After stepping through the Hatch, our intrepid adventurers find themselves back on Earth, but it is not Earth as any of them remember. Instead, the centurions of Ancient Rome have become the dominant power and have remained as colonizers in the stars. With a Greek doctor and a young slave boy named Chu, the explorers try desperately to understand the secrets behind the Hatches and the kernels. What none of them can know is that there is something bigger out there, something controlling their destinies. When it comes down to the end of the universe, the continued discoveries will change everything again.

The old favorites return: Yuri Eden and ColU banter back and forth with as much loving vitriol as ever. Hatches remain difficult to understand and impossible to predict. When it is finally revealed what the Hatches are, fans of the first novel will lose their minds. The cycles of birth and death are addressed several times as the continuation of every species notes. The Roman and Norse elements added within the new world are fascinating, if somewhat obtuse. And of course, there is Per Ardua, a homeworld so unlike Earth and yet so much the same.

PROXIMA, the first book, was difficult to get through based on concepts and length alone. This one has the same problem tenfold. There are so many new additions and new characters in the first few chapters alone that I was nearly compelled to write a chart to remember who was who. It was entirely too easy to get lost, and as such I did not enjoy this book as much as I did the first. When dealing with such complexity in a novel, it can be difficult to relax and enjoy the narrative. Convoluted storylines combined with a great deal of excess prose really bog this down.

Even so, with all that is added, ULTIMA is still a powerful science fiction experience that I don't honestly think fans of the genre can afford to miss. It provokes deep thought, and asks the reader all the right questions. And when the end really comes, will you be on Per Ardua, or will you be exploring the galaxy through yet another Hatch?