Well, I finally finished Swann’s Terran Confederation series and its last installment, the Apotheosis trilogy. It was almost as good as I hoped with a bit of a wobble in the final part, titled “Deus Ex Machina”, and all that implies.

We start on Earth with Rebecca Tsoravitch delivering would-be messiah and all-around insane AI Adam’s ultimatum to Vatican City: join him, lose your individuality and body, and live forever. Naturally, most don’t accept.

But one man does. His name is Jonah Dacham, the pivotal figure in Swann’s Hostile Takeover series. But, by this point, he’s no longer a man but merely an ambassador of the Proteus Commune. Like Adam, they command fearsome nanotechnology. Unlike Adam, they will only let volunteers join. The Vatican accepts the alliance Proteus proposes: renounce their stance that the Proteus Commune is a heretical technology and Proteus will aid in the fight against Adam.

A massive battle of nanotech forces ensues in Earth’s solar system. Adam is shaken out of his illusions of omniscience.

But the real battle will take place on, above, and below Bakunin, the anarchic planet at the center of the Hostile Takeover series. There Father Mallory, an ex-military man before he became a priest and Vatican secret agent, and the Tonis from Heretics, using an orbital resort above Bakunin, cobble together an alliance of ships that have fled Adam’s onslaught elsewhere.

Mallory is aided by Rebecca. She’s a survivor who once lived under a police state, so she’s not about to rebel openly against Adam. But she has a fragment of Mosasa’s mind. He’s sort of Adam’s one-time brother whom we thought he destroyed in Heretics. However, he’s managed to distribute bits of his mind throughout Adam’s nanocloud. Rebecca also has access to Proteus by having absorbed Jonah’s mind. (In keeping with the religious themes of the trilogy, she uses a rather Trinity-like metaphor of three vintages poured into one wine bottle.)

But Adam has his agents too which include the executives of the Prodhoun Spaceport Development Corporation. In a repeat of the events almost 200 hundred years in the past, they’ve decided to take over Bakunin given they have more military resources on the planet than anyone else.

And then there’s Stefan Stavros. His and his father’s ship was pirated by the Tonis when they escaped Styx as Adam’s forces arrived in the previous book. But he’s not at all onboard, unlike his father, with aiding Mallory’s cause.

But treachery doesn’t go in just one direction. Another Prodhoun executive, the extremely clever and ruthless Alexi Lubikov, decides maybe Adam is not looking as invincible as he did. Maybe it’s time to change sides.

The Proteus Commune doesn’t really think Adam can be beaten at Bakunin. Their battle with Adam in Earth’s solar system was just a delaying action. They plan on seeding copies of their Commune on other worlds, and, when Adam shows up, launch sort of a high-tech, nanotechnology guerilla action against him then. But maybe there’s a chance. Maybe the caves below Bakunin hold some kind of weapon left by the Dolbrians, the alien race whose disappearance, after leaving several ruins and terraformed planets behind, has been a subject of speculation over several books.

So moreau Nickolai, his frank girlfriend Kugara, and other survivors of Mosasa’s ill-fated expedition to Xi Virginis are sent down to Bakunin.

Swann ends his series strongly with plenty of action – and plenty of philosophizing about religion and morality.

Swann’s Terran Confederation is one of the best science fiction series I’ve read, and I recommend it strongly. ( )

Review forthcoming. ( )