Peter F Hamilton - The Reality Dysfunction

[padders]

Well this is one of the books i read on my trip in india, all 1200 pages in about 3 days. So who else has read it?

I have to say this is one of the best science fiction books that I have read and that even after 1200 pages I want to read more. Luckily it is a trilogy and I have just ordered the next two books of the trilogy.

So any one else read it? Don't tell me about the next two books though, i am sure i will have read them soon though!

 

[muzungu]

Hi Padders

I have read all three of them. They got better and better. If you like space operas try Iain M Banks Culture Series, although they aren't as long as the Nights Dawn books they are still worth reading.

 

[padders]

I read some of Ian Banks a few years ago. I quite likeed the first one, Phlebas or something like that, can't remeber and also liked the Player of Games, that was really good. It was the third one i could never finish, something war. I actually read 3/4 of it over an extended period and still did not have the energy to finish. That is where i gave up on Banks. I should probably go back to some of the other ones, State of the Art looked good..

 

[padders]

anyone else read these books?

 

[FOX_UK]

I've read all three and , boy are you in for a wild ride.
The next two books are as good, if not better, than the first.
Let me know what you think of them padders.

Fox:aliengray

 

[padders]

half way through the 2nd and it rules... just wish i had some more time to get through them!

 

[FOX_UK]

:rolly2: Trust me you'll need to read them again, by the time you've got to the end of the third novel you'll have forgotten half of it
Fox

 

[padders]

well I finished the 2nd one, and read 100 pages of 3rd. Wow i love these books.

Also got the 4th book of short stories ready the moment i finished. Then i am going to be very upset!

 

[greyhorse]

All right, since there only seem to be people who like the series in this thread, I guess I'll just have to post to balance things out here.

Ehem,

I lived in Japan for the last 5 years, and without too many people to talk to, I turned to SF to while away the time. Now even dying of boredom when not reading, I still couldn't bring myself to finish reading the 3rd book. I'm sorry you guys, but this just isn't my cuppa tea. Heck, I even payed around 15 american dollars per book for these, and I still couldn't be bothered to read them.

Let's just say that these books definitely are not for people who like hard SF, or even most cyberpunk.

(whoshhtt! *whips hard-hat on head and ducks*)

 

[imported_knivesout]

i've only read Reality Dysfunction. While it was large-scale space opera, I was put off by the sex. Not that I object to sex in what I read, but the sex in this book was just too - Harrold Robbinsish - for me to stomach as part of an SF novel. I put the book away and have never looked back.

 

[L. Arkwright]

They are bloody fantastic arnt they? The thing with them being so long is that when you finish and because the characters have been in your life so long you almost feel a sense of bereavement.

 

[BAYLOR]

Read book one, thought concept interesting, but never read beyond the first novel.

 

[Rodders]

I read all three. I did enjoy them very much but I did think there was a little too much and felt that they could ramble somewhat. Personally, I was hugely disappointed by the ending.

 

[Montero]

Me too.
I did enjoy the broad canvas and the inventiveness. I thought it was a little highly coloured - but fun. Then the ending wasn't as big and inventive as the series.

 

[Vertigo]

I enjoyed them well enough but far preferred all his Commonwealth books.

 

[abrucestewart]

completely agree. Absolutely stonking until the second half of book 3, when it all hits the deus ex machina.
I saw an interview item with Hamilton at an eastercon shortly after book 3 came out. He explained the plot of the novels by saying he'd had the idea of wanting to write a war story where whatever you did your enemy always got stronger, but he didn't manage to find a solution to the problem he was happy with while writing (he still may not have!)
Hence the cracking story that builds and builds and builds....to a 'you did what?!'
ABS

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I loved them. Perhaps it's nostalgia as the Reality Dysfunction was the first book of his I read, but I don't think I've loved his subsequent books quite as much. That said, and this may be controversial, The Great North Road was very close - a very different kind of book for him, but still with Hamilton's inimitable voice and style.

 

[Spade]

I've read The Reality Dysfunction! That was about 10 years ago. I desperately want to finish the series now, but I know I'm going to have to reread TRD and probably write down chapter summaries.

 

[Vertigo]

I loved them. Perhaps it's nostalgia as the Reality Dysfunction was the first book of his I read, but I don't think I've loved his subsequent books quite as much. That said, and this may be controversial, The Great North Road was very close - a very different kind of book for him, but still with Hamilton's inimitable voice and style.

Not controversial with me, at least as far as The Great North Road goes. Despite others not liking that one, I loved it!

 

[Bick]

Like quite a few here, it seems, I read The Reality Dysfunction and really liked it and figured I'd read more, but so far have not. I'm not entirely sure why. I think the length of the books may be part of it, and the suggestion of a weak conclusion after more than 3000 pages doesn't inspire a huge amount of confidence.