The Neutronium Alchemist: Part I - Consolidation (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "It seemed to Louise Kavanagh as though the fearsome midsummer heat had persisted for endless, dreary weeks rather than just the four Duke-days since the..." (more)
Key Phrases: assault mechanoids, neural nanonics, energistic ability, First Admiral, New California, Admiral Farquar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Peter Hamilton's space opera saga, which began with the Reality Dysfunction, Part 1: Emergence and Part 2: Expansion, continues in The Neutronium Alchemist, another two-volume novel. Now the battle lines are clearly drawn, and more than half a dozen plot lines are charging ahead as humanity's galaxy-spanning culture faces a terrifying revelation: souls of the dead are returning from the beyond to possess the living. The living, though competent and brave in the best science fiction tradition, must contend with history's greatest generals and leaders, as well as some unexpected champions. Al Capone, it seems, makes an excellent interstellar emperor. How do you fight an enemy whose every soldier is also a hostage and who, if killed, will simply return to possess someone else? The dilemmas are not just technical, but moral, as people face the first real proof of life after death.

This conflict is far broader, though, than a simple apocalyptic battle of good versus evil. Among the possessors are some good souls who fight the risen dead even though it's against their best interest. Conversely, plenty of the living see siding with the dead as an opportunity to further their own interests. Action, wonders, and mystery continue to characterize this high-quality series. --Brooks Peck

Product Description

Humanity is in incredible peril. The minds of those long dead are taking over the bodies of the living, in increasingly alarming numbers. Joshua Calvert is desperately trying to recover a "doomsday weapon", an instrument that might blast the dead back into oblivion--but in the wrong hands, it could mean the end of the human race.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Aspect; 6th printing edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446605174
• ISBN-13: 978-0446605175
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #358,921 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read right after the last book, January 9, 2001

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book was great, don't get me wrong, but if you're committed to reading the entire series (ie you've read the Reality Dyfunction and want to see how it all ends eventually) do yourself a favor and start reading right after the Reality Dyfunction. I made that mistake and waited a few years in between (hey I do have other things to do) and attempting to dive in, at least in the beginning, can be rough going. Fortunately Hamilton does his best to bring readers up to speed on the run but he can't explain everything without bogging it all down in lengthy backwards exposition and so you've just got to figure it out as you go. On the book itself, it's just as good as the first two books, just in a different way. The Reality Dyfunction was good for the shock of its ideas, both for the complexity and gritty hardness of Hamilton's universe and the central concept of the dead coming back and taking over people (which could have turned into some cliched horror deal, but didn't). This book shows that the last one wasn't a fluke and he can actually develop all those ideas of the last novel into something workable. Thus, there aren't all out firefights and breakneck action here, mostly a retrenching as the characters gear up for the inevitable second conflict. We get to see how the possessed are trying to fortify their positions and how the living are trying to reclaim their worlds. Through it all there's an impressive knot of political and social machinations, as everyone tries to manipulate the crap out of everyone else. The characters are all still well defined and sometimes still surprising, which is good considering how much time you have to spend with some of them. There are lots of plots spinning around but don't fret, none of them are horribly complex and there's little overlap and Hamilton avoids the problems of some authors (ahem . . . Robert Jordan) by not giving his million characters all similar sounding names so you can't tell them apart. It's a quieter book that simmers with closed intensity, which will probably explode in the next book. Don't even think of starting this one without having read the Reality Dyfunction, it won't make any sense at all and you'll just be hurting yourself. But this is the next logical step after that book and a welcome one. And I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I liked the idea of Al Capone showing up, talk about adapting to yourself situation. Great stuff, and I've learned from my mistakes, I'm reading the second part of this as we speak. Review on that to come shortly, not that anyone is out there waiting. Pity.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Series, But Not For Everyone, February 24, 2005

By	David A. Lessnau (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A logical follow-up to the first book, but not as engaging, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

That's right - I mean it. Not as engaging as the first, but this is through no fault of Hamiltons. This sad fact is true of most sequels. The first book was replete with countless examples of good versus evil and hard, shocking acts of violence and horror. This volume is not as hard hitting - but perhaps it shouldn't be. After all you can't manufacture identical responses from the reader again and again. Thus, this book is the expected progressment of the story of the Confederation doing what they can in preperation against the dead. More 'technical' or 'diplomatic' than the Reality Dysfunction's actiony themes. However, I expect this will change with the next volume titled 'Conflict'. I hope it does because so far I've been fairly bored with this volume compared to the audaciousness of the previous two. However, the 'dead-end' dead vs. living situation has so far proved to be a truely impressive plot situation. If Hamilton can somehow snap this dead-end away and into some sort of satisfying conclusion he'll go down as one of the best writers I've seen... And I mean that in a positive way. He's deliberately written such a bleak situation. Only the next three volumes will reveal if he does cleverly conclude this nightmare or if he will take 'the easy way out' and let the possessed triumph.