Peter F. Hamilton

The comparative utopia of twenty-third century Earth is about to go dreadfully awry when a seemingly benign alien race is abruptly revealed to be one of the worst threats humanity has ever faced. Driven by an intense religious extremism, the Olyix are determined to bring everyone to their version of god as they see it. But they may have met their match in humanity, who are not about to go gently into that good night or spend the rest of their days...

"Humanity is struggling to hold out against a hostile takeover by an alien race that claims to be on a religious mission to bring all sentient life to its God at the End of Time. But while things may look grim in the immediate aftermath of the attack, mankind is busy playing an even longer game than the aliens may have expected. Will a strategy millennia in the making finally be enough to defeat this seemingly unstoppable enemy? And what secrets are...

"Amahle is a Light Chaser--one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages, she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it. And it will cost everything...

At the center of the galaxy is the Dreaming Void, an artificial black hole that may hold paradise within its walls. When a human named Inigo begins dreaming of what lays within the Void, the word spreads, triggering a religious pilgrimage into the Void and possibly a catastrophic expansion that threatens the peace of the Commonwealth Universe.