Peter F. Hamilton has achieved something truly extraordinary with this trilogy. He created a fantastic landscape on which a truly fantastic plot took place, encompassing marvelous, well rounded characters who the reader truly becomes attached to over the course of these three gargantuan novels.
And then he destroys everything he accomplished in the space of a hundred pages.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

The ending of this book is a true travesty of literature. Hamilton literally spends thousands of pages building up this enormous series of problems, from the purely physical threat and economical threat posed by the possessed, to the scientific, philosophical and spiritual questions that the existence of the possessed and the beyond bring with them. He could have made these novels a true testimonial to the enduring nature of the human condition. Throughout the novel, humanity is refused aid from various alien species, stating that it is a problem that must be solved by humanity and humanity alone. And then, with the introduction of the 'entity' of The Sleeping God, he refutes everything he has previously written in favour of what is possibly the biggest Deux Ex Machina ending ever. Words cannot express how horribly disappointed and frustrated I was with this. Whether it was due to time constraints, publisher commitments or someone unforeseen and forgotten deadline, these books were clearly ended hurriedly. And for me, it completely ruined the whole experience.