Night's Dawn Book 1 - The Reality Dysfunction: Worth reading?

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

I was at a book store recently and saw this giant trade paperback of The Reality Dysfunction. Having never heard of the trilogy (*ducks*), I researched a bunch of reviews, which appear to be mixed. Can anyone offer any insight here if the series is worth the time? Thanks.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Three words come to mind re the Night's Dawn trilogy: deus ex machina

I like much of Hamilton's work but my enjoyment is mostly derived from the excellence of individual episodes in the novels. Taken as a whole, the Night's Dawn trilogy, and Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained are somewhat less than the sum of their parts (IMO).

 

[Bishbot]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through it. So I can't judge whether its worth reading in the long run, or whether the whole series is or not, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. The page-count is probably a bit over the top, but I haven't yet been bored.

 

[Jedi Marso]

It's worth reading but you'll find that you enjoy some of the characters and subplots a lot more than others. This is truly space opera at its finest: the stage spans the galaxy and its got a huge cast.

It took me a while to plow through the whole thing but it was worthwhile in the end.

 

[Iasius]

Yep, it's space opera and not ashamed of it. If you like that sort of thing, Peter F. Hamilton is an author you'll like (a lot).

Personally, I found the trilogy a bit slow to start. I put the first book down after reading 150 pages or so and I read a couple of other books first (Brin's Uplift series for example, which I also highly recommend). But when I picked it back up I quickly became engrossed in the story and ordered the rest of the books post haste so they'd arrive soon after I got done reading the first book.

A warning though: I think Hamilton is quite good in setting up a universe and the basic premise and also the development toward the final conflict, but the eventual resolutions tend to lack that finesse. However, his books are still among my favorites because the journey is so much fun (sort of like LotR for me). It's not unlike Star Trek in that regard with the first parts often being better than the final part of a two-parter/arc.


PS: I can't wait for The Evolutionary Void. 2010 is way too far away.