I finished The Evolutionary Void by PF Hamilton, the highly awaited finale to the Void trilogy and it is *the* sf novel of the year and the best PF Hamilton at least since The Reality Dysfunction - which I still consider the best PFH for its unabashed sense of wonder and larger than life characters - if not ever.

Everything comes together into the grand finale - and here there should be no more complaints about weak endings, deus-ex-machina and all - and there are enough twists and turns to make one realize what a master storyteller PFH is to get all that done and I do not want to list from the stuff you will find out even in the vaguest detail just not to spoil some of the extraordinary revelations there

Most action is Commonwealth oriented though Edeard is still important and we see how he uses the ultimate Void capability revealed in Void 2 to achieve "fulfillment" and why indeed billions want to go there to be "fulfilled" in a relative primitive non-tech society despite virtual immortality and all the goodies of the Commonwealth.

As a small spoiler we meet almost everyone of importance from the Commonwealth saga

I really, really do not want to spoil more since this is a book to savor and explore and it raises the Void trilogy and the overall Commonwealth Saga one notch above - I need some time to settle and while I still think Night's dawn would remain my top all time finished sf series because of the characters which are just awesome there, this one will probably become #2 and is just mind-blowing sf at its best and a prime example of why sf is alive and kicking

Again it's early but The Evolutionary Void just catapulted into my top sf of the year by far and it will be a top 3 overall novel, possibly overall #1 too.

While I have read the earlier volumes at least 2 times each, I have not reread them in almost a year and a half, but I remembered easily the most important stuff and I had no problem getting immersed in this one