[DennisC]

<spoiler free review - read away>

Oh, man, what a ride. I have spent the last 12 months - all of 2011 - reading this trilogy.

While I am impressed, like so many space operas, BIG questions are raised. Let me give you a bit of backstory without ruining the books.

The entire premise is there is a Confederation of planets inhabited by humans who end up having to deal with the souls of their dead coming back to possess the bodies of currently living people.

Now, there is a lot that can be done with that. I was happy with the way this book was REALLY a Space Opera. That means it DOES drone and sometimes have unimportant details thrown in. Such as travelogue, needlessly lengthy political talks which make C-SPAN (a united state telecast of congressional meetings) look interesting. All of these, while sometimes annoying to SF readers, are in my mind appropriate and allowed for Space Opera. And they are done very well by Mr. Hamilton.

What he does NOT do well is end the 1st 2 books. I think he missed the class on falling action in college. For some reason though, I continued through the entire trilogy because I had to know what was going to happen.

The series comes highly recommended if you are a fan of sprawling Space Opera - ie. long, lenghthy discussions about planets and science and weather and multi-stellar travel. All of that can be considered fluff as well. The entire series could be condensed from ~3500 pages down to maybe 1200 and still not lose much.

Still, I am glad I read through them and it was enjoyable. However the ending, as sadly often happens in hard SF, is terrible.

[ArtNJ]

These books are favorites around here, although as you would expect given the exotic theme, not everyone loves them.

Now start on Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained by the same author and report back when done :)

Not kidding, very, very easy to recommend what to read next to someone that loved Night's Dawn.

[chitman13]

Or try Fallen Dragon, great stand-alone :) Give Misspent Youth a miss though....

[DennisC]

I so love this forum. Lots of good recomendations. I am taking a brief hiatus from lengthy works like this trilogy. I am now working on Ghost Story by Jim Butcher (from Missouri). Its another one of my Science Fiction Book Club accidentals that showed up when i forgot to tell them no on the monthly selection. But... so far its quite a decent read.

I gave Riders of the Storm (J. Czerneda) a shot but again - jumping into a book mid-series. After 15 pages I couldn't take the 'xenoc' dialog method she used.

Then yet another mid-series book I cracked since finishing was G. R. R. Martin's Dance with Dragons. I STOPPED reading that one on the 2nd page of the prologue. No way I am starting that one mid-series... If the 500 words or so that i read is indicative of how he writes I have to start with his earlier works.

Then.... I want to come back to Mr. Hamilton's other works.... Ugh. So much to read, so little time. And I do ~50 pages / day on average.

Its such a shame so many authors are pirated with e-readers and cracked PDFs. But then I suppose that your REAL audience are the honest folk.

Amazon offering a chance to read the 1st chapter or so on books is a HUGE win for preventing piracy...

K. I have digressed. =)

[ArtNJ]

K. I have digressed. =)

Forgiven :) Martin actually (to me) had a similar feel to Hamilton. Agree it wouldnt make any sense to start at A Dance with Dragons. Way too complicated, not to mention that books 1-3 are almost universally loved, while the views on 4 & 5 are more mixed.

Welcome and enjoy, I love this place too, makes finding good books so much easier.

[Nicolas]

I will always be grateful to Peter Hamilton and his Night's Dawn Trilogy for making me start reading science-fiction again.

I had read some Asimov, Hebert and a few others as a teenager, but had moved on to more academic reading and hadn't touched a sci-fi book in over 10 years when I chanced, I can't remember how exactly, upon The Reality Dysfunction and decided to give it a go. The vast cast of characters, the enormous scope of the story, the level of details and the absolutely amazing cinematic approach to action scenes totally blew me away.
At the time the third book hadn't been published yet and I don't think I've anticipated the release of a book with so much fervor ever since.

After that, I kept on reading more and more science-fiction, old classics and new authors alike and I'm still as passionate about the genre today as I was 13 years ago. That, I owe to Peter Hamilton and his Night's Dawn books, which are still there on my shelves and which I remember very fondly. I am glad you appreciated them as well.

If you fancy something more or less similar, I recommend you give a go at Iain Banks and his Culture series. It is also very much epic space-opera-esque, however each book is a stand alone novel and they can be read in any order. The first one Consider Phlebas, is where he gives the most background details on the universe.

Regards,
Nick

[DennisC]

Ah, Nick, such a worthy precis on Mr. Hamilton, Sir.

I credit Mr. Hamilton with getting me reading heavily again. It took me a year to go through the Night's Dawn Trilogy - all of 2011. And now I am reading almost at my old pace of 50 pgs / day in another book. I will be returning to finish his works and I have added yours and others (thank you, Gentlemen) recommendations to my wish list. I could piss my life away reading it seems. So much great talent out there.

It makes me wonder if the age of digital piracy is over and once again authors can make a living writing.

[krisbslick]

Hamilton is the best, hands down. He got me out of my funk as well. I've read fallen dragon, all of night's dawn, commonwealth and void books and he's blown my mind every single time. It feels like if I don't read all his books I'm missing out on something.

[odo]

Hamilton is the best, hands down.

I agree. But I'd put Alastair Reynolds up there, too :)

[krisbslick]

I agree. But I'd put Alastair Reynolds up there, too :)

I concur, my good sir