Exodus: The Helium Sea is Action-Packed and Unforgiving | Review

Peter F. Hamilton’s Exodus duology comes to a close in an action packed entry that might be a little harder to follow along. Check out our full review!

Tens of thousands of years in the future, humanity has evolved along different branches into near god-like beings known as Celestials. They rule over the Centauri Cluster, where the remainder of true “humans” are essentially peasants. But something has changed. A wayward faction, ousted for millennia have returned to enact a plan of revenge almost seven thousand years in the making.

As their forces seek to usurp the throne and conquer everything, Finn, Terrence Wilson-Fletcher, Josias, and their other human allies find themselves in a unique spot. Despite contending with forces well above/beyond them, they have the opportunity to do something about it. If they succeed they could give humans some real independence and more equal footing. Losing, however, could mean the end of the universe for everyone.

Earlier this month, we got our best look yet at the Exodus video game on the horizon thanks to some Summer Game Fest showcases. If that bit of gameplay and story details got you eager for more, you’re in luck with two—massive—novels that help flesh out the world/lore. The first book, Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, came out a couple years back and set the stage for a massive, sprawling space opera.

Despite its length and dense world-building, I had a blast with it and was eager to see how Hamilton was going to wrap it all up. To be honest, I also thought I’d be playing the game itself before this next book came out, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Helium Sea picks up the story immediately after the end of the first novel and it doesn’t waste any time either (more on that in a bit). If you’re not up to speed on the characters/events from before, you’re going to be REAL confused going into this one.

That said, the book makes for a thrilling, action-packed conclusion to the story that brings everything together in a satisfactory way, even if the endings aren’t exactly what was expected. Even though we know these characters and events won’t have anything to do with the video game’s story, it remains a compelling journey.

Taken together, the duology offers readers a fun, engaging Sci-Fi adventure that’s easily appealing to fans of the genre even if they have no intention of playing the game. For gamers who are looking forward to the game, these novels will deepen your understanding of the technology, lore, and overall layout of the galaxy you’ll be exploring. By the time I turned the last page, I find myself more excited than ever to get my hands on the game. Pretty much exactly what you want out of a tie-in novel

If you found The Archimedes Engine to be a bit sluggish or didn’t answer nearly enough questions, you don’t have to worry about that with Helium Sea. It hits the ground running and lays out the secrets of the “great game” at play—along with all the players—out the gate. Honestly, I was surprised by how quickly revelations on previously dangling plot points came.

The truth is, the story just doesn’t have time to keep playing coy with the mystery aspect anymore. The cards are on the table, the factions are making their moves, which means everyone has to get to work almost immediately. Generally speaking, I enjoyed this and the more straightforward approach to the story elements (I won’t spoil them here).

Admittedly, I did wonder why we couldn’t get some of these answers in the last novel. They came so rapidly it almost made the mystery/build up in the previous book feel unnecessary. A significant chunk of Archimedes Engine puts the focus on a literal detective trying to figure out what’s going on along with the Celestial spies. As such this dump of reveals caught me off guard initially.

In fact, the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m convinced all of the issues I have with Helium Sea (some characters are completely sidelined and one entire threat is dealt with anticlimactically) boils down to how front-loaded this duology is. If some of these plot elements had been spaced out between the two books a little better, or character arcs spread out more, it would have been much smoother.

That said, in terms of Helium Sea on its own, the quick revelations ultimately works in its favor. It’s a different kind of story than Archimedes Engine. Where that was more of a mystery/thriller, this new novel is a race against time as our protagonists are forced to contend with an ancient threat whose 7,000 year revenge plot is reaching its conclusion. The result is a novel that’s absolutely packed with all kinds of action. Seriously, there’s a LOT going on, but each set piece manages to feel unique, dynamic, and epic in their own way.

Aside from the aforementioned pacing issue, there’s only one real problem I had while reading. Problem may be the wrong word for it, but it feels like something worth noting: The Helium Sea is hard to get into. Normally, I’m down for books that pick up the story immediately following the events of the previous book and jumping right into things. It goes a long way towards making the stories feel more interconnected and eliminates early exposition dumps that essentially serve as little more than a recap.

The problem for Exodus, however, is how DENSE it all is. There are so many characters, factions, technology, world-building, and general lore. And that’s not taking into account the time dilation aspect, which means events take place over several years/decades simultaneously. It’s tough to keep things straight. Hell, even in the first book, where all of this is explained in great detail, I struggled to keep up with it all.

This made the first chunk of Helium Sea all the more difficult because it didn’t do any sort of recapping. It thrusts you right back into the action and myriad of characters, motivations, and schemes without any sort of primer. For the first hundred or so pages, I found myself constantly having to stop and going back and forth through sections of the first book just to remember what was going on! I’m still not convinced I fully remembered one of the major subplots that ends up resolved.

Once I felt like I had enough of a refresher on the characters and general plot, things smoothed out significantly and I was back to having a blast. It feels like Helium Sea would have been easier to enjoy if I’d read it immediately after Archimedes Engine rather than going off memory from reading it two years ago. Alas, that book is way too big to be doing a re-read ahead of this, also very big, book.

Overall, Exodus: The Helium Sea makes for a solid conclusion. Not only does it answer the lingering questions from the last novel, it kicks the stakes up a notch and delivers oodles of action. If you’re looking forward to the game, I HIGHLY recommend checking these books out. Yes, they are a lot but the depth it offers will make you all the more eager to participate in that world when the game hits next year. Even if you’re not concerned with the game, it makes for a compelling bit of space opera.