Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton

Although the first book in this series was absolutely brilliant, the second and third fail to live up to the high standard set by 'The Reality Dysfunction'. The third book of the trilogy, 'Naked God' showed some promise in the beginning, it failed dismally in the end. It sounded forced and contrived, like the author had to meet a deadline or a quota. The entire trilogy was working towards solving the problem of the possessed and yet, when it came down to crunch time, Joshua Calvert miraculously banishes them all back to where they came. Although some unique insights into human society are provided, it fails to deliver the ending that the entire trilogy was working toward. And the alien race, the Mosdva or whatever they were called, were introduced to give us insight into the Tyractha and the summarily discarded, and the insights never used. Altogether too many loose ends.

This massive volume is the conclusion to the trilogy started in "The Reality Dysfunction" and "The Neutronium Alchemist", both large volumes in themselves. Hamilton excels in creating and describing new technologies and environments, and these books have some of his best work in that line. There are myriad characters and many detailed subplots. I enjoyed the first book, but the second was slower going, and I found myself turning pages in the last one. That's not to say that they are bad books; they just couldn't hold my interest. In particular, I found the "deus ex machina" ending of the series to be a letdown.
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