8- I enjoyed the first half of this novel less than the earlier two books in this trilogy, but I got more emotional at the ending (and that was based on the first half), compared to the first two books. So I'm conflicted about scoring this. Four stars seems reasonable, especially if I take into consideration the trilogy as a whole, which is a gripping work about the way our beliefsystems are formed by our history, shaped by our journey with them and how they lead to hope and perseverance on the

8- I enjoyed the first half of this novel less than the earlier two books in this trilogy, but I got more emotional at the ending (and that was based on the first half), compared to the first two books. So I'm conflicted about scoring this. Four stars seems reasonable, especially if I take into consideration the trilogy as a whole, which is a gripping work about the way our beliefsystems are formed by our history, shaped by our journey with them and how they lead to hope and perseverance on the one hand, and conflict and oppression on the other hand. This last book especially takes the narrative strands layed out in the first two books and shows how legend forming and story telling shape societies, how doubt and certainty interact when stories are what gives lives meaning, and how our stories react to incursions from outside. It's centered around Angie, who traveled around with shadow speaker Mary, who claimed to hear the voice of Gela (the ancestor of all people on Eden, originally from Earth). In the first half the stories of Angies flight from invaders from across the sea are interspersed with her remembrance of her time with Mary. The flight was a bit basic and boring, but the story of her and Mary got to me, especially because I myself have wrestled with and am still sometimes wrestling with questions about faith, doubt, certainty and meaning. The conflict between Angie and Mary I found gripping. Then a ship from earth lands and upsets all stories the people of Eden have told themselves for hundreds of years, and changes the balance between the several civilizations that have grown up on the dark planet. The well meaning Earthlings discover that the reality of the stories these people have lived in for so long is not easily changed. These passages were very interesting, but even here the narrow scope of the narration has to break to show what happens elsewhere, and that was not as convincing to me. I think the author had restricted himself too much when choosing the perspective from which he wrote the story. It's a minor flaw though, and like in the first two books Beckett shows himself great with language, with vivid descriptions (and an interesting weirdness when the protagonists see images from earth) and vivid characterisation. I got choked up when Angie and Mary meet again and are honest with each other. Those scenes always get to me. I would have liked if the question of the sapience of the bats of Eden would have played a part ( I think it would be interesting to see the humans of Eden interact with the stories the original Edenites are telling about themselves), but it's a good conclusion to the trilogy as it is. The original novel Dark Eden remains the best of the three in my opinion, due to its novelty and powerful story line. That one can be read on itself too, so if you are interested in this story, I would start there. I think that when you finished that book, you will want to know what happens next ...