Peter F. Hamilton

[Werthead]

Since there's been a suggestion for a thread on Peter F. Hamilton...

Peter F. Hamilton is Britain's biggest-selling science fiction author. He started his career by publishing short stories in Interzone and Fear magazines from 1987 onwards and published his first novels in the early 1990s. Although he started out writing relatively 'low-key' near-future novels set in a Britain flooded by global warming, he made his name with gargantuam space operas set hundreds of years in the future and featuring sentient spacecraft and telepathic humans. His books are as follows:

The Greg Mandel Trilogy
1. Mindstar Rising (1993)
2. A Quantum Murder (1994)
3. The Nanoflower (1995)

The Night's Dawn Trilogy
1. The Reality Dysfunction (1996)
2. The Neutronium Alchemist (1997)
3. The Naked God (1999)
A Second Chance at Eden (1998, anthology set before the trilogy)
The Confederation Handbook (2000, companion volume to the trilogy)

Fallen Dragon (2001)
Misspent Youth (2002)

The Commonwealth Saga
1. Pandora's Star (2004)
2. Judas Unchained (2005)

Hamilton's next work is The Void Trilogy, which will be set in the same universe as The Commonwealth Saga but 1,000 years further into the future.

Hamilton is known for writing huge but fast-paced novels mixing high technology with action and decent characeristation. In stark contrast to many other writers, Hamilton refuses to believe that humans will fundamentally change in future centuries and our basic drives will remain intact, meaning his characters are far more 'familiar' than in some hard-core SF. Hamilton is also a small-c conservative who believes that the colonisation of space can only come through rampant capitalism: the exploiting of other worlds for their resources and living space being the only possible attraction for the vast investment such an enterprise would require.

Hamilton is also to be congratulated for originality. Having created a vast, complex and fairly convincing SF future history in The Night's Dawn Trilogy, it was surprising to see Hamilton building a second, equally vast, equally complex space opera universe for his Commonwealth Saga, although this led to a slight problem where Hamilton spent so much time trying to avoid repeating ideas between the two settings, that some of his ideas in Commonwealth seemed a bit of a stretch (humans controlling technology through interactive tattoos, rather than a simple brain implant in Night's Dawn).

Hamilton will not win prizes for beautiful prose, but he knows how to fire up a story, convincingly and deftly portray characters, locations and societies, then upset the whole table with the introduction of some awe-inspiring threat. Along the way he laces his own views on war and society's development that are interesting, if not massively original.

In summary, Hamilton is a great SF writer full of ideas who knows how to spin a good yarn and is well worth reading.

 

[murphy]

You are adding to my already large tbr pile. All these good books.

 

[Cobolt]

You are adding to my already large tbr pile. All these good books.

Yeah and me, as if I havent enough to read already.

 

[star.torturer]

Hamilton's next work is The Void Trilogy, which will be set in the same universe as The Commonwealth Saga but 1,000 years further into the future.

yeah, cant wait thanks

 

[biodroid]

Is it necessary to read the Nights Dawn trilogy before reading the Commonwealth Saga? What is the reading order anyway?

 

[chrispenycate]

Is it necessary to read the Nights Dawn trilogy before reading the Commonwealth Saga? What is the reading order anyway?

Not at all; they are totally independent. Also, the trilogy is available in more pocket-sized books, each volume split into two, so make sure you're getting everything.

For those whose "to be read" piles require reinforcement, there are two stand alones I've read: misspent youth (that I didn't think much of) and fallen dragon.

I still like the mindstar books best, I fear; less epic, but a lot less irrelevant information bulking up and confusing the main story. (and they should be read in the right order)

 

[biodroid]

Thanks, we don't get the split up versions in my country. For some reason I like the feel of a thick book, like I am getting my moneys worth or something silly like that. I have reality Dysfunction but its getting torn, maybe I should look for a secondhand shop and see if i can get another version.

 

[Overread]

at 1200 pages in a paperback per book - these are the sorts of books that are hard to keep together after a few reads (even after one the spine is starting to rebel!).
By all means look out for cheaper copies, but remember that second hand they still won't have the strength

 

[Parson]

Not at all; they are totally independent. Also, the trilogy is available in more pocket-sized books, each volume split into two, so make sure you're getting everything.

For those whose "to be read" piles require reinforcement, there are two stand alones I've read: misspent youth (that I didn't think much of) and fallen dragon.

I still like the mindstar books best, I fear; less epic, but a lot less irrelevant information bulking up and confusing the main story. (and they should be read in the right order)

Too true! The mindstar books are the best. With Mindstar Rising the best of that lot.

I have read the other two series as well. In my opinion they are well above average, but they will never make any of my all time lists. One thing about the Night's Dawn Trilogy that was a little hard to swallow was how all of the major characters made a 180 degree turn in their relationships during the sweep of the trilogy.

With the Commonwealth Saga I find myself wading through the stories of a lot of characters I don't care much about to get to what is in MHO the "real" story. But I will likely read the next one when it shows.

 

[The Procrastinator]

"Well above average, but will never make any of my all time lists" - well said Parson. I really enjoy reading Hamilton, though sometimes I would like to strangle his editor for letting that grammar through. But he's imaginative, his characters are good enough, and his books are like a roller coaster ride - the "epic" ones are, anyway. He clearly has skazillions of ideas, and his stories are very entertaining - he really knows how to put the pedal to the metal. I too will be buying the next Hamilton.

 

[chopper]

ok, time for my 2p:

haven't read the Mandel series in years, but do remember them being ok.
Night's Dawn trilogy was a massive leap, and took a long time to get through. benefits from re-reading. you get the feeling he's played Traveller before.

Fallen Dragon: i have it but haven't been able to finish it. it reinforces the small-c conservative economics PFH espouses by looking at the flip side of the coin: a lot of worlds in this book aren't profitable, so get abandoned mercenarily.

Mispent Youth: not read it. as i understand, its linked thematically to the next books....

....which are the Commonwealth Saga. these are my favourite books of his. the Motiles are extremely well imagined, with genuine motives, and the method of interstellar travel - wormholes and trains! - is pleasingly retro.

Unfortunately i found vol.1 of the Void trilogy to be rather uneven, and IMO even a little badly edited (sentence construction, for example). might just be me. he's also picked up a habit of putting in far too many sex scenes. especially the ones with the guy who's gone multiple. i hope there's a point to them in later volumes.

there y'go.

 

[Urien]

I thoroughly enjoy Hamilton's work. I loved the early parts of the Night's Dawn triology, the concept was fabulous, good pacing, great space battles, believable and attractive future society.

Two things bother me slightly (for what it's worth); his tendancy to get too deep into needless side lines that lead nowhere but eat space (I guess I can blame the editor), and the deus ex machina. In Night's Dawn it really tainted the novel for me. I always feel there should have been one more book in that series.

That said, if I was a quarter the writer he is I'd be a happy bunny.

 

[Werthead]

A lot of people say the ending to the Night's Dawn series is DEM, but the definitions of DEM I've looked at all say that the plot device 'has to come out of nowhere' and not be set up beforehand. Whilst the plot device in Night's Dawn was set up way back in Book 1 and then explained again, in detail, in Book 2.

I think that Night's Dawn is a very fine piece of work and the best pure space opera released since Dune (with the large caveat that I have not read Simmons yet).

 

[Connavar]

I wanted to try this author by Mindstar Rising or Fallen Dragon, which is a better start ?

I like the sound of Mindstar Rising cause it sounds like sf action/thriller like Altered Carbon. Is it that type of sf ?

 

[chrispenycate]

I found Fallen Dragon very disappointing, and the ¿Greg Mandel? Mindstar trilogy (and yes, you can just read the first one as a complete work, you don't need to get all three) excellent – I actually prefer it to his 'try and tell everything' longer works.

Which, unfortunately just comes down to whether our tastes are similar.

Ah; I've just gone up towards the top of the thread and discovered I gave my opinion a year ago; sorry, and it hasn't changed.

 

[Connavar]

I found Fallen Dragon very disappointing, and the ¿Greg Mandel? Mindstar trilogy (and yes, you can just read the first one as a complete work, you don't need to get all three) excellent – I actually prefer it to his 'try and tell everything' longer works.

Which, unfortunately just comes down to whether our tastes are similar.

Ah; I've just gone up towards the top of the thread and discovered I gave my opinion a year ago; sorry, and it hasn't changed.

Trust me my taste in sf runs the opposite way of "try and tell everything longer works you mention. I have stopped reading several sf books like that in annoyance. I want quality in a compact book and not over long works of melodrama in space.

Thats why my taste is screaming to me try Mindstar books and not his big famous series.

Is it action sf thriller like Takeshi Kovacs books Mindstar ? The synopsis sound like that.

 

[Werthead]

I wanted to try this author by Mindstar Rising or Fallen Dragon, which is a better start ?

I like the sound of Mindstar Rising cause it sounds like sf action/thriller like Altered Carbon. Is it that type of sf ?

Morgan was a fan of Hamilton's, and there are echoes of Mandel in Kovacs, although Kovacs is more ruthless and also the product of a much more advanced society (the Kovacs books being set in the 26th Century and the Mandel ones only a few decades from now). Mandel is more of a traditional investigative detective than Kovacs, who tends towards violent action as the resolution for everything.

The Mandel trilogy is also notable that the middle book is the weakest of the three with some really unbalancing technology that doesn't feel like it's part of the same world as the rest of the works. Books 1 and 3 are great though.

 

[Connavar]

It sounds good i didnt expect it to be just like Takeshi Kovacs but i like it when they combine crime with sf that i why thought of Richard Morgan's series.

 

[AndrewT]

**BUMP** (would like to see a Peter Hamilton link on front page)

A few questions:
1. Should I read Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained before I start the Void trilogy?
2. Is the Void trilogy as good as Night's Dawn?

 

[Grunkins]

I have not read any Hamilton yet, but have very recently added Pandora and Judas to my TBR. And I just finished Gibson's Recognition Pattern a few moments ago and am in the process of deciding what to read next . . . perhaps this is a sign to begin the Commonwealth Saga.