Book Review - EXODUS: THE ARCHIMEDES ENGINE by Peter F. Hamilton

(Title: Exodus: The Archimedes Engine / Author: Peter F. Hamilton / Publisher: Penguin Random House / Publication Date: September 17, 2024 / Total Pages: 928)

Back Cover Blurb

Forty Thousand Years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars.

Thousands of years later, the Centauri Cluster has flourished. The original settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials and divided themselves into powerful Dominions. One of the most influential is that of the Crown Celestials, an alliance of five great houses that controls vast areas of Centauri. As arkships continue to arrive, the remaining humans and their descendants must fight for survival against overwhelming odds or be forced into serving the Crown Dominion.

Among those yearning for a better life is Finn, for whom Earth is not a memory but merely a footnote from humanity's ancient history. Born on one of the Crown Dominion worlds, Finn has known nothing but the repressive rule of the Celestials, though he dreams of the possibility of boundless space beyond his home.

When another arkship from Earth, previously thought lost, unexpectedly arrives, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and become a Traveler - one of a group of brave heroes dedicated to ensuring humanity's future by journeying into the vast unknown of distant space.

Review

Peter F. Hamilton has long been one of my favorite science-fiction writers. From my earliest days of reviewing when I worked at Borders Books, he was one of the first authors I got into after pulling a copy of The Reality Dysfunction off the shelf and totally becoming immersed in Hamilton's prodigious imagination. After that I was hooked and I couldn't get my hands on the rest of his books fast enough. Hamilton writes space opera that can also be heavy on the hard sf, but does it in such a way that even a newbie to the genre can grasp the plot without getting lost. It's a tough thing to pull off as a lot of hard sf elements can provide a good deal of intimidating moments for those who aren't used to reading it. EXODUS: THE ARCHIMEDES ENGINE is Hamilton's latest effort and I have much to say about it after venturing through its 900+ pages.

The first thing I will say is that immediately upon reading the back cover description this seemed like a book that was right up my alley. Generation ships fleeing Earth, setting up colonies and then seeing how that evolves tens of thousands of years later on said colonies? Yeah I guess you could say I was eager to read this story based on the tantalizing summary. 

This is a huge book in pretty much every way. Huge in length, huge in galactic scope, with a huge cast of multi-dimensional characters. The main thrust of the plot is a very interesting one as the already established Celestials are now having to deal with a brand new group of colonists and see them as inferior just by virtue of the fact that they are new. Never mind that these Celestials were once exactly the same as the newly arrived colonists 40,000 years previously. I couldn't help but think that this was an intentional aspect of the storyline that kind of mirrors a lot of things that have happened in our real world history. And as the book progresses we get to see the same prejudices and stereotypes that have stained much of our past and present.

Understandably there is a good deal of setup in the first 200 pages or so of EXODUS: THE ARCHIMEDES ENGINE. We get introduced to the timeline of events leading up to present day and then each major player and their particular factions and home worlds. It can be tough to wade through but thankfully there is a handy glossary to help keep everyone straight. After I was able to grasp who was who the story really took hold and I couldn't stop reading, often consuming this goliath of a novel in hefty chunks. And once Hamilton sucks you in, you really have to cancel all plans for a while because he doesn't do anything in a half-hearted way, its mostly pedal to the floor with mind-blowing scene after mind-blowing scene.

EXODUS: THE ARCHIMEDES ENGINE is a brilliant first book in what will be a duology, so there won't be very long to wait for the ending of this story. Please do not be put off by the size of it because there aren't very many lulls and I found myself breezing through it in fairly short order. I am constantly in awe of Peter F. Hamilton's incredible vision and ability to project that vision onto the written page. If you are looking for space opera that has a lot of meat on the bone, then you should jump on this right away. It's just another masterpiece in a long string of successes from one of the best in the biz. I can't wait for the final chapter of the duology because the cliffhanger to this one left me truly flabbergasted.

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