The mystery of the void at the center of the galaxy, as introduced in The Dreaming Void, makes the perfect center piece around which to tell a complex story.  Peter F. Hamilton starts to converge his various story lines from book one as he elevates the stakes across the board. The Living Dream religious movement is convinced that their planned Pilgrimage into the void holds the key to their fulfillment and they are desperate to find the "second dreamer" who will lead them to their promised land.  Certain factions within the ANA:Governance continue to supply advanced technology to the Pilgrimage in exchange for coming along, yet their motives for doing so remain unknown.  At the same time an alien armada is heading toward human space hell bent on stopping the Pilgrimage at any cost, convinced that if the Pilgrimage reaches the void then the galaxy will be consumed.  Times are desperate as the Commonwealth Navy has failed in every attempt to stop the armada and is now considering activating the Deterrence Fleet, which is their mysterious weapon of last resort. And the key to all of this, the second dreamer, remains in hiding wanting nothing to do with Living Dream or their ridiculous Pilgrimage. 

All of the above story lines take place outside the void but inside the void history is also further revealed. Many more of Inigo's dreams about Edeard's life inside the void are detailed and we start to understand why the Living Dream movement started. Edeard's psychic powers continue to grow and his efforts to rid the city of Makkathran from corruption build up toward a final confrontation with those who oppose him.  Edeard has already experienced losing everything in his life and once again all that he holds dear is on the line and will be lost if he fails. In order to be successful Edeard must take his powers to the next level and it is the nature of that next level that reveals quite a bit more about how things work inside the void. It finally becomes possible to start to see how many of the void related mysteries might be connected.

This revelation also goes a long way toward explaining why Living Dream is so dedicated to entering the void and attempting to be like Edeard.  With all of the various threads starting to converge this middle book does an excellent job of advancing the story and setting the stage for the final book of the trilogy. Once again the Edeard story line was the most compelling to me, although the events outside the void certainly elevated in intensity this time around and became more interesting.  Peter F. Hamilton has set the stage nicely and I am hopeful for an epic conclusion and unraveling of the mystery in the final book, The Evolutionary Void. For audiobook fans, John Lee was once again excellent on the narration so you can safely choose between listening or reading with this series.