Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton


Humanity’s complex relationship with technology spirals out of control in this first book of an all-new trilogy from “the owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction” (Ken Follett).

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
ISBN: 9781447281344

Pages: 592
Publication Date: 11th June 2019
RRP: $19.99 AUD

Personal Rating:
 4.5/5

In 2204, humanity is expanding into the wider galaxy in leaps and bounds. A new technology of linked jump gates has rendered most forms of transportation–including starships–virtually obsolete. Every place on earth, every distant planet mankind has settled, is now merely a step away from any other. And all seems wonderful…until a crashed alien spaceship is found on a newly-located world 89 light years from Earth, harboring seventeen human victims. And of the high-powered team dispatched to investigate the mystery, one is an alien spy…

Bursting with tension and big ideas, this standalone series highlights the inventiveness of an author at the top of his game, as the interweaving story lines tell us not only how humanity arrived at this moment, but also the far-future consequences that spin off from it.

This book was provided to me by Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Salvation is an epic action-packed sci-fi story told with multiple narratives – past, present and future.

From page one, you are introduced to a massively diverse cast of characters (which is a bit intimidating and confusing at the start) who’s lives have intertwined throughout their lifetime for a singular moment.

We have Alik Monday, an American secret service operative, Yuri Alster, head of security of the biggest tech company of the planet, Kandara Martinez, Latina assassin, Callum Hepburn, a brilliant former employee of the biggest tech company and Jessika Mye, smart and compassionate hacker. They are brought together to investigate a mysterious crash-landed alien ship that contains human bodies. Along the way you are given thrilling backstory as Hamilton starts weaving clues of how their past has brought them on an isolated planet trying to figure out why there are humans there. Each of their individual backstories is filled with actions as they fight their own battles and investigate their own mysteries. At the start, their stories don’t seem to make sense, but as the plot progresses, it’ll start to make sense.

The story of the future was confusing in the intertwining timelines. The future timeline takes place in Julos where humans are being bred for a war against the alien race that is hunting them down. It hints that humans lost and are scattered throughout the galaxy. Which is a bit heartbreaking because it clues you into the future of the original five. Also, Alik, Yuri, Callum, Kandara and Jessika are called saints in the future…I really want to know how they got there and how the human race got to Julos.

Salvation was plot-driven and heavy on the detailed world-building (my favourite). It’s the perfect science-fiction story to have on your bedside table. One thing in particular that I was pleased of was the vast amount of gender-neutral people in the world that when by the pronouns of hir/sie. If a 500+ sci-fi novel can use gender-neutral pronouns correctly throughout the whole thing, so can society. I look forward to a future with that normalcy…as long as it doesn’t include evil aliens who want to destroy humanity for their own twisted religious reasons.

Overall this epic space drama will leave you in a cold shock and in dire urgency to want to read the sequel.


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