Rating: 
Summary: Just can't recommend it
Review: This book will seal the fate of the inhibitor series as a whole: interesting but not lasting. The series' plot has careened wildly off course into so many disparate places the whole becomes a smorgasbord of ideas with no coherence. Absolution Gap is interesting to many as science-fiction but has little or no value as a work of literature. Thus, its effect or influence on the genre will be very small after an initial publication splash.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS:
Really tough to answer this. Parties who have been compelled by the interesting notion of humanity will evolve will be frustrated by the lack of material and follow-through in the ideas offered in earlier books. Those interested in the inhibitor war will be equally and similarly frustrated to find that it comprises such a very tiny portion of the final book. Really, the reason to read this book is to seek closure in the series--yet even here, there will be a degree of frustration. While our rating as a single book is roughly average as a dénouement to the series it is starkly disappointing.
WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:
Unless you've become immersed in the inhibitor series there isn't much reason to pick this book up. While the plot is fragmented enough that this should be a standalone novel the characters and references all relate to earlier material with no helpful glossing to bring you up to speed. For example, if you read this whole review wondering what an inhibitor was, this book is not a good choice for you. Essentially, if you're looking for a story, go for something else; Absolution Gap is idle speculation dressed up for a Sunday afternoon at the bookstore with a rather pedestrian plot.
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM
Rating: 
Summary: What a let-down!
Review: This is definitely the most poorly written of the series (the only one I've felt is poorly written). Half of the book, the story of Ramshackle [sic, on purpose] Els, can be safely *ignored*, left completely unread, until about page 450. You'll figure it out pretty quick, I think.
It felt like Reynolds got a call about 2 weeks before he needed to send his draft into the publisher, so he failed to go back and take out tons of irrelevant material because he was too busy slapping the ending together.
And another thing... Microexpressions play a role in this book, and Reynolds treated them as they are known today, hundreds of years in the past of this book. Given the advancements in the last 40 years on this topic, one might expect there to be some further advancement in the future. But no, there appears to be only advancement in Reynold's reading on the subject. Not exactly the forward looking science fiction I was hoping for.
I would have given it one star except it is a punctuation mark in the series. Would be better in Reader's Digest form, though...
Rating:
Summary: not up to level of previous books
Review: With this book, unlike the previous 3 of his I have read, I was disappointed.The entire question of shrouder/mademoiselle penetration of the conjoiners vanishes. Presumably if the Night Council WAS mademoiselle, it still existed somewhere. The protagonist AND antagonist from Redemption Ark are removed from the story early in a clearly contrived fashion whose only impact besides clearing the slate for new characters is to give scorpio periodic memories. The Nestbuilders are only presented in an allusive fashion, but play a large role in the plot. Invisible Hand material (when the story goes to far to be recovered by characters in their enviroment, a new element will be used to resolve the conflict in the plot) in my opinion. The Shadow entities on the other hand at least were built up in the story some. Greenfly seem to be thrown in after the fact as a way to not have a totally happy ending, particularly if he is planning on writing in this universe more, possibly about Sky Haussmann, assuming he is the person described in the evacuees from Yellowstone. I would wait for paperback on this one if I had to do it again.
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