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  • The Saints of Salvation

  • The Salvation Sequence, Book 3
  • By: Peter F. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (680 ratings)
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The Saints of Salvation

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
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Summary

Earth is falling. Will our call for help be heard? The Saints of Salvation is the extraordinary conclusion to Peter F. Hamilton’s Salvation Sequence: a high-octane adventure from a master of the genre.

Live in hiding – or die for freedom

Humanity welcomed the Olyix and their utopian technology. But mankind was tricked. Now these visitors are extracting a terrible price.

For two years, the Olyix have laid siege to Earth, harvesting its people for their god. One by one, cities are crumbling beneath their devastating weaponry. And while millions have fled to seek refuge in space, others continue to fight an apparently unwinnable war.

As Earth's defeat draws near, a team attempts to infiltrate the Salvation of Life – the Olyix’s arkship. If it succeeds, those chosen will travel to a hidden enclave thousands of light years away. Once there, they must signal its location to future generations, to bring the battle to the enemy. Maybe allies scattered throughout space and time can join forces. Yet in the far future, humanity are still hunted by their ancient adversary. And as forces battle on in the cold reaches of space, hope seems distant indeed . . .

The Saints of Salvation is the third and final book in the Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton.

©2020 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2020 Tantor Media

Critic reviews

'A stirring finale' – Guardian

'It delivers on every level' – Daily Mail

What listeners say about The Saints of Salvation

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Same Old, But Less Engaging...

I've read every P.F.H book now, and I had always enjoyed the slow build up, the blind siding plot twist and the brilliant combat sequences, but this series and in particular this volume has left me cold and feeling I have wasted my time.

The storylines are all becoming 'two timelines, futuristic socialism and the machinations of humanity's elite' and the obligatory, knock down and stand up before the bell plot driver.

The boy sure likes his Cherenkov radiation these days.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

better than the second book...

... but still nowhere near what I'd call "on form" for Peter Hamilton. This third book of the trilogy is far better than the second book, slowly building up to a fair middle and a good idea in how the Olyix fight back in the enclave but after that it all feels a bit rushed - almost a summary, like the deadline was looming and it had to be finished come what may... now if the effort that went in to the yawn-weaving "street gang" detail from the second book was instead put in to the end of this book then this series would have concluded much better. I have the greatest respect for Hamilton's creative worlds and diverse space opera style but ultimately it has to be entertaining: swapping action and adventure for glum detailing of characters that don't relate to the big picture is a project with limited appeal. The result of which is that I won't be reading a new Hamilton book until I've poured over the reviews of the last in its series - if it sounds like the reviews of the Salvation Sequence then I won't bother. Where was a great character like Mandel and his peers or Melanie Rescorai, Kazimir McFoster, The Waterwalker or Justine Bernellie? Kandara is a pale imitation of Paula Myo. Yirella and Dellion were good characters with good detail and character development but they're almost stuck on a fixed path throughout the 3 books which limits what they bring to the story. Emanuel (the book 3 Deus Ex Machina) was totally flat. Ainsley (the Deus Ex Machina from the second book) was like Nigel Sheldon with zero depth. The Saints were pretty much just along for the ride... the importance of the Mcguffin style "God at the end of time" has its importance built up to critical then is glossed over to almost irrelevant by the end...

In summary, Salvation (1st of 3) was by far the strongest and most enjoyable of the trilogy, Salvation Lost (2nd of 3) was weak and dull in my opinion (too much "world building", characters that don't go anywhere and not enough action or even direction), and this book was a well thought out and passable ending but often hollow in details and characters, especially by comparison to the grindingly excessive and unnecessary details of the second book. There are a lot of absolutely brilliant ideas in these 3 books but due to lots of irrelevant exploration of the world he's created and not enough fleshing out of key plot points I don't come away with half the experience I had with any of his other sci-fi books... also does anyone else feel that, considering the sheer number of Utopials mentionned, they all turned out to be incredibly 1 dimensional? Like they were only ever allowed to be a backdrop?? Lolo was the only Utopial to get a little character development and she didn't feature much... ultimately ending up with a few honourable mentions... such a potentially fascinating concept and perfect way to eliminate sexual inequality is consigned largely to dull exposition and the background - this seems a shame.

In conclusion if you haven't read Hamilton's Greg Mandel trilogy, or "Pandora's Star" , "Judas Unchained", the Void Trilogy and Faller books then start there (and in that order) - they are far far far superior.

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7 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Patience of a Saint

I have a library of around 200 titles on Audible and this book, the Saints of Salvation, proved to be the very first time, ever, I just couldn't finish a book!

Alright, firstly, I want to say that I have loved Hamilton's work on the epic Commonwealth and Faller's Chronicle series of books. While waiting for this final instalment to release, I whetted my appetite by re-reading the superb Pandora's Star and the equally brilliant Judas Unchained. So, fully primed for more Hamilton excellence, I got started on this final part of the Salvation Sequence trilogy. For a long time, I held out on getting the first part of this trilogy, mainly based on the initial batch of Luke warm reviews. However, I eventually took the plunge when revisiting the reviews a year or so later and finding a much more overall positive consensus. Sure enough, Hamilton opened the series well with a book that built up the main characters, gave us back stories to reinforce them and set a slow build starting to come to the boil in preparation for the middle act of the series.

Now, let me digress a moment and state that I love Hamilton's ability to "world build". The slower, more in depth form of story telling he uses worked well in the first in this series as well as the aforementioned Commonwealth series, that's one of the main reasons I really liked the way Hamilton wrote. Sure, it isn't perfect, even the Commonwealth and Faller's series got bogged down in the weeds here and there, but overall, it flowed nicely.

OK, so the middle act of this series didn't really give us a sense of the scale of the alien invasion, such as it was depicted. Sure, millions were affected, cities were shielded, but the focus was far too narrow to give the reader a real sense of scale and loss. I really didn't get the menacing sense of the-scope of the invasion, not really. There were some well written combat scenes, but not-much else, The sense of a ghost city, a city in hiding and fear was done well, but I had really hoped Hamilton would kick things up a notch. As it was, I don't think we even had any Olyixground troops. It was more a containment strategy, a war of one sided attrition, a waiting game. This brings me to the basic premise, which I have issues with. The whole bringing humanity to their God at the end of time and space just felt, well, how can I put it, silly. So, in summary, book two had been largely wasted in terms of delivering an epic story.

So, finally, onto the last in the trilogy, The Saints of Salvation. Well, I tried, I really did. I kept waiting and waiting for the pay off, the clever twist, the ramping up of something, anything of real interest to happen. Sure, I gave up at around 38% into the book, but by that time I had found it such hard going, so uninteresting, that I reluctantly had to call it a day. I'll keep the book and may come back to the point I left off if, or when, I have nothing else to read. However, there are better books, far more engaging stories with much tighter narratives out there to read. My-biggest gripe in this book was the sheer mountain of mostly unnecessary dialogue. I couldn't believe it, pages of back and forth in meetings, every tiny detail, it was all-there and like a sack of potatoes tied to your ankles, slowed the story down to an absolute crawl. It was like having to endure the transcript of a House of Commons debate at times. Although, as alluded to earlier, Hamilton can get stuck in the weeds sometimes, there were one or two lengthy meetings resulting in mounds of dialogue in the Commonwealth saga, they were nothing compared to the page after page of dialogue seen here. It began to feel like filler or padding, it was so bad at times. While I understand that world and character building are one of Hamilton strengths, this is ridiculous.

I love a well written slow burner, a book or series of books that build a compelling world into which are written interesting characters. The first instalment did this and boded well for a wonderful middle act, which sadly was not the case in my opinion. Saints of Salvation, admittedly the first third I struggled to get through, dropped off a cliff in terms of the three book story arc. It might be that had I endured, I would have been rewarded with something worth the wait, but for me, I just couldn't bare it any longer, even with the patience of a saint.

On a slight tangent, as much as I appreciate how science fiction often takes cues from the current sociological-and geopolitical situation, good sci-fi has done that many times, I really didn't care for the non binary humans aspect. The use of those socially constructed non binary gender pronouns leaves me cold. I have to wonder if it's as much where Hamilton's sociopolitical views are and have been injected into this series. Having mentioned that in this current political climate, I may find this view never sees the light of day.

Final thoughts: I like and respect Hamilton as a writer, but I felt this Salvation Sequence really missed the mark, let down by a particularly bad final part. Writers, like us all, have their peaks in their careers, a time where they are at their best, so I have to wonder, sadly, whether Hamilton has crested that peak.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good end to the series

Nice to see all does tied up. The narration wasn't great:-) although he's a stalwart of the genre, his accents are dodgy.

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2 people found this helpful

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No heading

Another nice book from Peter F. Hamilton, but somehow the action feels rushed and incomplete.
The narrator is not really my type but probably is matter of taste.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely brilliant

This was a great ending to the Saints series. Hopefully there is more to come. Brilliant narration by John Lee.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

At last the slog is concluded…(spoiler free)

Having a lot of characters and multiple timelines is usually a good thing with this author, but in this case it was over the top.
I actually had to re-listen to the entire first book since I didn’t realise it was taking place in several separate time lines.
As far as the final book is concerned, well,…..Game of Thrones comes to mind as far as endings go.
Another thing - I’m sure some of the visual imagery was very clear to the author, but describing a crowded battle scene in a space nebula scenario for an average reader is beyond the authors scope here….
Was the slog all worth it?….open to debate. Some great ideas, so yes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic conclusion to an excellent trilogy

I’ve been a fan of Peter F Hamilton’s work since 2004 when I walked into a book shop and saw the hardback of Pandora’s Star sitting on one of the tables in the middle of the shop. The artwork grabbed my attention, and then the synopsis hooked me. I loved it, and after finishing it I set out to read everything else Hamilton had written to that point. Each time I was left in awe at his imagination, amazed at the length and depth of his stories, and quite simply completely entertained. With each new book, series, or universe, I’ve been left feeling the same, and always eager to see what comes next. With his Salvation Sequence, Hamilton started afresh in a new universe, ready to draw us in and tell a tale, this time across long time spans where humanity is ever on the run from an enemy that just won’t stop. The Saints of Salvation is the finale to this trilogy, started in Salvation and continued in Salvation Lost, and ends this saga in the way only Hamilton can.

Beware spoilers for Salvation and Salvation Lost ahead…

A couple of years has passed since the end of Salvation Lost, and Ollie and Lolo are living amongst the survivors in London while the Olyix continue to their attempts to break through the shield covering the city. All the survivors know is that they’re safe at the moment, but nobody knows how long it will last, and they know there is nothing that can be done when the Olyix finally break through to save humanity for their God at the End of Time. Horatio is still here too having decided to stay on Earth to help where he can rather than leave with Gwendoline to join their son, Loi, aide to Yuri Aster who is part of the inner group working on a greater plan to defeat the Olyix. And the plan continues, with the group – Alik, Callum, Yuri, Kandara, and Jessika – working now with Neána knowledge and relentless hope that they can save humanity. But the realisation that this will be a long and drawn out conflict is now clear, and a long-term plan to defeat the Olyix once and for all begins to form.

In the future Dellian is recovering from his encounter with the Olyix, his mind slowly returning to normal with Yirella’s help, and with it the realisation of what he saw in the visions he was given. Humanity of the future also realise that they have gravely underestimated the Olyix, and the tricks and traps they were setting are far from new, with other groups having used them in their lures. The Olyix are prepared for this tactic, and their overwhelming force is brought against humanity in these battles. But now the Morgan and its crew have a new ally in the entity that once was Ainsley Zangari, and after tens of thousands of years fleeing, the final fight against the Olyix enclave is within their grasp…

I think the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about The Saints of Salvation is how unexpected much of the novel was. There was obviously an idea of where things were going, but Hamilton manages to subvert pretty much every expectation in delivering this finale. The main aspects of this are the revelations that came at the end of Salvation Lost, where the group of humanity that we have been following on the Morgan discover that while they’ve been following the plan, they are far from the first to do so and a lot has been happening in other parts of the galaxy over the millennia. This really seeds the story for what follows, and Hamilton is quite refreshing in his approach to telling the story without delving into every detail, as is often his style. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to hear more of some of these things, but the narrative works well with this approach.

Hamilton also manages to weave the two storylines together remarkably well considering the time differences between the two. Plenty has been laid out in the earlier novels with regards to the Olyix and their enclave, and the plan humanity has to deliver vengeance to them, but the way things play out is exceptional. It’s not often that my expectations are not only exceeded, but completely blown out of the water, but that is simply the case with this finale. While Salvation and Salvation Lost were about the back story and build-up, The Saints of Salvation is all about the payoff. However, when you put the three novels together it’s clear that this is simply one big story, and the Salvation Sequence is perhaps Peter’s best yet, and certainly his most accessible.

While I thoroughly enjoyed The Saints of Salvation, it isn’t without its faults. I said earlier that not delving into every detail worked well, and this is the case… to an extent. There are some aspects here that seem to be leading to some exciting places, though by the end of the novel remain unresolved. I think this may be the first time where there’s been a definite, even blatant, unresolved thread from Hamilton, though it’s quite clear that a return to this universe is very likely – Hamilton has said as much himself at the end of a recent interview – and it would be a very welcome one.

Suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed The Saints of Salvation, and the Salvation Sequence as a whole. It’s a relatively svelte trilogy compared to his previous series, but it certainly packs a punch, and it’s one for Hamilton fans and newcomers alike. In fact, this will be my first recommendation to anyone new to Hamilton’s work going forward.

In short, the Salvation Sequence shows a writer that is the master of his genre, delivering everything expected, and more. Highly recommended.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great great great great great

Great book and amazingly read I can’t recommend enough I have listed to hundreds of fiction booked and this is one of the best.

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Fantastic ending

Fantastic, ending to a brilliant trilogy. I do hope this universe gets continued with further books.

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