Am citit toate cele trei volume pe nerasuflate. Space opera asa cum trebuie sa fie. Pacat ca nu au aparut inca continuarile. O sa ramin in ceata, exact cum am patit si la Steaua Pandorei. ( )

I’ve read an awful lot of science fiction over the years, and recently returned to the genre after a lengthy absence. In doing so, I made a concerted effort to upgrade my reading list and familiarize myself with the new generation of sci-fi writers. My recent experience has been a real revelation. Whereas in the past, most of the science fiction I consumed was very easy to read and understand (Asimov as an example), some of the works I’ve sampled in the last year or two have quite literally been over my head.

I read Dune (multiple times) many years ago. I proceeded on to the Dune sequels, but after two or three they became so philosophically dense that I lost interest. I recently read Herbert’s widely acknowledged masterpiece The Dosadi Experiment and again was forced to admit that I was incapable of appreciating it fully. Ditto for much of Philip Dick’s writing.

In an effort to read all joint Hugo/Nebula Award winners, I ran into a few other such works. Some of the new generation of sci-fi writers have published undeniably outstanding novels that I simply couldn’t enjoy fully. Charles Stross, Neal Stephenson and Ian McDonald come immediately to mind. These cats are just too intelligent for me to relate to (and I have a post graduate degree!).

Others, such as Joe Scalzi, David Brin and Joe Haldeman crank out easily understood and entertaining work (in the mode of Asimov), but without all the heavy lifting some of the previously cited authors require. All of this to say, that in Peter Hamilton’s The Reality Dysfunction I discovered what I felt was a very happy medium: Vastly entertaining, but with just the level of challenge and difficulty that I could master without detracting from my enjoyment of the reading experience. There are some pretty heavy concepts in this novel, yet I never felt that I was lost or over my head. Outstanding example of “hard” science fiction.

One of my science fiction pet peeves are hackneyed alien life forms. Multi armed/legged creatures, insect or other animal like beings, as if alien life forms have to fit into human constructs. Larry Niven’s Ringworld is a perfect example (giant cats and Pierson’s Puppets). While this novel has some of that, it also has some very intriguing alien life forms which do not fit neatly into our preconceived notions of how an alien may look or behave. It also includes sentient habitats and spaceships, a concept I first encountered in Charles Stross’s Saturn’s Children.

At over 1,000 pages, and only the first of three books in a series, this is an undertaking that requires a significant time commitment. There are also a dizzying number of plot threads which could be hard to keep straight.
Not the kind of book that you read for a while, put aside and take up again a few weeks later. However, if you’re up to the challenge, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. On to book two. ( )

I bought this one online after having heard some good and interesting things about it online. But I failed to read the reviews here that noted it is the first two parts of a six part book. Not a six part series, a six part book.

At this point, I'm 92 pages and 5 chapters in. About 1/10th of the way through this monster. So far, in what would be 1/3 - 1/4 of the way into a typical novel, I've been introduced to 5 different cultures that have no apparent connection to one another. Each culture, with one exception, has introduced multiple characters. And it appears, 5 entirely different story lines, each capable of being their own novel.

I'm not opposed to a huge and epic story. I liked LOTR. I liked Cyteen. I liked the Cryptonomicon. But by this far in to the book I'd found and been hooked by the main narrative thread. I still have no idea what The Reality Dysfunction is about, and I'm losing my motivation to find out. And at about 2 lbs it is, frankly, a chore to hold up to read for any length of time. It may be a great book, but I'm beginning to think I may never get far enough to find out. If you are planning on finding out for yourself, more power to you. But be prepared for a long time with the book, and perhaps spend a little time at the gym working on the arm muscles first.

This is the first part of a 6 book series spanning over 3500 pages. Apparently, the breaks at the end of each book are strictly for purposes of publishing and binding, and have little or nothing to do with natural break points in the story. Supposedly, it is not actually 6 books - but one incredibly long novel. This is an Australian edition which includes the first two books in the series – Emergence and Expansion. I got quite some way into this before realising I had read it many years ago – but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what happened. Even now I am not sure if I have read only the first book in the series, or whether I read the first two in one volume, as this is.
The main plot idea is great - souls of dead people returning from the "beyond" to "possess" living humans. The universe that Hamilton constructs, with nanobiotechnology playing a central role is also fascinating. However, my greatest complaint about this story is that there is just entirely too much of it! Hamilton could probably have gotten his point across in a third the space. There are simply too many characters, too many subplots, and the plot moves forward with a glacial ponderousness.
More importantly, I can't find much to like in any of the myriad characters that are introduced and frequently disappear at the drop of a hat. Too many characters are introduced, most are killed off quickly, and I wish the others had been too. There's lots of unnecessary sex, which doesn't in and of itself bother me, the sexual exploits of the two main characters made them much less sympathetic. The two main protagonists are cardboard cutouts – Joshua is a cross between Han Solo and Indiana Jones; Dexter Quinn is a copybook bad guy.

Having said that, the story IS interesting. I will read the subsequent volumes – even if only to see how Hamilton pulls all this together. I’m hoping that good things come to those who wait – and persevere! ( )

I was rather apprehensive of this doorstop of a book, but I needn't have worried. Hamilton takes up a cracking pace, even with extensive world-building. Even when the story veered into quasi-religious zombie horror, the pace didn't slacken and that carried me through something that in any other book would have made me hurl it aside in disgust. But quite apart from the irresponsibility of such an action in this case - the risk of injury to passers-by is too great, given the size of the book! - it says much for Hamilton's ability as a writer that in a universe of wonders, he is able to carry off the necessary suspension of disbelief when he introduces elements of the fantastical. I reached the end in a state of amazement, only partly due to finding that a 1200-pager in this author's hands was not a chore. ( )