Note that if you haven’t read the first book this review contains spoilers.
Salvation Lost is the second book in this trilogy and has confirmed it as being absolute classic Hamilton at his best. I’m loving his accustomed fantastic in-depth world building, the vast scope of the setting and his huge imagination. Just when you think every possible first contact scenario has been covered he comes along with something totally new; the whole idea of a technologically advanced race that has terrorised the whole galaxy, not by genocidal war but rather through fervent religious zeal, is quite extraordinary. Capturing and cocooning the individual minds of every intelligent species to be preserved for their God at the end of the universe, an act they see as not war or cruelty but the ultimate gift, is just so novel and off the scale and yet so plausible that I was riveted throughout. Incredible!
His characters, as in reality, are each made up of their own blends of good and bad, smart and stupid, noble and base. Some are admirable some not so much, but all are very human; fallible and easy to empathise with. I didn’t necessarily like them all but I certainly cared what happened to them, whether that was hoping for their eventual success or downfall.
There are a number of modern science fiction authors whose writing exhibits a rich depth of narrative that doesn’t just tell a story but presents a level of detail that makes their worlds real and believable, that immerses the reader deep within their worlds giving a level of satisfaction that I now find myself craving whenever I start a new book. And Hamilton is a master of this approach who never seems to disappoint me. Yes, it can result in a high word count but I don’t think it’s really possible to paint such a large and immersive canvas without that sort of word count (though, actually, by Hamilton’s normal standards these books are relatively restrained on that front!)
An excellent book by a modern master of SF.
5/5 stars
Salvation Lost is the second book in this trilogy and has confirmed it as being absolute classic Hamilton at his best. I’m loving his accustomed fantastic in-depth world building, the vast scope of the setting and his huge imagination. Just when you think every possible first contact scenario has been covered he comes along with something totally new; the whole idea of a technologically advanced race that has terrorised the whole galaxy, not by genocidal war but rather through fervent religious zeal, is quite extraordinary. Capturing and cocooning the individual minds of every intelligent species to be preserved for their God at the end of the universe, an act they see as not war or cruelty but the ultimate gift, is just so novel and off the scale and yet so plausible that I was riveted throughout. Incredible!
His characters, as in reality, are each made up of their own blends of good and bad, smart and stupid, noble and base. Some are admirable some not so much, but all are very human; fallible and easy to empathise with. I didn’t necessarily like them all but I certainly cared what happened to them, whether that was hoping for their eventual success or downfall.
There are a number of modern science fiction authors whose writing exhibits a rich depth of narrative that doesn’t just tell a story but presents a level of detail that makes their worlds real and believable, that immerses the reader deep within their worlds giving a level of satisfaction that I now find myself craving whenever I start a new book. And Hamilton is a master of this approach who never seems to disappoint me. Yes, it can result in a high word count but I don’t think it’s really possible to paint such a large and immersive canvas without that sort of word count (though, actually, by Hamilton’s normal standards these books are relatively restrained on that front!)
An excellent book by a modern master of SF.
5/5 stars
