I adore this story. It's the weird and wonderful blood-soaked love-child of The Wind in the Willows and the Dirty Dozen. It's short and sweet, with not a single wasted word.
The plot - the Captain - a monosyllabic mouse - is re-assembling his old team for one last job - to finish what they started all that time ago.
Don't expect everything to be spelled out - or, in fact for anything to be spelled out - long and complex backstories are implied but rarely explained - but for all that, this book is an absolute gem, brimming with dark humour - and I loved every single moment of it.
This is one of the very few truly original time travel stories that I've read - at this moment, in fact, the only other one that comes to mind is Neal Asher's wonderful Cowl.
The Gone World is ... an utterly engrossing read. After a slightly brain-twisting opening, it moves into the familiar-seeming territory of a murder mystery / hunt for an apparent kidnapping victim, and if that had been the whole book, the setup and main character of Shannon Moss would have been plenty to hold my interest and for me to enjoy the book.
Instead, it veers into a wonderful blend of detective fiction and time-travel tale with the threat of an ever-encroaching inexplicable apocalypse... and going in, it's better not to know any more than that. Suffice to say, this is a good solid piece of crime fiction, populated by some well-written and memorable characters, blended with an outstanding scifi novel. If any of that sounds good to you, this is a must-read.
Few people can do epic space opera like Peter Hamilton, and he's in his element here.
I won't bother describing the plot - if you've read Salvation, you know everything you need to, and if you haven't read Salvation, go and read that first.
Salvation Lost kicks off immediately after the final events and revelations of Salvation, and slowly escalates the events of the first book, ending on ... if not quite the nail-biting cliffhanger of the first book, some great twists and turns setting up what I hope will be an epic finale.
The bad first - while it ups the pace a little from the first book, Salvation Lost still moves at a slower pace than I'd expected - and while it's never less than engaging, it didn't hold me rapt the way some of his other books have. I think some of that is down to the characters - they're all decent, but no-one really stood out to me the way they have in some of his previous books.
On the other hand, the action is great, nd few people portray large-scale escalation the way Peter Hamilton does. The various plot twists manage to be both surprising and yet logical - and the final wonderful reveal was one that I didn't see coming... but in hindsight, it felt that I should have. If you liked Salvation, this is a must read.
Foiled in her attempt to escape the house she absolutely detests, Gideon is coerced instead to accompany her bitterest enemy Harrowhark to the First house, where Harrow may study, and become one of eight new Lyctors for the Emperor. And, of course, it's not going to go very well at all.
What on earth does any of this mean? Half the joy of the book is the way the world-building is slowly gently teased out through conversations, events and some careful narration. Some mysteries are hidden in plain sight, some are gently teased or hinted at early on, before being brought back with devastating effect later in the book - I found it an amazing roller-coaster ride, and it was nearly impossible to put the book down.
Gideon and Harrow are wonderful protagonists, and if their conflict seems inexplicable to begin with, the reasons are yet another piece of the we're presented with.
I don't think it's for everyone - it is an amazing book, wildly imaginative, with wonderfully drawn characters, a fair smattering of suspense and horror, and it pulls absolutely no punches as things ramp up...
It also leaves a lot of questions to be answered in the next book, and I can't wait to start that one. Probably my favourite book of 2020 - and there's been some stiff competition this year.
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