- Hardcover: 992 pages
- Publisher: Aspect (Jan 3 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446525677
- ISBN-13: 978-0446525671
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 5.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,343,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
After invasions and battles, panic and horror, after denial and the revelation of ultimate truths, after four volumes and 2,300 pages, it all comes down to this: To stem the tide of souls of the dead who have returned to possess the bodies of the living, Joshua Calvert must take his ship, the Lady Macbeth, on a mission beyond the farthest reaches of explored space. His goal is to find the artifact/entity the Tyrathcans call The Sleeping God in the hope that this legendary presence can offer some kind of help, or at least advice with the problem. Otherwise human civilization is perhaps doomed. Meanwhile on Ombey, an army of bitek soldiers stages a counter-invasion of possessed-controlled Mortonridge--a strange battle in which neither side is completely human--but the gains are little and each victory dear. The best of Adamist "gray" technology and Edenist green biotech, now used together in willing cooperation, still offer little hope. Physics cannot overcome metaphysics.
This final installment of Peter F. Hamilton's Homeric space adventure, which began with The Reality Dysfunction, volumes I (Emergence) and II (Expansion), and continued in The Neutronium Alchemist, volumes I (Consolidation) and II (Conflict), is no simple winding up of the story. You'll be amazed to find Hamilton busily introducing new characters, new plots, and new enigmas up to the very end. After all this time can he possibly surprise us? Absolutely. --J.B. Peck
From Publishers Weekly
In the massive conclusion to his elaborate metaphysical trilogy, Hamilton (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist) resolves the fate of humanity and its confrontation with the souls of its dead. In this volume, the Confederation's epic spiritual crisis reaches a climax: the tear in the boundary between reality and afterlife, a boundary that many souls cross to possess the bodies of the living and to use their energistic power, remains open. Petrified of being forced back into the beyond--a hell where all souls anguish in nothingness but can see the familiar universe just out of reach--the possessed withdraw entire planets from our universe to another. Two factions of the possessed, however, have no intention of leaving our universe: Al Capone's brutal, ever-expanding mafia organization and Quinn Dexter's cult of pain, which is trying to orchestrate a torturous apocalypse. Meanwhile, a Liberation Army attempts to forcefully remove individual possessors from their living victims, resulting in atrocities. GovCentral works on a weapon to extinguish a soul entirely from all existence, but is unwilling to commit itself to the kind of genocide the weapon would unleash. As a last hope, two starships are sent to hunt down a literal deus ex machina, another species's Sleeping God. Its existence is the only real hope that mankind has of surviving. Hamilton's work encompasses a broad sweep of philosophical and moralistic themes, yet he keeps a tight focus on his 100-plus "principal characters" and the highly fantastical universe they inhabit. His work requires slow, careful reading, but those who put in the extra effort will be paid back in full and then some. The depth and clarity of the future Hamilton envisions is as complex and involving as they come. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Starship Theatre, Pt.V,
By GRIZZLY "Grizzly" (Yuma, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Naked God: Flight - Part 1 (Mass Market Paperback)
For hard core Sci-Fi, the "Night's Dawn" Trilogy has it ALL!!!He-Man heroes, classy heroines, nasty bad guys (not to Even forget THE DEAD RETURNING!!!) New Worlds and Old;Aliens, space battles, suspense, intergalactic conflict and politics; who could ask for MORE? Starships, living space habitats, Biotech, Neurotech, Cyborgs, Genetic Engineering; it's all here; just be prepared to read nothing else for the next couple of MONTHS, 'cause this one is IT!! I originally was hooked into this Epic in the Hardcover Sci-Fi Book Club Edition, buying "The Neutronium Alchemist" first (somehow, I missed "The Reality Disfunction" when first offered; then had to wait another two weeks for that delivery rather than read the story out of sequence. THEN was forced to go through several cowhides, chewing leather and making a complete nuisance of myself until "The Naked God" was finally published and released in Nov. '99. BOTTOM LINE: If you're going to dive into this Epic, Buy the complete Trilogy as a complete set and be prepared to be enthralled by a whole new universe of the caliber of Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke (and to stay for awhile!!!)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easily one of the greatest of epics.,
This review is from: The Naked God: Flight - Part 1 (Mass Market Paperback)
In case you don't already know, this is book five (or if you want to be technical, the first half of Book 3) in what is now published as a six book series.In the Naked God you can see the need for splitting it into two books. It really is a monster. But not a bad monster, a great one, a really juicy piece of reading. If you haven't read the earlier books, the rest of this review will make no sense. But I wholeheartedly recommend this series to any fan of hard sci-fi or of space opera. Even fantasy readers are delighted by the broad canvas and the exploration of the lines between life and afterlife, finity and eternity. If you have been following the story so far, this volume concentrates on five main story threads. Dexter Quinn is travelling, in Odysseus-like fashion, to a reunion with the Enigmatic Banneth on Earth. Along the way he is trailed by the strange and powerful force that obstructed him on Norfolk. Is this a manifestation of Laton? Or is there some other answer? Following the same route, but on a voyage of personal growth and discovery is Louise Kavanagh, who is trying to fulfill a promise to warn Banneth and thwart the evil plans of Quinn. Through her travels we learn the details of earth and near-earth society, and the machinations of the Archology Dictators who control all that happens on the future Earth. Across the Universe we continue to follow the adventures of the Sinbad/Lancelot like Joshua Calvert in his quest for the Holy Grail that is the Tyrathca Sleeping God, and in the process we learn some home truths about the Tyrathca and Kiint races. Outside of our continuum we follow events on the Valisk habitat and on Norfolk, where things are not going how the possessed thought they would. Finally, we continue to follow the fortunes of the possessed within our universe on Mortonridge and on New California. In this book we follow the fortunes of the military campaign on Mortonridge lead by Ralph Hiltch. Add in the storylines about Kiera and her Hellhawks, Al and Jezibella, the real Kiint Homeworlds and their human spies, disappearing habitats, hellish energy draining monsters and you begin to touch the complexity that is the universe created by Hamilton.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A miracle happens here,
By
This review is from: The Naked God: Flight - Part 1 (Hardcover)
The finale of this space opera reminds me of the cartoon where one scientist shows another a diagram of some horrendously technial process. The last box on the diagram has the label "A miracle happens here." The second scientist says, "I think we need to get a little more specific."Resolving humanity's situation with the possessed by resorting to a magical technology takes care of the immediate crisis without solving the underlying problem of people's fear of death. By contrast, when the older, more advanced Kiint faced the problem of the possessed, they resolved it in a way that enlightened the entire species. Without reducing humanity's fear of death, their possession problem will likely occur again. This is a very unsatisfying resolution to an otherwise awesome series.
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