THE NAKED GOD

This final part of Hamilton’s doorstopper trilogy set in a.d. 2600—following The Reality Dysfunction (mass market, published in two parts) and The Neutronium Alchemist (ditto), not to mention a recent compilation of related stories, A Second Chance at Eden’switches to hardcover, presumably on the theory that readers who’ve patiently accumulated all those paperbacks won’t want to wait ages for the paperback market editions. But unless you can claim prior acquaintance with lucky Joshua Calvert, can tell Edenists and Adamists apart at a glance (the former are genetically engineered, and dwell in space, where they commune telepathically with their sentient trader starships; the latter, though rejecting technology, are willing to pioneer new worlds), grasp what’s been happening on the muddy planet Lalonde (a space/time/mind-boggling alien invasion), and know who or what the Neutronium Alchemist is and why s/he/it’s crucial to the entire operation: Don’t even try to force an entry here; you’ve already missed more than two thousand pages of stuff. Instead, if you were impressed by Greg Mandel’s trilogy (triumphantly concluded with The Nano Flower, 1998), try part one of The Reality Dysfunction and ease your way in.