Exodus: The Archimedes Engine Audiobook By Peter F. Hamilton cover art

Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, Book 1

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Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

Explore EXODUS, a new sci-fi action-adventure RPG coming soon from Archetype Entertainment featured in this epic novel from legendary author Peter F. Hamilton.

Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars.

Thousands of years later, the Centauri Cluster has flourished. The original settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials and divided themselves into powerful Dominions. One of the most influential is that of the Crown Celestials, an alliance of five great houses that controls vast areas of Centauri. As arkships continue to arrive, the remaining humans and their descendants must fight for survival against overwhelming odds or be forced into serving the Crown Dominion.

Among those yearning for a better life is Finn, for whom Earth is not a memory but merely a footnote from humanity’s ancient history. Born on one of the Crown Dominion worlds, Finn has known nothing but the repressive rule of the Celestials, though he dreams of the possibility of boundless space beyond his home.

When another arkship from Earth, previously thought lost, unexpectedly arrives, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and become a Traveler—one of a group of brave heroes dedicated to ensuring humanity’s future by journeying into the vast unknown of distant space.

©2024 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2024 Random House Audio
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What listeners say about Exodus: The Archimedes Engine

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Engaging and detailed storytelling

Ahhh... another Peter F. Hamilton creation. Loved it! Great character arcs, setting and continuity that completely immerses the reader into the story. John Lee's excellent and dynamic narration is icing on the cake.

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1 person found this helpful

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Great book

Super cool tech and interesting alien culture and drama. Also illustrates deep time well with the true storyline stretching tens of thousands of years.

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3 people found this helpful

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Great

Another great from Hamilton. John Lee is the absolute best narrator there is. Can not recommend more!!!!

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1 person found this helpful

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The complexity of the story and the characters

Not John Lee best performance. Sometimes it was hard to distinguish which character was talking because they sounded a little too similar.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Long, confusing, and poor ending

The performance of the book made this story difficult to follow, with challenging names and very little differentiation between voices in characters, anytime the story strayed from the primary 3 characters I felt lost.

Additionally, the story ended with basically no strong resolution. It felt like the author was depending on a cliff hanger to ensure readers continued onto the next book. Novels at this length do not need cheap tactics to ensure readers continue, rather they depend on readers to develop a love for the characters and a desire to continue on their journey.

Unfortunately, the author failed to deliver on any desire to continue the journey with these characters. I hate to leave a poor review, but with a 30hr book, I was disappointed.

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  • Overall
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    3 out of 5 stars

Cool concepts but poor execution and narration

Exodus tackles some really cool sci-fi concepts, particularly the effects of time dilation, which is not something I typically see done well in scifi. But here the author makes it work for the plot quite well.

This book is a very slow burn. The story spends a lot of time world building (for future books and an upcoming video game), but my god does it drag on. It doesn’t really pick up until about two-thirds of the way in, and when it's a 31 hour long book that means quite a bit of patience.

The main storyline in the first 2/3 of the book is kind of weak, while the secondary plots are more engaging, although the author does a good job converging them at the end. The main characters, Finn and Ellie, I found rather uninteresting and not even that likeable. The romantic relationships were poorly developed and pretty unconvincing. They just came out of left field. That is unless I missed something due to the lackluster narration.

As for the narrator, I don't mind his delivery or cadence, but the problem is he only has about three distinct voices. That becomes a problem when the characters start to blend together because there are so many to keep track of. The book has many abrupt switches between points of view, and this combined with the narrator’s lack of voice variation, make it hard to follow who’s who at times.

Because of this narration, this is not a book to be listening to casually. I had to pay as close attention to this book as if I were reading Plato or Aristotle. So not only is the book bloated, but you have to be listening very closely or you will completely lose the plot. A different narrator would have made the experience smoother.

Decent novel, but when it's 31 hours long I was hoping for a bit better. On the bright side, the book has a solid ending that sets up the sequel nicely. So there's potential for the next one to be better. Despite my quibbles, I will continue the series. I might just have to buy a physical copy if it's the same narrator though.

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2 people found this helpful

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A new Universe

Get Ready for a wild adventure in the far future. A super story read by a brilliant narrator. The start of a new series. Wow

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Hamilton back at it in top form

I really enjoyed the story and the writing but John Lee's naration is often cringe-worthy and his inflections always unnecessary.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Lots of Worldbuilding

A massive amount of Worldbuilding for the first half of the novel. not really my kind of thing, but I expected it since I knew this was setting up for a game and potentially future books. I felt like they worked up two of the primary characters - Finn and Ellie really well, only to have them languish for the last twenty percent of the book. they're the only two I really cared a out, and I was sad to not spend more time with them.

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Excellent New Universe (BrettD Review)

Hamilton does it again! He continues to be at the top of the scifi genre. I was somewhat skeptical going into this novel due to its video game connection. I am not an RPG player. However, this may be the tie in that converts me. I can't wait for the next book and I want to experience this universe first hand in the video game. The plot is detailed and well planned. It requires attention to political hierarchies, history, and actions. The payoff is definitively worth it.

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