Voidhawks, The Lady Mac, Tranquility and Norkfolk Tears

[slowfox]

glittertine prompted something like a geekgasm in me yesterday when she mentioned that she was reading The Reality Dysfunction. For the genuine effect, my comment there should be read outloud at about 600 words per minute, with no pauses. :-p

So, The Reality Dysfunction is the first instalment in Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, comprising The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God.

It's a fun read - Hamilton takes care with (most of) the physics, and I absolutely love love LOVE the setup and the world building that's going on. Hamilton has a vast array of characters, operating across a huge number of worlds attempting to counter a really evil threat that first emerges amongst a group of convicts on, if memory serves, Lalonde, a world famous for its legendarily tough wood Mayope (I hope I'm remembering this OK - it's been sooooooooooo long since I read the books (I read the first one in '96, I think)).

Anyway, our main hero, Josh, lives on Traquility, an O'Neill habitat (huge spaceborne cylinder that creates gravity for its inhabitants through spinning). I would jump at the chance to live on Tranquility, because it sounds like an awesome place (and amongst habitats, Tranquility has its own... uh, unique attributes), and not just because Ione's there.

I totally <3 Ione.

Josh has inherited his father's spaceship - the spacecraft in this universe have two basic models - there are the voidhawks, which are organic, and can 'swallow', that is, make interstellar jumps through wormholes, and there are the mechanistic spacecraft which are spherical in shape, because of the nature of the field generation they use to transport from A to B.

Anyway, Josh ends up on Lalonde (if I've remembered the planet's name correctly) picking up a load of wood to ship to Norfolk (a determinedly backwards planet, and everyone thinks that he's attempting to ship coals to Newcastle on this one) at the point where the whole evilness thing explodes. So naturally he's at (part of) the centre of the storm as the whole Confederate Universe comes under attack.

Sadly, Josh is a bit of a GaryStu, but the rest of the characters make up for this laziness, and if you disengage the brain, the trilogy is a hugely compelling, entertaining romp through the 26th Century.

Comments

[carolanne5]

OMG spooky, I'm 437 pages into my first ever reading of The Reality Dysfunction. So far I'm loving it but not quite as much as Pandora's star yet.

It's just kicked off at Lalonde and Josh has just mentioned he intends to visit the planet.

I'm going to the SFX weekender next February, where Peter F Hamilton is guesting, hence the desire to read his most famous trilogy.

[slowfox]

Pandora's Star knocks TRD into the proverbial cocked hat. It's evident that Hamilton matured greatly as a writer betwixt crafting the two series.

Still, Reality Dysfunction is a great ride... tainted with silliness, which is a shame, but if you just enjoy it for the ride, it's a whole lot of fun :-)

And SFX Weekender? Coooooooool!!!!! :D Enjoy!

[carolanne5]

There's probably still tickets for SFX Weekender, it's not until next February ... you'd be more than welcome to join the gang!

I agree with TRD you need to just enjoy and not think too carefully about the plot (holes).

[slowfox]

James Marsters! China Mieville! Robert Rankin!
...and it's in Sussex???

*ponders*

I mean, seriously *ponders*

SFX weekender

[(Anonymous)]

At that's only the names booked so far, there are more being added all the time.

I'm going with N an old work mate (he owns every episode of Doctor ever not just the reborn RTD ones!), Sarah (another old work mate, massive fantasy reader and huge Buffy fan) and Ben (Sarah's cousin and huge graphic novel fan and gamer).

We're hiring a chalet that sleeps five so we do currently have room for one more ...

Re: SFX weekender

[carolanne5]

That was of course me ;)