ŷ������

This is a decent book. Great at times. Frustrating at times. Possibly the perfect example of the strengths and flaws of both Peter Hamilton in specific and the “tie-in novel�� in a more general term. Did I like it? Yes. Did I love it? No.

Exodus: The Archimedes Engine is the first of two tie-in books by Peter F. Hamilton to the upcoming game, Exodus. It is set in the far far future in another space, the Centauri Cluster, to which mankind has fled, 40,000 years before. Here

Let’s start by talking about both Hamilton. I am unquestionably a Peter F. Hamilton fan. I’ve read the Commonwealth duology three times and I’m halfway on a fourth. I’ve read Night’s Dawn once and am considering a re-read. Warts and all, I very much enjoyed the Void trilogy (and was thrilled that Hamilton was brave enough for it to be both a sequel to the Commonwealth duology and very much not so). While the Salvation novels weren’t exactly my favorites, I didn’t hate them. I know what I’m going to get with Hamilton:

it will be a doorstop
it will feature fantastic worldbuilding with bizarre worlds as far from our conception as possible
it will have a sprawling cast of characters that you will struggle to keep straight
it will often (but not always) have some sort of wormhole technology �� often with trains
it will be…how to put it…sexually liberated (usually)
it will have fantastic set piece combat/action
it will feature some sort of “twist�� around 60% of the way through the book where the “true antagonist�� gets revealed
The one featured all of those. Sorta. It is definitely a doorstop. I got approved for this book very late in the pub process and had to finish it rather quickly after getting sick in the beginning of September which sidelined my reading. The worldbuilding is exceptional �� quite literally WORLD building, since my favorites were the descriptions of the various places visited by the cast of characters. It features no true FTL, but rather uses the gates to play with relativistic speed and time dilation �� actually enjoyed that aspect more than I thought. Great combat. Honestly…a little more chaste than his other novels (I wonder if that’s the tie-in aspect). It features a “twist�� but it was one I’d seen coming for quite awhile and I think was telegraphed early on.

I actually think that his cast of characters is somewhat restrained compared to some of the other series he’s written. That’s good and bad. Good in that I’m not struggling to keep pace with the plot, understanding who’s who and remembering things. Bad in that you really notice the lack of real character development for most of them. They’re not “bad�� mind…they’re just kinda “there.�� Ellie would seem to be a fascinating character to explore the world but we don’t get that much from her POV and when we do, it is mostly to react to events. There is no Ozzie in this book, though. There is no Joshua Calvert. There are some interesting characters, but none of them really stand out.

And then there is the tie-in aspect. I have a long history with reading “tie-in�� novels �� either novelizations of movies, adapted expanded universes, etc. I’m not opposed to them at all. And this one is definitely that. It is clearly tied to the Exodus video game.


But how much of this book is the game and how much is just Hamilton �� that I don’t know (and couldn’t unless I asked). I get the feeling that a large portion of the ships, weapons, etc. are invented by him. But clearly the Celestials, Travelers, Ghosts, etc. are game things. And there’s a bit of the novel where midway I started to wonder how much of this was just exploring the universe vs. an original plot (since Hamilton has said up-front that this is set in a different corner of the Exodus universe than the game).

The goal of a book like this should, typically, be to interest you in buying and playing the game. Did it do that? Maybe? I’m not sure. And this is where we have to talk about how much of the universe is something Hamilton created and how much the game designers did. Specifically, the Celestials.

The Celestials are easily the most problematic part of the plot. For all of how I felt Finn’s story was interesting but very “videogamey,�� and for all I enjoyed the informant/police plot…I didn’t care for the Celestial plot at all. Thyra was easily my least favorite character and her reveal was both unsurprising (I don’t know that it was supposed to be) and did not change my opinion. The Celestials are boring. They’re also all universally “racist�� (excused away by having evolved) to various extents and encouraging a society that is utterly uninterested in change. I didn’t want to root for any of them.

I get the impression that they were a game creation and that Hamilton wouldn’t have necessarily done them they way they’re done. Or maybe he assisted. It is hard to say. But I would have been fine if the Celestials just didn’t exist. Or were “gone�� now, having moved on. And having done a little research…that may be exactly what’s happening as the press stuff on Exodus seems to indicate that it is set a further 40,000 years into the future beyond the novels. Again �� none of that is explicit in the novel.

None of this is to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. It is a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. Some of the sections are amazing. But at times, it all felt very “videogamey�� �� particularly Finn’s story. He’s got to get this thing. And then he has to get this thing to get that thing to do a third thing and enact a fourth. I didn’t hate it. But it seemed very un-Hamilton.

Will I play the game? Maybe. I don’t know. Will I read the second book when it comes out? Yeah. Probably. YMMV, but even mediocre Hamilton is still better space opera than just about anything else out there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for the opportunity to read an ARC of this prior to release in exchange for a fair review. All opinions are my own.

You can pre-order here.