26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Identifying Goals and Means, May 1, 2002
If you assume we can have interstellar colonies, how do you keep mankind from simply creating its old problems on new worlds? In a world of nanotech, artificial sentience and customized genese, what's really important?
Hamilton doesn't dodge the Big Questions in "Fallen Dragon." The book intertwines four stories: Lawrence Newton as adult, a pirate for a multi-national, interstellar corporation that engages in colonial piracy at an interstellar scale; the same Lawrence Newton as a youth, a child of the ruling class in one of those colonies, obsessed with interstellar exploration; Denise, a colonist on another planet, who tells children the most amazing stories and may or may not be more than she seems; and Simon Roderick, a director of the the corporate pirates that employ Newton. Each has a different view of his or her universe, each has a different set of goals and each has a different set of means to those goals. Who's right and what's right are the heart of this story, as well as what's a legitimate way to pursue those goals.
Hamilton's concept of multi-national corporations whose shareholder return is based on a eumphemistic "asset realization" - simple piracy - of interstellar colonies is plausible, and has precedent in the British East india Company. The development choices made by the colonists on each of the colonies Newton visits to loot are imaginative; the colony of Santo Christo is especially interesting. "Skin" is the next obvious step after the armor in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers." And Hamilton does a nice job of tying the various plots together at the end, in a climax somewhat reminiscent of Iain M. Bank's "Use of Weapons."
On the other hand, the lengthy expository sections, as other reviewers have noted, do bog the story down somewhat, and could have used some editing. It's not clear to me what the purpose of the extended steamy sex scenes is, either.
Still and all, the story works, and works at several levels. Hamilton slyly hides a few cards until the last few pages, incuding the reason why Newton, apparently improbably, shifts sides near the end of the book, after hearing the story of Modrik. And I liked the ambiguity of the ending: you can't really be sure which solution is the "right solution," and perhaps there is neither a right solution nor a single right solution to the intractable problems that afflict mankind. Less palatable is Hamilton's implication that the only true virtue is selfishness.
But it's a good yarn, and well told. Recommended, with a caution that it may be dangerous to skim the tedious parts.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hamilton rises sharply in my pantheon of favorite authors, May 21, 2003
I bought "Fallen Dragon" on the strength of Hamilton's previous works, especially the Reality Dysfunction series. When Hamilton is writing at his peak he is superb, throwing off new ideas like a shower of sparks, and generating gripping plots and fascinating characters. Other times Hamilton will become a bit long-winded, or will paint himself into a corner which requires a deus ex machina to extricate things.
I wasn't sure how "Fallen Dragon" would measure up, especially since interspersed flashbacks are not my favorite format for storytelling. But Hamilton was a good enough writer to pull me through the doubts I had early in the book. Pretty soon it turned into a "can't put it down" novel, costing me significant sleep time. I can't even complain too much about the deus ex machina aspect of "Fallen Dragon". It was carefully foreshadowed from the very beginning, and it made sense within the context of the story.
The surprise ending caught me completely by surprise. It did a beautiful job of tying up all the loose ends, and it was very satisfying.
My reaction upon finishing the book was, "Damn, that was good!" It was much better when viewed as a whole, which was pretty impressive considering how good the individual parts were. It far exceeded my expectations going in. It left me eager to read Hamilton's next new novel, and simultaneously apprehensive that he'll be able to maintain the high standards set by this and previous works.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fallen Dragon, Hidden Message, March 26, 2002
By A Customer
I have read several other works by Peter Hamilton like the Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, et.al so I am very familar with his writing. I was very excited upon reading the dust jacket. I was prepared to read a ripsnorting tour de force of military sci-fi like Hammer's Slammers or Starship Troopers. Instead I got a very personal tale of one man's life journey to fulfill a dream. The main character Lawrence Newton gives up home, family and love to get the chance to become a starship pilot. Then years later, he discovers all that he gave up is all he ever really wanted in the first place. I also saw a repeat of a message that seems to recur throughout Hamilton's work - What is the good of technological advances, mastery of the physical world and exploring space if humanity's heart doesn't change and become better? Or as one character asks Newton 'You would sell your soul to go home?' He replies 'I left my soul at home'. This is a great book about shattered dreams and second chances.
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