The Naked God

I was counting the days to get my hands on this book. I spent 50 bucks on the hardcover edition to gain 4 weeks over the paperback.

After reading the first two volumes. I was starting to wonder how Hamilton would manage to bring all those countless story threads to a nice conclusion and how he could surpass the first two books in terms of suspense.

He was halfway successful. Everything comes to a fine conclusion, no loose ends, but I was still dissatisfied, the excellent first and second volumes have set very high expectations that weren't completely fulfilled by 'The Naked God'. The general trouble of final volumes is that bringing everything to a nice ending takes so much space and effort that there's not enough space to introduce new things, thus there's nothing like the fireworks of ideas of The Reality Dysfunction. But that's not Hamilton's fault, that's just a problem of final volumes.

Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner, a must-read for everyone who read the first two volumes.

"The Naked God" (2000) is the final installment in Peter F. Hamilton's excellent "Night's Dawn" science fiction trilogy. The first two parts are "The Reality Dysfunction" and "The Neutronium Alchemist". This is the biggest of the three books, with the American edition clocking in at over 1500 pages. Once again, the book is split in two separate paperbacks on the US market.

"The Naked God" continues the story of the Confederation, consisting of nano-augmented Adamists and telepathically-enhanced Edenists. The same main characters appear, including traditional hero and spaceship captain extraordinaire Joshua Calvert, Louise Kavanaugh and the Messiah of the Damned, Quinn Dexter. The book includes a "Dramatis Personae" section, which is useful after 2000 pages and dozens of different characters.

If you've read the first two novels in the series, you will definitely want to read this one for the exciting conclusion to the story. People have complained that the ending is rather "deus ex machina" and sadly, I have to agree. Still, this is an excellent space opera with lots of excitement and sensawunda.

In December 2000 "The Confederation Handbook" was published, with detailed descriptions of the characters, worlds, habitats and alien races. Interesting for die-hard fans and potentially a basis for a role-playing or strategy game that may be in the works.