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153 of 179 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
All Start and No Finish, October 20, 2001
I waited until I had read all six vols. of this marathon. Thus what I'm going to say relates to the entire series, not just this first part. As to the first part, it will suck you in with the hope that all of the following five long, long, long episodes are as good; they are not. Nothing about the final books is as good as the first, or even the second. Marion Zimmer Bradley says (Why Stories Get Rejected) that one of the fatal errors of science fiction is resorting to some outside power to resolve the story rather than having the main character(s) do it on their own. This series has outside forces to spare. One is introduced in the first installment, but seems to be put in hibernation. But in each subsequent book more and more unexplainable outside forces, omipotent, all-intelligent, supra-normal, beings or forces come on the scene. And the end. . .well, let's just say the main characters DO NOT resolve the issues by themselves. Another thing about this series that got my goat was the disappearance of primary characters at the drop of a word processor. The first two books and the middle two books (The Neutronium Alchemist) introduce a plot and characters that simply disappear on a single page toward the end of the fourth installment (oh, one of them comes back as a crew-member, but of no signifigance). This disregard for plot line and point-of-view really drove me crazy. I kept expecting them to come back right up to the end. For example, the main character has a brother suddenly show up and present a nice plot twist. Is the twist resolved? No, the brother just disappears into the background (as another crew member). I realize that long, long, long series are all the rage in SF these days, but the last couple of books in this series don't make any sense. I was not only disappointed, I was down right ticked off that I'd been tricked into spending my money but worse, my time. I finished this series in Australia but hauled the final book back with me so that I could rail about it. I probably should give this one or two stars, but in all fairness, the first two books, and maybe the third, were pretty good. Especially the action descriptions. But, if you are looking for this entire series to be of that quality, you will be very upset.
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58 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Series, But Not For Everyone, February 24, 2005
There are six books in Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" series:
- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 1: Emergence,"
- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 2: Expansion,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 1: Consolidation,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 2: Conflict,"
- "The Naked God - Part 1: Flight," and
- "The Naked God - Part 2: Faith."
Be warned: you CANNOT read these books individually. They are, essentially, chapters in one whopping great book. If you like the first book, then you'll have to read the other five books in order. There's no tie-up of any sort between any of the books. The publisher just broke the story up because it totals over 3,000 pages. If you pick up a book before you've read all the previous books (in order), put it down. It won't mean anything to you. Since these books are entirely dependent on each other, I'm writing this review on the series as a whole, not on the individual books.
This is one of the greatest science fiction sagas written. It ranks up there with David Brin's "Uplift Saga." It is literally a story of good vs evil and shows some of the potential (and pitfalls) of the human race. Over the years, I've read the whole series five times, and I still love it. I really only have two gripes with the book. First, and this is unavoidable in what Hamilton is doing, the evil in the series is definitely, graphically evil. This is not a book where the villain twists his mustache and laughs "nyah hah hah" as he forecloses on the orphanage or ties the heroine to the railroad tracks. The writing is fairly graphic in a lot of places. After five readings, this gets a bit wearing. My second gripe is one which somewhat limits the audience of the series (even more so than the evilness presented, and it's why I've given the series four stars instead of five): there's too much sex and the writing about it is too graphic. This is a problem with all of Hamilton's books, but it seems more prevalent in this series. Because of this, I wouldn't recommend the book for your children to read. But, as long as you're aware of that, I highly recommend the series and give it 4 stars out of five.
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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tremendous Depth and Originality, July 6, 2000
Very few Science Fiction novels can manage (well) the scope and intricacy required to effectively build characters that literally jump out of the book....This is one of those few. Every reader has personal favorites in terms of story lines and writing style...As for myself... I will proudly rate this series above Asimov's "Foundation Series", Vinge's "Fire Upon the Deep" or Herbert's "Dune",(Blasphemy I know). I found it difficult to put the book down, even at work:). The intricate character building, assorted plots and the insightful, but original, variations of technology used, create a believable world that swallows the reader and drags them willingly into the future. Far too often SciFi "epics" expose the reader to the same technology and themes...NOT this series. If you want to read horror...SciFi at its grandest...political intrigue...Future economics...All out, Ultra High-Tech Warfare...and ABOVE ALL "Original Thought"...Then read "The Reality Dysfunction" and ALL of the others in this series. It will be difficult to find another Science Fiction epic capable of building such a grand cast of characters and intensly high energy plot. If you love SciFi at its best and want to immerse yourself into the funnest, most enjoyable page burn'n novel ever...Read this!
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