Customer Reviews

The Reality Dysfunction Part 2: Expansion

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

When I finished reading the first Reality Dysfunction book, I was left wondering what was going to happen next since Hamilton tends to end his books as abruptly as they begin. There was no decernable main character in the first book, but, about halfway in you realize that Josh Calvert is definetly the binding factor for most of the numerious storylines that wind their way throughout the book.

Any writing issues that were in the first book were long gone in this one, leaving the writing much better and giving the story a much better scense of direction.

As usual, the story is amazing, letting you get ahead of yourself saying "oh, that's easy, they're going to do bla bla bla next" and then it turns out they do something totally different, adding another layer to the story in the process.

I'm very glad that Hamilton exended the Possesed's characters more, offering an interesting prospective of the human spirit, if you like to think that deep... =)

Either way, if you were slightly disapointed by Emergence, read this before you form any opinions about Hamilton, you'll be pleasantly surprised of what Hamilton is capable of.

Without taking up a lot of everyone's time and space (One can read my basic review under the first volume) I merely post this Advisory and WARNING!!: Do Not begin reading this Epic anywhere except at the Beginning!! Acquire the ENTIRE "Night's Dawn Trilogy" before you begin to avoid the frustrations that I did (and be glad that you won't have to wait for the final Triad to be published, as I was forced to do) Have the entire work ready on your bookshelf, and be prepared for one of the best and WILDEST experiences of your life!!!

"In the far future...The Edenists are genetically engineered space-dwellers with telepathic affinity to their biotechnological homes and ships. Adamists are...the Luddites of the future, willing to pioneer new worlds... The two clash on a primitive world called Lalonde..." Amazon.com review

As I have a bone or two to pick, don't read on unless you've read the novel: Despite the Amazon.com summary, the Edenists and Adamists do not "clash." In fact, they have nothing to do with each other, which is one of the premises of the novel. Adamists resolutely go their own low tech way. They are, however, as Hamilton puts it, "sequestrated" because their newly colonized planet Lalonde is the vortex entry point for
the souls of the DEAD. It isn't the hard working Adamist colonists hacking a life out of the frontier who confront the Edenists, but the reincarnated Dead. And that's a whole
nuther ballgame.

The Planet Lalonde is a pretty insane place. But for the Amazon "review" of part I, "Emergence" to call an Adamist priest "an ineffectual ....shocked by the world he has
come to settle... " is essentially an unfair and misleading characterization because it's relevant only to the first half of the novel. As anyone who has read the entire novel knows, the priest is the sole adult on the entire Planet to survive in his own skin. So if that is being "ineffectual," one has to wonder what "effectual" means. Indeed, what strikes me as ineffectual is loosing one's will and identity to another personality come
from the Beyond. In point of fact, the priest heroically saves some 23 children from being consumed by metaphysical beings incarnated into the living bodies of each and every colonist. Each and every, that is, except him. And this, I assume, is because he is the only man of the cloth, the only Adamist churchman. He alone goes through the gauntlet from Hell; but he emerges as himself. HIS self; not somebody else's. He alone
remains who he is. That seems pretty effectual to me.

And finally, "Joining the large cast of characters is Graeme Nicholson, a reporter....who will regret ever learning about the biggest story to hit the galaxy in a thousand years." Amazon.com review

Graeme who? The guy at the bar in scene one who is never mentioned again? That Graeme? Either I missed something, or Graeme Nicholson does not join the cast. And regret? I don't recall him actually regretting anything since I don't recall him being part of the plot.

In any event, Peter Hamilton has, in this novel, created a space opera that helps define contemporary SF. For lack of a better term, this novel is awesome. Its big, its bulky, its a
fantabulously detailed mind-boggling melding of DH Lawrence, Buck Rogers and HP Lovecraft (or something like that): Heroes and Maidens indulge in country matters; Living Habitats for a number of species germinated by a kind of Medici royalty have the
capacity to download the "soul" of a dying person; there are the technologies of ancient civilizations of unknown origin to be studied; and, of course, the incursion of the souls from the Beyond to wage a cosmic civil war, etc, etc. What's not to like?

Finally, beware axegrinding naysayers who after a thousand pages decide they don't like what they're reading. If they wasted their time, it's not the book's fault.

Have you ever read a story and experienced a moment where you stopped seeing the words and started seeing the world through the eyes of the characters? That is what happened to me while reading "The Reality Dysfunction: Expansion." There is a wonderful space battle in this book that is worth the price of admission. And happily there are other reasons to recommend this book - lively characters, gripping battles, and loads of action make for major amounts of space opera fun.

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect book. The story can get longwinded at times. I often found myself wondering if the author was being paid by the word. But would the story be better if it was briefer? I'm not convinced. And I'm concerned that some of the better moments would be lost. And this book is sorely in need of an editor. Characters disappear for major stretches of the story, then reappear without a by your leave. It makes it difficult to follow the story at times. Weeks pass for some while hours pass for others. Very annoying.

But there are some wonderful moments and some fine concepts at work here. What would society be like if everyone could honestly share thoughts and emotions telepathically? Just how would your life be changed if you had proof of an afterlife? I think these are ideas worth exploring and expounding upon.

This is not heavy literature. It's modern, pulp science fiction. Written to be enjoyed.

These three books (Reality Disfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, and the Naked God) are some of my favourite scifi ever. I generally consider myself to be quite discerning, and hate anything implausable in scifi that I read. Hamilton not only sticks to the laws of science, but within those laws creates a universe on the edge of human imagination. He describes ideas and concepts, each of which could be the fuel for a fascinating story in themselves, yet they are mere background to the actual story which will really challenge your imagination.

Imagine "Dawn of the dead"... in space. Not a bad concept and one which Hamilton uses to it's full potential. Set far in the future, this story tells of a time when man has achieved total dominance of space. Planets are colonized by big business, space stations are run by those always dependable A.I's and relative peace and harmony reigns. Sadly, this all ends when a freak occurrance allows a spirit from hell (or close to it) to possess the living. A move which opens the gates for mass possession on not only a global but universal scale. Cue the fight for survival between the dead and the living. Hamilton somehow manages to keep a consistent pace, forcing the reader to turn one more page then was intended. Nothing is left out, from the space cowboy to the vast galactic fleets and spce stations, all struggling to survive a terror that few can admit to. So all in all the best fun i've had since Varley's Steel Beech and roll on the sequels, which for once i support.

The Reality Dysfunction; Expansion is part 2 of 6 in a major story told by Peter Hamilton, including the two Reality Dysfunction novels, two Neutronium Alchemist novels and two Naked God novels. They must be read as a set and in order. That said: Expansion picks up where Emergence left off. The Possessed are finding their way off Lalonde and spreading throughout the known universe as fast as they can, while everyone else is a) trying to stop the problem on Lalonde, b) trying to figure out what is happening on Lalonde and c) trying to stop what is happening on Lalonde from happening elsewhere. Unfortunately they are a day late and dollar short as too many of the possessed, including the very insane Quinn Dexter - a Satanist priest - have managed to leave Lalonde before anyone even knew what was going on.

Several teams of Marines and mercenaries are sent to Lalonde, to very little avail. The only team that makes any headway is one sent down from the Lady Mac, as Joshua Calvert has apparently rubbed some of his luck off onto everyone he touches.

CAUTION, MILD SPOILERS:
One thing that bothered me, however, was that the only woman mercenary - Ariadne - just seems to vanish somewhere between picking up Father Horst and the children and the final show-down where the mercenaries hold off the Possessed so the children can escape. Maybe I missed something, but the mercenaries were fighting in pairs, none of which included Ariadne, and Theo was driving the hovercraft - Ariadne was not mentioned. What happened to her? It's bothersome.

At any rate, this chapter in the series moved much more quickly than did Emergence, and the story seems to be coming together quite nicely. I found that I was becoming more aware of the various peoples and their relations to one another - Hamilton really is a master storyteller to wind so many threads together and make them all work. I feel comfortable recommending this story - at this point anyway - to anyone who would enjoy an epic science fiction story, or epic space opera.

This is the second book of the series, and shouldn't be read as a stand-alone (you'll be completely lost) but if you don't mind reading a whole lot of words, start with the first book, which is pretty good, but not great, then read the rest, which are all great. For my money, the best SF series I've ever read, absolutely mind-blowing and fun. All the elements of great SF: Super hi-tech, extremely detailed universe, complex and believable societies, space battles, and, most importantly, deals with a fairly important theme: What happens to us when we die?

This book was recommended to me in Australia where it's a daunting 3in thick. But, I was told persevere through the first 100 pages and you'll be hooked. Sure enough, right around the 100th page, I felt the hook tickle my skin and by the 200th page, I was totally committed to the entire Night's Dawn Trilogy.

Hamilton has written the definitive gripping space opera yet, and after reading all 3 (yes, the last book was released in Oz in August, 1999) he doesn't let you go until the very end. Eat your heart out Kim Stanley Robinson - Hamilton KNOWS how to write a thick novels that keep you burning the midnight oil until the sun comes up and work calls!