Peter F Hamilton A Nights Dawn. Am I getting it right?

oxygen_old

Moved this from literature, as they didnt know much. Spoilers ahead...

I started Peter F Hamilton's A Nights Dawn Trilogy, with "the Reality dysfunction" book. I just finished this. Has anyone else read it? Everything about it is right down my street, I like the world building, hard tech sci fi, characters, pacing etc etc

but before I move onto the next two books, I have on major concern. The evil force is all dead people? There seems to be no discerning between good and bad dead people. Once you die, you go to this hellish energy void, where you turn into an evil person, and stay there for millennium. So one side of the vast eternity, that is on each side of the sliver of light we call life is this? Are all the people in the book, not a little bit like, crap... I better not die anytime soon, or ever.

I cant really enjoy the book if that is the central premise.
Has anyone who's read it, (or not), have this opinion?

nyarlothothep

Its quite entertaining but the Commonwealth Saga is way better as its more consistent. These dead people aren't genuinely evil. Its been a while since I've read it but its good fun especially after the first book. In relation to the afterlife, there's more to find out in the other two books so read on.

metalscrubber

Cant say much without spoiling but there is more to than just all dead people being evil. I enjoyed them all and would suggest reading on.

Metal

ixoy

+2 - There's a reason that you're seeing the evil ones.

I'd also say that the Commonwealth Saga (and the Void trilogy) is stronger as he irons out some of the kinks in the Night's Dawn series. Nonetheless it's a very enjoyable series and established Hamilton (rightly) at the front of modern space opera.

Vokes

Apologies for the threadjack but...while I found the Commonwealth and Nights Dawn books to be pretty darn good, I found Hamilton's first Void book to be ponderous and boring - is it worth my while making my way onto the second one?

nyarlothothep

hoho, mayhaps not. I found the first one to be ok but there were way too many boring edeard sections which just annoyed me. It was like Hamilton was just indulging in a 19th century little England fantasy. I've given up for the moment on the second, principally because I got stuck in yet another dull edeard passage, I really don't care what happens to him or his friends in that universe. The coolest bits are always eclipsed by those meandering long passages about the waterwalker. yawn.

chakav

'Where Dreaming was around a 60/40 split in favour of the Commonwealth, Temporal is 70/30 in favour of the Void... It's already been confirmed by Peter that The Evolutionary Void (3rd Book) will return more to the Commonwealth'

Stick with it, I know some of the Edeard stuff can be a pain but i'm in it for the 'pay-off' of the continuation of the Commonwealth universe he's created.

Manach

I enjoyed the Nights Dawn Trilogy , but I found the ending rather rushed (ironic considering the series length). Looking foward to the Void trilogy but I'd also recommend his earlier works (Greg Mandel trilogy). Any other author with a similar style?

Ping Chow Chi

loved this series, it was my first sci-fi book, will get around to reading it again sometime. No one does space battles like Mr. Hamilton!

Sarky

It's a good series, but I feel it suffers from taking a very long time to get to its points. An awful lot of nothing happens.

oxygen_old

Spoiler Alert

Yea, Im not sure Im going to comit to the whole series, Ill sit on it a while. It feels like something he coulda done in one book, theres no need to stretch it over 3 books. At 1000+ pages, any author can build and finish am epic.

Also, he killed off the characters I liked the best early. I know alot of characters come back in this, but I dont think these ones. Powell Mandini and the couple of Mercs from the planet. I dont really like Joshua that much, hes a bit of a stereotype

Also, he killed the characters I liked the best. I know alot of the people

ixoy

I think his latter books show a better hand at characterisation, particularly with the Commonwealth Saga although the Greg Mandel series had some good earthy characters.
From the Night's Dawn perspective, I'd agree it sometimes seems epic for the sake of it, rather than from a driving story need, but I still enjoyed it. I particularly liked Quinn if only because he was an unredeemable piece of evil with Godlike powers that tries to bring the Apocalypse and kills millions...

Canis Lupus

A Nights Dawn... Great books till you get to the end.

ixoy

Canis Lupus wrote: »

A Nights Dawn... Great books till you get to the end.

Deus Ex Machina if there ever was one.

oxygen_old

Spoiler Alerts

I read a review of the trilogywhich had the ending in the review *rolls eyes*

I knew as soon as that evolution chapter in the first book, they would be used as part of the deux ex machina ending to trilogy.

Agreed Dexter is an intersting character. From what I know he comes back really in the 3rd book. I might jump right into number 3, as 2 seems like it might be a slight bit of a filler.

nyarlothothep

All the Dexter moments were brilliant and hilarious. He was the most entertaining character in the whole trilogy. Problem was Hamilton always went back to Princess whatshername and her boring "feelings."

myk

I've read Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained. Followed that up with the two published books of the Void Trilogy. Then read Reality Dysfunction and just finished Alchemist.

I think Hamilton's works are the first Sci-Fi operas that I read. I tried to read Banks, but didn't get into it. I like Arthur C Clark and Asimov short stories.

What I have realised with the Common Wealth saga and the Confederation trilogy (at least the two parts I've read) is that Hamilton is masterful at creating interesting imaginative new civilisations with characters on their own tracks, then producing even more original and interesting enemies and colliding the two to devastating effect.

Contrary to what others have said, the Edeard stuff was my favourite part of the Dreaming Void and I found most of it in Temporal Void much more enjoyable than the rest of the story.

I will say that I didn't enjoy the Ozzie detours in Common Wealth saga so much, but it was interesting and was redeemed ultimately by Ozzie's character

as well as the small tie in with the rest of the story

.

When I finished Reality Dysfunction I was thinking that Confederation Trilogy had excellent characters and wasn't sure why Common Wealth didn't have the same strength. Quinn Dexter, especially in Reality Dysfunction rather than Alchemist (haven't read Naked God yet!) is an excellent character, one of the best literary bad guys I ever came across. And I think Joshua is a brilliant protaganist, I also think Ione is excellent and other characters less strong after that, with a strong honourable mention for Erick! And the Valisk opponents are compelling.

And I wondered how come Confederation was so strong and Common Wealth less so, then I remember Paula Myo, brilliant. Ozzie and Nigel are brilliant characters, but Nigel is certainly more of a backgrounder. And Ozzie is more cool for his rep rather than his actions in the books imho. Of course I also enjoy Edeard. And that agent who doesn't know his past in Void trilogy is a pretty cool character.

For all of Hamilton's books so far, I've really enjoyed them and been very impressed in spite of some flaws. I'm looking forward to reading Naked God (unfortunately I'm living in a country inaccessable to amazon and I underestimated how quickly I would read Alchemist) and the last of the Void trilogy when it is published.

Another comment that I would make in relation to an earlier post is that I really enjoyed the initial build up in Reality Dysfunction, even more so than Alchemist.

Lalonde and Quinn's scheming before the dysfunction were fascinating, as was Joshua's and Syrinx's initial trading. I would have happily read a book continuing their respective pathes without a cataclysmic reality dysfunction

bonkey

I'm re-reading the Night's Dawn Trilogy at the moment.

Its good...but not as good as I remember.

I'm beginning to think that Fallen Dragon may just be my favourite Hamilton work.