11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
700 page book that seems too short, March 31, 2009
Another excellent installment of the Commonwealth universe saga. There are really two universes in this book and different physics apply in each. The universe inside the "Void" leans towards fantasy, whereas the outside Commonwealth universe leans towards hard science fiction.
I do not like fantasy, however I did enjoyed the parts of the book that play inside the Void more. The reader knows that ultimately there will be an explanation for the way time and space behave inside the Void, and the fast paced story and well developed characters make it a joy to suspend disbelieve - for another 700 pages.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted to love this book, January 5, 2009
I read Temporal Void over a few days this Christmas, and have been looking forward to it since finishing Dreaming Void a year ago.
I wanted so much to give this 5 stars, in the end I rated it a 4 since the Commonwealth parts are well written and exciting, but it's barely a 4 and if I weren't such a fan of Hamilton's myriad of Commonwealth characters I'd have given it a 3.
My main issue is that the Void dreams of Edeards adventures are just far too long, as I recall at least two of them are about a hundred pages. I found myself reading the first dozen pages of each dream and counting the pages to the end of the chapter, seriously considering skipping them, I had to force myself the read these, a tragedy for a Hamilton fan. The dreams seem pedestrian compared to events outside the void, and are very slow at building the Waterwalker character in a rather predictable coming of age type of way.
Several things could have been incorporated in to the Commonwealth arcs of the story but seem to have been sacrificed for the dream arc to make this book about the same size as Dreaming Void. For example the greater population of the Commonwealth seem to be strangely unconcerned about an impending alien invasion to stop the Pilgrimage, and I would loved to have read more about how the Commonwealth has evolved since the Prime war.
I really like Hamilton's work, and hope Evolutionary Void is more satisfying then this. Of course, I'll still buy the book whatever.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth ordering from amazon.co.uk, November 12, 2008
This review is from: The Temporal Void (Hardcover)
With the world becoming smaller it amazes me that there are not global release dates for more things. Since this book isn't due out in the US until Spring 09 I ordered from the UK site of Amazon.
If you like other books from Mr. Hamilton then you will love this book. The grand scope of most of his books is continued. The Waterwalker story is by far the most interesting part for me.
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