the designated princess who will take over when the current queen dies. (A hugely simplified summary). She has to survive three trials to achieve this goal. Where Suzanne Collins did this in her Hunger Games trilogy, Peter Hamilton turns it into a couple of chapters in his. It’s a relatively minor diversion in the story.
Then there’s the science. It’s another reason for that need for concentration. Everything that happens is explained in scientific terms that is clearly the result of a lot of research. I grew up reading Arthur C Clark. These days much of his work has become normal for us (such as using the internet to work from home). In the future, they’re going to say the same about Hamilton. You’re convinced by so many of the concepts he introduces by the inevitability of what science might do. His explanations aren’t short and snappy either, exposition has the same epic feel as the rest of the story.
The story is largely about space politics that inevitably leads to battles taking place on different planets and in space. I love this and it’s a central tenet of Hamilton’s stories, conflict is inevitable where humans are concerned.
You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned characters in this review, or world building either. If I did, this review would be epic. Another reason why I’ve chosen to ignore them, it’s because the central premise and the plot dominate the story. The characters are players in a cosmic drama and they are dwarfed by its scale.
So, did I enjoy the book? As I mentioned, I’ve been a fan of Hamilton for a long time but, honestly, this book almost defeated me. I got to the end and heaved a massive sigh of relief, as if I’d run a marathon. It’s broadened my mind, made me think about the issues it’s highlighted. Like a marathon, I was left exhausted but, as I recovered, I felt an exhilaration that arose out of the experience. Hamilton will be exulted as a literary prophet, I’m certain of that, Exodus: The Archimedes Engine will be cited as yet more proof.

Quite an epic sci-fi story this one. I felt a little lost at the start as it started off with the character of Finn in a tricky spot then the next chapter was something completely different with characters and references to things I had no understanding off. Then eventually we got back to Finn and things made a little more sense.

The major let down was the bad language. I dislike reading a story where almost every character needs to use bad language.

Peter F Hamilton is back with another mind-blowing hard sci-fi. This time the worlds are 40000 years apart.

Set 42,000 years in the future when humanity has spread across the stars and is presumably not human anymore, it is a story of humans' place in the universe where they are relics of the past. Through genetics, humanity has splintered into multiple species and is ruled by the powerful crown dominion. Tension starts to build up when another one of the old arkship arrives and provides Finn, our protagonist, a chance to leave his elite but mundane lifestyle and explore the stars. It is also the story of Ellie, a human of the old arkship for whom this world is unknown, Fletcher, an excellent character with high morals, Helena-chione, now and forever queen of Wynid, and a lot more characters.

The first one-third of the book is slightly slow-paced where we explore the world of crown dominion, and celestials and are introduced to a plethora of characters. Like always, PFH world-building is beautiful. But considering the number of worlds and characters involved it becomes difficult to follow the plot. If you wade through the same, then the plot starts to make sense, characters become relatable, action starts to build up and anticipation is exciting. The ending is amazing though it leaves us wanting for more.

I would be eagerly waiting for the second part of the duology and the Finn story to conclude.

Thanks Netgalley and Pan Mcmillan for the ARC.