There’s not much to say about the writing or the story that can’t be gathered from my reviews of the earlier books; in a nutshell, it’s all good. Here the action is turned up to 11, our heroes find their way into the heart of enemy territory and back, and then move on to Old Earth – proper Space Opera stuff. Yes, this is the book I wish I’d written, but at the time (2008) I wouldn’t have done half as good a job.
There is some really good stuff about how evil sneaks in when you’re not looking; our heroes – from a sinless Utopia, if you recall – variously fall back to human traits like lying, wandering eyes, lust for power and internet addiction. And it didn’t occur to me until it did appear, that I don’t think the name of Jesus was mentioned until very late on in this final volume of the trilogy. Of course we all knew who ‘The Lamb’ was, but not specifically naming Him until late was an interesting – and perfectly logical, in the story world – move. It makes for a nicely non-threatening story, yet one which is undoubtedly Christian.
I’m not sure if I was distracted by real life during my reading of this volume, or if the pacing was just slightly off, but I didn’t find it the page-turner I had expected it to be. That leaves it far from being a bad book – I still wish I had written it, and even the italics stopped bothering me most of the time.
The climax of the trilogy, however, was truly epic, about as big as it’s possible to get, spoilt only by the addition of a slightly drippy and over sentimental Epilogue that I really could have done without. It was the Hollywood ending tacked on after what should have been the final scene.
My recommendation? This trilogy is a definite must read for Christian sci-fi fans. But when you see the end of Infinite Day coming, when the good guys have won (does that count as a spoiler?) and the dust is starting to settle, put the book down and walk away. The heroes can carry on quite happily without you.