Synopsis
Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. They travelled into space on arkships and found a new home.
When the first arkship arrived, it signalled for the others to follow. Those from that first ship evolved into Celestials, establishing themselves as rulers over mankind’s new home.
Now, as new arkships arrive, people must choose whether to submit to the rule of the Celestials, or fight for freedom.
Finn hasn’t arrived on an arkship. He was born under the rule of the Celestials, and is a dreamer who yearns for the freedom to travel space for himself one day. When another arkship from Earth — previously thought lost — arrives unexpectedly, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and journey into the vast unknowns of distant space.
Review
‘Exodus’ is an epic introduction to a huge universe, skilfully keeping you grounded while expanding its scope to ever-increasingly colossal levels. It’s a space opera that enhances Hamilton’s reputation as a titan of the genre, and serves as a masterclass in how to make sci-fi BIG!
Before the story begins, the book’s opening sections thoroughly catalogue all the main characters and provide a timeline of events of what happened after Earth was abandoned. It’s a LOT and I worried I might struggle to take it all in, but as soon as the narrative got going, I found myself pulled straight into the Exodus worlds. In fact, the main thing that might dissuade you from picking up the book is its sheer breadth. It’s a chonker. And in terms of audio (FYI I listened to the audiobook), it comes in at a whopping 33 hours. But as soon as you make a start, the novel hooks you immediately and keeps you listening/reading. So don’t be put off by its size. After all, they say bigger is better, and sci-fi doesn’t come any bigger than this.
Across a mega 928 pages, the story unfolds through the perspectives of several main characters living in various parts of society. Their stories cleverly interlink to reveal a bigger picture — but I’ll get to that more in a little bit. First, let me give you a flavour of what it feels like to inhabit the worlds of this universe. To do that, context matters. So here’s some context that sets everything up.
The story is set in a future where mankind has taken to space in arkships to find more habitable planets. Some ships succeed in finding habitable worlds and send out a ‘green world beacon’ to the rest of the fleet. But, thanks to time dilation, the new arkships arrive to find society in a much more advanced state than what they’d expected.
When the last arkship gets to the Centauri cluster, new human arrivals take in the lay of the land. As a reader, you share their shocked reaction at what they discover — that those who arrived on the first arkship have evolved into ‘celestial beings’, and have enslaved other humans as well as genetically engineered races. The various branches of Celestials each have their own special abilities, depending on the way each set of scientists focused their work.
Tobias is the leader of the newly arrived arkship ‘Diligent’, and he begins to shift the status quo for humans — who are not allowed to own property. He feels an undercurrent of dissatisfaction among them, despite everyone having somewhere to live, work to do, and food on the table. Who really wants to spend all their time farming just to send it off-planet so the Celestials can eat it?
Finn is our link to the Uranic race. He’s had a privileged upbringing and enjoys a high status within his world, yet wants to throw it all away to fly across the stars and seek his own path as a traveller. Finn helps Tobias and those of the ‘Diligent’ navigate the complicated order of things, stopping them from breaking the rules before they’ve even got started. Ellie is Tobias’ granddaughter, and theres a love interest between Finn and Ellie that runs constantly through the book — it anchors Finn’s character development. It’s always entertaining to spend time with Finn as he’s such a loveable rogue.
The narrative of Terrance Wilson-Fletcher, a member of the police on Santa Rosa (where Finn is from) gives you an insight into the political undercurrents that are going on amongst the different branches of the Celestials. He does undercover work and gets called to meet with a security chief, where he experiences for himself what life is like on a celestial planet — really out of this world. The Celestials’ technology makes getting away with anything pretty impossible, yet there’s a time delay between what happens on other planets and the Celestials finding out about it. Every plan they make (based on information they get from informants) feeds into a bigger purpose.
While each section of the narrative is interesting to read on its own and you get pretty invested in finding out what happens, slowly, slowly you begin to realise the bigger plot that lies underneath it all. When multiple strands finally come together, it comes over as very clever and enhances the enjoyability of the book no end. It’s so much fun to see the web being woven in front of your eyes.
When the book ended, I felt keen to know when the next one will be ready! I was really excited to discover Peter F Hamilton was asked to write the book to promote a new video game set in the same universe. I have to say, having read the book, I’m eager to see what the game is like!
In terms of the audiobook performance, John Lee had a very commanding voice that is easy to listen to, and he made the 33 hours fly by. Once I’d finished listening to it, I had a few days of feeling like I was forgetting to do something. I can’t talk about the book without hearing his voice in my head!
Overall, ‘Exodus’ is an engine of invention and speculation that reaches as high as it aims. It’s both complex and immersive, and makes for an ideal escape from our boring old Earth, leaving you with plenty to chew over. I can’t wait to see where it takes us next.
Ebook, Hardback, and Audiobook are available now.
Paperback to be released on June 19th, 2025
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