The Neutronium Alchemist (The Night's Dawn trilogy)

The best from the master of British sci-fi! A must read for any sci-fi lover. Would suggest to buy the whole series.

Great trilogy. Took me 15-months.... :D

It is such an excellent book. I recommend it for everyone out there who enjoys science-fiction. The characters are very well written, the plot is original, and the universe is very interesting.

I loved this saga and the 2 books that follow and that have to be read once this one is finished. It was a big commitment because the plot is multifaceted and covers huge time spans and distances. The characters are all sufficiently developed to get me thoroughly hooked and the plot was so convoluted and entwined that it went from fascinating to frustrating to maddening at times, without ever losing its deliberate progression to its mysterious resolution and climax. This space opera is not for the prudish or feint hearted. It pulls no punches and explores future sexuality and attitudes to procreation fully. At times it is deep and thoughtfull, at others violent and bloody. It is always entertaining. A great, big, solid read. Highly recommended.

Far in the future Humans have spread, living on hundreds of worlds, inside millions of asteroids and even gargantuan, genetically engineered living, sentient bitek habitats. Travelling between them in starships or their living bitek counterparts the voidhawks and blackhawks.Some people have even adapted themselves, able to interface with these habitats, ships and even each other using the affinity gene, at death they can upload themselves to the habitat creating a general consensus. Here all can interact, have their say and make decisions on every event around them. Some are even bonded directly to the habitats and ships. The Edenists.Others use technology instead of genetics, Neural Nanonics hard-wired to the brain, creating the abitlity to interface directly with technology around them. The Adamists.Some have refused all such "tampering" as against their religious orientations, living pastoral lives adhering to the teachings of their Gods.Peacefully co-existing together....... almost.When a member of a deviant devil worshipping cult on Earth is sentenced to a colony world to serve time as an indentured worker, He gains control of the other convicts and deceives the colonists, earning him enough freedom in order to practice his dark worship.For billions of years it and it's kind have travelled the universe, logging all they encounter as, for them, knowing is everything.A being of pure thought with no mass or size, yet an almost infinite "storage" capacity comes across one of these barbaric rituals, it perceives an unknown energy flow between victim and torturer, in an effort to KNOW what this energy is, it places itself in the flow and all HELL breaks loose!The dead are somehow set free to possess the living!The most depraved lunatics human history has to offer, released from a state of perpetual limbo, where all they have is the experience and memories they can tear from each other in the darkness. Now they are back and intend to stay here forever.Along with them they bring the ability to change their physical form, manifest objects at will, disrupt electronics, shoot elemental fire at will and even distort the very fabric of space to their needs and desires.Can the diverse human race defeat the dead?Can they accept that death is not the end of existence?Is this absence of everything all life has to offer at it's inevitable end?Afterwards comes darkness and nothing......?

An epic space opera about the here and the hereafter and what happens when souls from the hereafter (called the beyond in the book) come back and possess the bodies of the living.The Kavanagh sisters, Louise and Genevieve, know they have to leave Norfolk after they narrowly miss being possessed like the rest of their family. With the help of Fletcher Christian (of Mutiny on the Bounty infamy) they do eventually get off the planet.In New California most of the 40 million inhabitants are possessed however the main organizer soon realizes that they need some non possessed people to run the infrastructure. The possessed have an electrical charge that interferes with electronics and so they can't operate anything that is electrical or electronic in nature. This includes spaceships and most modes of transportation.Someone is controlling the rift between all the souls in the beyond and the here and now. How it is being done is one of the questions that need to be answered. The type of souls being released is rather surprising as it seems to be the worst of humanity.As the possessed spread amongst the human populated worlds only Tranquility and Earth have been able to stop penetration by the possessed. Questions of how to deal with the possessed are not easy to come by. If they are killed then the bodies that they occupy cease to exist and the souls that were in the body just return to the beyond and wait to possess another human body somewhere else. In addition everyone dies eventually so you will also end up in the beyond at some time and souls keep grudges forever it seems.Doctor Mzu (the M is silent) has created a doomsday device that the possessed are after in a big way. However, she is very elusive and multiple agencies chasing her whereabouts keeps her on the run. Thirty years ago she developed her weapon called the Alchemist but never had a chance to use it. If the possessed get it first it is not going to go well for humanity.Another race called the Kiint have faced the possessed before and prevailed however they are adamant that each race that faces the possessed must defeat them in their own unique manner. So they are no help at all.Quinn Dexter is the Messiah of the Light Bringer sect and the Messenger of Gods Brother who is going to bring the Night to humanity. As the most ruthless and skilled of the possessors he is a formidable adversary.There is lots of adventure in the book, well developed characters and relationships, palpable terror and multiple plot twists and turns.As the middle book of a trilogy (The Naked God and The Reality Dysfunction being the other two in the series) it can still stand on it's own as an enjoyable read. The ending is a cliff hanger and you'll just have to get the third book in the series to see how it all ends