Noumenon Ultra by Marina J. Lostetter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the first book in the series, we had generational starcraft in a convoy, learning to survive through tragedies and several huge discoveries.

In the second book, we get a significant upgrade and a new mission to the stars, really laying out the foundation for inclusiveness among our own branches of humanity. The feeling gets significantly epic and quite interesting and it doesn't go quite the way the traditional space-operas.

And then we're lead to this third book in the trilogy, really taking Noumenon, the convoy, to new heights... but first we must get from A to B. And this is where the novel really shines.

We cover a hundred thousand years of humanity ... and more. I'm getting this shiver and a flashback to some old-school Olaf Stapledon. So many steps are covered, including effective immortality, to let us follow our favorite characters. Including, I might add, a certain little environmental control unit.

I give this five stars for future history and the commentary on inclusiveness.
I give this three stars for a slightly faltering thread of conflict.

If this was a straight history, I probably wouldn't even think twice about it, and compared to most modern space operas, it's positively refreshing by how it doesn't rely on standard tropes. But still, I did expect something a little more.

The worldbuilding absolutely shone, however. I totally recommend this for people wanting a truly ambitious yarn.

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