The Naked God
by Peter F. Hamilton
List Price: $26.95
Pages: 975
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0446525677
Publisher: Time Warner Books
The souls of the dead are real, immortal --- and escaping in billions from
the Beyond to possess the living, dragging whole planets out of the cosmos
in their quest to find the heaven denied them in this universe. But the
dead are also discovering they're making a terrible and terrifying mistake...
This realization won't save the 900-world Confederation from shattering into anarchy. The military
campaign to exorcise just one small colony has strained Confederation
resources to the utmost. Desperate to survive, richer worlds are preparing
to sacrifice the rest of humanity to the Possessed.
And some of the newly undead souls are making a bad situation worse. Using antimatter weapons and Possessed
sentient ships, the resurrected Al Capone is expanding his empire in this
realm. The satanist messiah Quinn Dexter also stalks the Earth. Dexter
doesn't want heaven, or conquest, or simple revenge. He wants to conjure
the Night's Dawn --- the absolute entropic annihilation of all Creation,
all space/time, all everything.
Meanwhile, two starships containing the living have entered unexplored space. Joshua Calvert, master of the
Lady Macbeth, and Edenist pilot Syrinx are searching for a last hope,
a miracle in the cosmic haystack. All they know is that 15,000 years ago
the alien Tyrathca received a single message from somewhere beyond Orion:
"IT SEES THE UNIVERSE. IT CONTROLS EXISTENCE. OUR ARRIVAL WOKE IT."
There's no clue to what the message really means, what or where the Tyrathca
God is...
Joshua Calvert may be charming, and he has been cursed with the devil's own luck --- but surely luck can't
conceivably be enough to help him find and get help from a dormant God,
even as reality is being devoured by the Night's Dawn..
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For Book 3 of The Night's Dawn Trilogy
Quinn Dexter (#1 bad guy, self-possessed, nut-ball cultist) is on his way down to Earth.
Louise Cavanaugh (pregnant with Joshua Calvert's child), her sister Genevieve, & Fletcher Christian
(possessor), in hot pursuit of Quinn, have been arrested in Earth orbit.
Al Capone (possessor) and Kiera (possessing Marie Skibbow) have joined up.
Marie's father (recently dis-possessed) is chasing after her in the company of a number of others (mostly kids)
who wished to join Kiera's Deadnights.
The planet Ombey has a peninsula called Mortonridge in the possession of the Possessed (some of whom aren't
all that bad).
The planet Norfolk has disappeared from the universe, taken by the Possessed.
In Valisk (habitat), Dariat, with the help of Valisk's personality, Rubra, has betrayed/escaped Kiera.
Valisk disappears.
The planet Nyvan go boom. Richard Keaton (the "data security expert") go poof. (?)
Calvert & Co. barely escape Capone's baddies, using the Alchemist in the process.
Capone's fleet has unsuccessfully attacked Tranquillity (habitat) because?
Tranquillity disappeared with all aboard, including Joshua's girlfriend, Ione, the Lord of Ruin.
Syrinx and her ship, half-Voidhawk/half-Blackhawk
Oenone, who were defending Tranquillity, have also disappeared.
Joshua Calvert, with his half-brother Liol, Monica (the Adamist agent), Samuel (the Edenist agent), and Alkad
Mzu (the scientist who created the Neutronium Alchemist) have just arrived
at Tranquillity's former location in the Lady Macbeth.
There are, of course, lots of other characters and happenings, but this'll get you started.
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