Sci-fi mastery in full bloom for the nanoflower

Nanoflower completes the Greg Mandel trilogy. Compared to the first two installments, Greg is now comfortably middle aged, a father with 4 kids (and one on the way), and a respected and successful fruit grower. Over the intervening 15 years since Quantum Murder, Julia Evans has healed Royan, they've become lovers, and have their own children all while continuing to run Event Horizon.

The story unfolds with Julie receiving a "flower" that appears to be of alien origin and points to Royan who has been missing. Julie engages Greg to track him down. At the time, rumors of a next generation technology begin surfacing resulting in a second made scramble. Greg goes up against a psychopathic techmerc following the same leads for the flower and the technology. The action is fast and furious, and nearly nonstop. While the eventual resolution is not unexpected, the denouement is still surprising.

Hamilton really begins to flex his muscles as a sci-fi grandmaster with this tale. The resulting alien biology (and microbiology) is refreshingly original and well detailed. Computer personalities are extended and space mining and colony settlements are ongoing. At its heart, this is a love story with multiple couples, each re-enforcing the theme. Perhaps the only legitimate criticism is the introduction of some new psy powers for Greg that while critical to the plot could have nevertheless been at least alluded to earlier. The narrator also deserves kudos for a fantastic range of voices.

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Hamilton's turning point as an author

Where the first two installments of the Mandel Trilogy showed great potential, The Nano Flower has Hamilton hitting his stride as an author showing why he is one of the best fiction writers working today. Excellent character development, well conceived plot, believable human reactions and an incredibly well conceived universe make for a great listen. While not offering up the multiple plots and immense complexity of his later works, the plot is complex and interesting in a way not often seen in SciFi. Excellent editing keeps the pace high enough to hold your interest but not at the expense of dialogue and scene setting. Toby Longworth's excellent narration made the book even better as his consistency of individual characters and variation among voices is first rate.
This book makes me hope Audible is working hard to bring even more of Hamilton's works to the format!

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A great sci fi adventure

All three of these stories are great, fast moving stories set in a world it is easy to believe in that still has plenty of surprises. Peter Hamilton is a master and it is great to have these three stories online now also. Highly recommended, although I think the first one was the best one.

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Not good

This thing went way off the tracks in volume 3. It was so predictable I had figured out the ending within the first few chapters, then the book kept trying to convince me with logic that made no sense that something else was going on. Despite how predictable it was though, the whole thing made no sense. The characters didn't have good reasons to think or behave the way they did. Terrible end to a great series. I'll just pretend this one doesn't exist.

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Great story

Great story as I've come to expect from Hamilton. The only complaint I have is I swear quite a few time I could here the narrator turning pages and taking odd pauses. I think the editing could have been cleaned up a little more.

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Forgot about This One

"The Nano Flower" is the last book in the Greg Mandel Trilogy. I read the first book about 10 months ago and forgot to finish the last book until now. It took some time to get my ears adjusted to the story again, but I have to agree with other reviewers that the last book was better than the first and second. Of course I am used to of Hamilton's space opera, but I enjoyed this sci fi. Great description of the alien and good character development. The Nano Flower was an awesome twist in the plot. I'm never too disappointed of Peter F. Hamilton.

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The End of Greg Mandel's Story

This interesting and action pack conclusion to the Greg Mandel story is clearly some of Peter F. Hamilton's earlier work, not as big picture as his other work. It is a fun conclusion to the career of Greg who has become a much older man than he was in the previous books. It's hard for me to call these a trilogy as there is no story connecting them. But it is the end cap of Greg's career.

Here we see a peak of Hamilton's galaxy spanning narratives. Without spoiling much it's a first contact novel that deals with multiple human organization (government, corporate) vying for access and control in a short time frame and with almost no one knowing what's going on. Hamilton's prosaic writing I find to be clear, concise, and lets the story speak for itself.

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The best of Mandel

This was a really fantastic book and the connection to 'modern' Hamilton books is much more evident in this book than in the first two of the series. Don't get me wrong, the first two are great also but the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy are all masterworks of space operas and that quality can be seen in the third and final Mandel book. If you already read the first two, you don't need to read my review to convince you to get the third so i'll just say that its worth it. If you haven't read the other Greg Mandel books, look up Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder, all three are really great detective stories.

Toby Longworth did a great job and it was nice to hear a British voice that wasn't John Lee. I think John Lee is fantastic but every book by a British author that i listened to prior to the Mandel series is narrated by John Lee and i was starting to think that maybe they only had one male narrator over there..(kidding).

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Thought provoking

Peter F Hamilton never cease to entertain. Great story a mystery wrapped up in sci fi awesomeness. Sad it is the last Greg Mendel book.

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Wishing there was more

The Nano Flower is the third and final book in the Greg Mandel series by Peter F. Hamilton. The series is set in a near-term world and it is a detective SCIFI series. While none of these books compare to some of Hamilton’s later works, I find myself wishing Hamilton had written more.

There is a lot of action and excitement and the tech is interesting and for the most part believable, although I found the ending of this book a bit of a stretch. The most enjoyable aspect of this book and the series is that the characters are very likable. Greg Mandel is an honorable protagonist who wants to do the right thing. Julia is the closest thing to a principled and moral leader of industry you can imagine and the villains are pretty diabolical.

While I would definitely recommend you read these books in order, there are sizeable gaps of time between each book and each book can stand on its own. I listened to the audible versions and the narration by Toby Longworth was excellent.

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