Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » August 26th, 2008, 7:23

I've finally finished reading Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. It really is an epic trilogy, with each of the three books (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God) running to about 1200 pages. The story is set in the 27th century, and mankind has developed a "Confederation" of colonised planets, with two distinct cultures living alongside each other - the Adamists and Edenists.

Without wanting to give too much away, the story is built around a threat to mankind, but it's a little unusual in that it doesn't come from an alien species. The tale itself is fairly complex, with a large number of characters involved in a large number of storylines through the books, many of which interlink, but not quite all.

Given the size of the books, there is plenty of time for decent character development, and this is done pretty well. In addition, despite the complex storyline, I didn't feel like I was losing track of any one thread. I'm not sure how I feel about the overall conclusion to the story yet, but I certainly can't think of a better one, and I didn't feel cheated at the end either which has happened with some books in the past.

I haven't got much time to add any more to this now, but I'd highly recommend these books to anyone who is a fan of Sci-Fi. Once I've read a bit of lighter stuff I'm definitely going to track down some more of Hamilton's stuff.

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » August 26th, 2008, 10:21

Also seriously recommended is the Judas Unchained/Pandora's Star tri...wait, what do you call a pair of books? a dualigy? any who....

Also very very good books. Set in a similar sort of world, with similar amounts of characterisation.

I quite enjoyed his 'Mindstar' series as well, but they were based on earth, rather than being 'IN SPAEC!'. also it was quite nice seeing the UK in a future setting for a change.

And for stuff by a different author, have you looked at David Weber's 'Honour Harrington' series? Its more of a 'Hornblower IN SPAEC!' but i quite enjoyed it. all 10 books (so far) are freebies!

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/09-A ... llCostsCD/

Post by **Joose** » August 26th, 2008, 15:48

Ooh, Ive just started book two of Nights Dawn. Im really enjoying it myself. Also without giving too much away, I am finding the central plot point that Lat referred to extremely interesting. Its not something that I've ever seen before in SciFi, which is quite refreshing.

Considering how hueg it is, and that it is reasonably serious scifi (serious compared to more action fluff books like Aliens or something), im devouring it at a hell of a rate.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » August 26th, 2008, 16:05

Joose wrote:Ooh, Ive just started book two of Nights Dawn. Im really enjoying it myself. Also without giving too much away, I am finding the central plot point that Lat referred to extremely interesting. Its not something that I've ever seen before in SciFi, which is quite refreshing.

Considering how hueg it is, and that it is reasonably serious scifi (serious compared to more action fluff books like Aliens or something), im devouring it at a hell of a rate.

Hard. The stuff in the Hyperion books I read recently was in a broadly similar vein, although the SciFi stuff was more wishy-washy, and the bits about which I don't want to give much away was rubbish. In addition, Simmons is rubbish at character generation whereas Hamilton was great. In short, if you want to read Hyperion, don't - read the Night's Dawn trilogy instead.

Post by **Roman Totale** » August 26th, 2008, 18:28

I put this on my list of things to read after the last time you mentioned it.

Has anyone read any of his Greg Mandel books? I have something of a private detective fetish, so I'd be curious to know what a book about a 'psychic detective' is like.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » August 27th, 2008, 7:07

I haven't read anything else of his yet, but I certainly will do. However, I have a number of Diskworld books to read first (down to the last 4 now) and I also picked up Hidden Sun by Kevin J Anderson. I've not read any of his stuff yet other than the Dune books he wrote with Brian Herbert, but saw it on a shelf and thought I'd give it a go. Any of you lot read it?

Post by **Joose** » March 15th, 2010, 13:29

Holy Pissflaps, ive finally got around to finishing the series. That took me rather a long time.

Short review: Its bloody ace, interesting conclusion, manages to pull together a lot of wildly thrashing storylines together impressively neatly.

Extra-worth reading if you are remotely interested in the Eclipse Phase RPG, as theres a big chunk of the same concepts in both.

Im going to have to check out some of this guys other books now. Wont be for a while though, as I now have an entire set of bookshelves filled with things I havent read but want to.

Post by **HereComesPete** » March 15th, 2010, 13:36

I've still failed to read these, Lat! Fetch me these books! I may even return your other ones.