The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton

An excellent and enjoyable book, With lots of Ideas, which Could some could be suited for the Orion's Arm universe. There are a few diverse cultures in this Confederation Universe which Hamilton has created,But the only thing I couldn't get to grips of was the bringing back the Dead to life, if you are Believer in the afterlife you may follow this part of the Plot.

Other than that, there are some great ideas that could be well suited for OA, like the Sentient Voidhawks and the Blackhawks and such, which are genetic grown and the Sentient Oribtals, Lots of Biotech ideas which Could be incorporated into OA, Apart from the Space flight ideas which The ships themselves generate the Artificial wormholes and the Totally Alien cultures, Some of the Technology and cultures could be adapted, there are two Different Human cultures, the Adamist and The Edenists:

The Edenists are An egalitarian society governed by the "consensus" formed out of their affinity link with one another. Edenism honors the captains of voidhawks particularly, however, because of their importance in commerce, trade, and defense. Since Edenists know that upon death there is a continuation as part of the personality habitat, then physical death no longer poses a problem for them, so they tend to be non-religious, have stable personalities, and invest their "spiritual" energy into their knowledge of quantum cosmology. They are al naturally geneered for the free fall of space flight. Edenists have no psychological problems except for Serpents. The knowledge that they will continue after death as part of the personality habitat eliminates many psychoses with which Adamists have to deal.

The Adamists are "baseline or near-baseline" humans who use fusion-driven starships and specially geneered blackhawks to travel through space. They oppose all use of pure bitek. Instead, they rely solely on advances in fusion technology and, particularly, in nanotechnology to advance their lives and civilizations. They hold traditional religious values and beliefs. How they continue on after death is one of the major subjects explored in the Trilogy. Hamilton tells us their "DNA was geneered but not expanded" as was that of the Edenists. Handle free fall in spaceflight by use of nanonics. It is an interesting fact that one and a half million Adamists choose to become Edenists every year throughout the Confederation.

The Plot, well, basically it goes like this, Millions years ago an extinct race Suddenly Destroyed themselves for No reason, it was lately to find out that something so alien had scared them so much they all committed suicide. When The confederation arrived on the scene millions of years later, they, encountered a strange and utterly Alien race, which seemed to possess the colony of Lalonde and implant the Souls of the dead into the bodies of each colonists. Of course they take over the planet and a few of them manage to get off world and infest a few other Confederation planets as well.

Read more reviews at The Reality Dysfunction - Emergence, and The Reality Dysfunction - Expansion (at Amazon Books)