Of the Peter F. Hamilton novels I've read (which is a large majority of them), this is my favourite. It avoids most of the problems I have come to associate with him and has one great merit absent from them: it is about something! As usual it is a fast-paced thriller but it stands alone, not linked to any other works in a series and the main protagonists total only two, rather than the dozen or more appearing in the bloated sagas Hamilton is renowned for. This allows one to actually start to care what happens to them without always distractingly wondering what is going on elsewhere.... The discussion of the purpose and merits or otherwise of interstellar colonisation is interesting and unexpected from a writer more associated with pure space-opera and who-dunnits. It reminded me of the last volume of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons which has a similar theme and conclusion.