Exodus: The Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't really review this book without writing a book about it -- and that's because it's an enormous, sprawling far-future SF full of humans, demi-post-humans, and post-humans that have settled across a goodly portion of space without breaking the speed of light barrier.

Those who arrived first got to set up everything however they wanted, passing down the torch in spectacularly high-tech ways, while those who slow-moved their way into the cluster are pretty much given a couple of super-planet reservations to farm and feed the rest of the empire.

Of course, that's just the setup. The rest of the book is over nine-hundred pages, and we've got investigations, intrigue, adventure, interesting politics, high-tech enmeshed plot, and the titular Archimedes Engine -- based on some of the oldest original tech that only the Archons should have their hands on. Of course, the Celestials, the Uranic, and the normal latecomer normal humans will all vie for power -- and there's no power quite as big as that engine. No spoilers, but it's impressive.

What I should really point out is that this is a deep, wildly imaginative, and thoroughly explored novel. If you want to get lost in a really huge tale with amazing, far-reaching worldbuilding, great plots, tons of characters, and great action, then I'm just going to point at Peter here.

He's got it all -- big books that will last you a great long time. :)

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