This is the 2nd half of the 2000 page epic space opera by Peter F. Hamilton. I’ll start out by saying that I read the first half, Pandora’s Star, more than 8 years ago. I did enjoy the universe and the story but I never got around to starting (and committing myself to finishing) the continuation. I’m glad I did, because I think it resolved ok, but overall I think that this was a relatively bloated series.
There were so many characters and subplots that I couldn’t keep track of them all. The story, actually, has relatively realistic physics if you allow for wormhole creation as a primary means of transport. I really did like the concept of using trains to travel the stars. But in the end, the identity or reveal of the major antagonist, the Starflyer, just didn’t feel right to me.
I am a big fan of epic space opera which is probably why I hung on until the end, but there were times when I was really just counting pages instead of enjoying the story. It was too much. I don’t need to know that the hardwood paneling of the ship had been mined off the shores of omega-VII by the 3rd daughter of Neil Armstrong’s grandson, and had been lost on a freighter orbiting Ceres for 250 years before being accidentally bumped into by the tug. Now that was an exaggeration, but you get the idea. pages of this. The story flowed reasonably well, and the last 200 pages I really did want to know what happened so that is good… it pulled me all the way to the … somewhat disappointing ending.