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Void #1
The Dreaming Void
The year is 3589, fifteen hundred years after Commonwealth forces barely staved off human extinction in a war against the alien Prime. Now an even greater danger has surfaced: a threat to the existence of the universe itself.
At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxy’s sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.
But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it. Inigo’s dreams reveal a world in which thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, Inigo’s dreams are shared by hundreds of millions–and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes.
Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void, the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds.
And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its progress–while within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze, for the first time, outward...
At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxy’s sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.
But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it. Inigo’s dreams reveal a world in which thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, Inigo’s dreams are shared by hundreds of millions–and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes.
Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void, the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds.
And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its progress–while within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze, for the first time, outward...
630 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Peter F. Hamilton
179 books9,475 followersPeter F. Hamilton is a British science fiction author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004, his works had sold over two million copies worldwide, making him Britain's biggest-selling science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,043 reviews
February 28, 2021
1,5k millennia from now, in the year 3600, the most future set series takes place in a science fantasy mixture just as Hamiltons´milestone debut The Night´s Dawn trilogy.
I deem this visions of future worlds not just entertaining and, depending on the author, very educating, but really important too, because these are real mirrors in a future we, probably let me once be optimistic please, won´t see anymore, but can help reducing or increasing the possibility of it being a dystopia or utopia. That doesn´t seem far fetched, honestly, no matter if you are more the mind virus epigenetic spread type or an old fashioned one, making own little versions of oneself. Both exponentially grows, greatgreatgreatgreat etc. kids, or the much quicker spread of activism, knowledge, progressive social and governmental change, really everyone can make a difference. Of course, there is the dark hate side too, but who would openly admit to roll that way.
The use of physics as a plot device has hardly ever been both that fun and well used, because not just the single characters´ and whole fractions´ motivations are logical and credible, but the whole dynamic of an unpreventable danger related to psi fantasy science, and later switching between settings and showing the different consequences, is dense and always surprising.
It´s, so far in Hamilton´s amazing universe, the series set farthest away in the future, with highly advanced humankind still helpless against the laws of physics and the universe, which is showing naked primitive apes who is boss, although the not so smart population is great at creating unnecessary, artificial problems themselves too.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
This wise, just joking, advice is added to all reviews of Hamiltons´series.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Hamilton´s future vision is to see the technology and society developing in very detail over long periods of time, making a return to his universe something always stunning and inspiring. It also makes me wonder why he is the only author I know of who did this. One, who is new, lucky you, by the way, ought consider reading it in chronological order, although the series set closest to now, Salvation lost, is still unfinished, so better read before in the following order:
Salvation year 2200
Commonwealth year 2400
The Night´s Dawn trilogy year 2700
The Chronicle of the Fallers year 3400
Void trilogy year 3600
You can of course do as you wish, it´s just how I arrange my rereading to get the most out of it and slowly move further and further away from the boring present.
I deem this visions of future worlds not just entertaining and, depending on the author, very educating, but really important too, because these are real mirrors in a future we, probably let me once be optimistic please, won´t see anymore, but can help reducing or increasing the possibility of it being a dystopia or utopia. That doesn´t seem far fetched, honestly, no matter if you are more the mind virus epigenetic spread type or an old fashioned one, making own little versions of oneself. Both exponentially grows, greatgreatgreatgreat etc. kids, or the much quicker spread of activism, knowledge, progressive social and governmental change, really everyone can make a difference. Of course, there is the dark hate side too, but who would openly admit to roll that way.
The use of physics as a plot device has hardly ever been both that fun and well used, because not just the single characters´ and whole fractions´ motivations are logical and credible, but the whole dynamic of an unpreventable danger related to psi fantasy science, and later switching between settings and showing the different consequences, is dense and always surprising.
It´s, so far in Hamilton´s amazing universe, the series set farthest away in the future, with highly advanced humankind still helpless against the laws of physics and the universe, which is showing naked primitive apes who is boss, although the not so smart population is great at creating unnecessary, artificial problems themselves too.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
This wise, just joking, advice is added to all reviews of Hamiltons´series.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Hamilton´s future vision is to see the technology and society developing in very detail over long periods of time, making a return to his universe something always stunning and inspiring. It also makes me wonder why he is the only author I know of who did this. One, who is new, lucky you, by the way, ought consider reading it in chronological order, although the series set closest to now, Salvation lost, is still unfinished, so better read before in the following order:
Salvation year 2200
Commonwealth year 2400
The Night´s Dawn trilogy year 2700
The Chronicle of the Fallers year 3400
Void trilogy year 3600
You can of course do as you wish, it´s just how I arrange my rereading to get the most out of it and slowly move further and further away from the boring present.
November 27, 2018
I've come to the conclusion that Peter F. Hamilton is an acquired taste. Maybe it just requires patience and getting used to his often HUGE PAGE COUNTS. Most of it is devoted to establishing his characters and their backstories, so it's not a huge complaint. Where he shines is his vast SF worldbuilding which takes on a very complex and rich character rarely seen in ANY series.
We're dealing with 20 or 30 thousand pages of the same universe across vast distances, worlds, and timeframes. And not only that, tons of alien species we get to know intimately, fantastic realms, Fae world hopping, wormhole networks, and a whole DREAMING REALM.
This particular novel fixes a lot of the issues I generally run into with the other novels. It's SHORT. It's also rather focused for what it accomplishes, splitting its time between a high-tech uber powerful post-Commonwealth era, 1500 years after Judas Unchained, and a very interesting seemingly low-tech fantasy world full of psi users and teeks. I have to admit I think I loved the second realm much more than the high tech side. The implications and the hints throughout this novel make me suspect MUCH. :)
Is this my new favorite Hamilton? Or am I just getting so used to his writing that I'm fine with rolling with the roving text and getting excited when the big action happens? Am I simply impressed by the vast worldbuilding and the competent characters?
A little of both, to be certain, but now that I've been reading quite a lot of his work, I'm really getting into the easter eggs and the recurring characters I grew to love in the previous books.
Yeah. Characters coming back after 1,500 years. And still being fun. :)
There's something really glorious about the gigantic tapestry that Hamilton is writing here. It's truly vast and often mind-blowing.
Sure, he has his faults and the writing style sometimes takes getting used to, but the rewards are well worth the effort. And then some. :)
We're dealing with 20 or 30 thousand pages of the same universe across vast distances, worlds, and timeframes. And not only that, tons of alien species we get to know intimately, fantastic realms, Fae world hopping, wormhole networks, and a whole DREAMING REALM.
This particular novel fixes a lot of the issues I generally run into with the other novels. It's SHORT. It's also rather focused for what it accomplishes, splitting its time between a high-tech uber powerful post-Commonwealth era, 1500 years after Judas Unchained, and a very interesting seemingly low-tech fantasy world full of psi users and teeks. I have to admit I think I loved the second realm much more than the high tech side. The implications and the hints throughout this novel make me suspect MUCH. :)
Is this my new favorite Hamilton? Or am I just getting so used to his writing that I'm fine with rolling with the roving text and getting excited when the big action happens? Am I simply impressed by the vast worldbuilding and the competent characters?
A little of both, to be certain, but now that I've been reading quite a lot of his work, I'm really getting into the easter eggs and the recurring characters I grew to love in the previous books.
Yeah. Characters coming back after 1,500 years. And still being fun. :)
There's something really glorious about the gigantic tapestry that Hamilton is writing here. It's truly vast and often mind-blowing.
Sure, he has his faults and the writing style sometimes takes getting used to, but the rewards are well worth the effort. And then some. :)
May 17, 2016
The last time I read a book by Peter F. Hamilton was around mid-April 2014, as I write it is the 2nd of April 2015, almost a year in between. The book was The Naked God, 1268 pages of eye watering mayhem. What that useless factoid means is that his books are so damn long that after I finish a series by him I tend to feel the need to take a year’s break. What it also indicates is that after a while I always come back for more of his long winded adventures. Having said that The Dreaming Void is a mere 607 pages long, practically a pamphlet by his standard!
The Dreaming Void is the first volume of Hamilton’s Void Trilogy, the trilogy itself is a sequel to Pandora’s Star, PFH does not waste any time faffing about before hooking you with his action packed opener and awesome world building. The Dreaming Void is set 1,500 years after the end of the Saga ( Judas Unchained). The Dreaming Void introduces “The Void” a universe within the universe that is gradually devouring the galaxy, like some kind of cosmic Pac-Man. Some religious types want to make a pilgrimage there to find some kind of Promised Land, while others suspect it will cause the Void to expand and accelerate the galaxy consumption.
As usual initially there are quite a few neologisms for the readers to grapple with, but PFH has a knack of revealing the meaning of his weird words by implication, so the meaning of most of these words can be fairly easily inferred. The fantasy - like chapters initially threw me for a loop a little but once I get used to them they are even more fun than the sci-fi ones. I think this is due to the likable Chosen One protagonist called Edward. The world building in these chapters is also a nice change from the high tech scenario of the other chapters, at the same time this is not the average fantasy setting with magic and dragons. There is technology of a sort here, based on the conceit that everybody has mental powers to some degree, and such powers take place of electricity and most aspects of life. The most advanced and important type of science seems to be bioengineering through manipulation of organic matters into desired forms.
The science fiction side of it is as great as ever, setting the story 1,500 years after The Common Wealth Saga means that Hamilton has to come up with a lot of new technology which is far in advance of the already futuristic technology depicted in the previous series. So communication and networking across the galaxy through wormholes is in use. Most of the enhanced humans of the yore are now transhuman uploaded into some kind of galactic data storage, living in their private virtual worlds. Top of the line spaceships are armed with black hole creation weapons etc. There are numerous alien races of course, and the most advanced of them still make humanity look like cavemen. The trouble with setting the story so far in the future (3589 AD) is that while many things changed out of all recognition, some things don’t seem to have changed enough, like people are still behaving as they do today, drinking beer, falling in love and whatnot. Still, PFH is only human, not transhuman so I can live with this minor flaw in his depiction of humanity in the far future; and who is to say he is not right?
Hamilton knows how to write characters, they are not terribly deep or complex but they are mostly interesting and believable enough to be more than mere plot devices. The central characters are all quite likable, and it helps that a few of them are from the Commonwealth Saga (thousands of years do not mean much in term of mortality in this universe). His narrative is always a breeze to read, though there are a few sex scenes which are decidedly unsexy and made me cringe, and I thought he left that kind of thing behind after the Night’s Dawn trilogy. Hopefully he will have curbed this tendency in future volumes.
Reading over this review (I do proofread my own writing occasionally!) the emphasis seems to be on the "fun factor" of the book. I do think the whole point of reading PFH is for the fun of it, I don't think you can expect much in the way of insightful commentary on the human condition or acerbic social satire. Nothing wrong with that of course we all need to just kick back and enjoy sometime, and this is far from being mindless entertainment, as the sci-fi aspect of it is very imaginative and stimulating. I am certainly looking forward to reading the next volume The Temporal Void.
(Five-ish stars, like 4.6 or something)
The Dreaming Void is the first volume of Hamilton’s Void Trilogy, the trilogy itself is a sequel to Pandora’s Star, PFH does not waste any time faffing about before hooking you with his action packed opener and awesome world building. The Dreaming Void is set 1,500 years after the end of the Saga ( Judas Unchained). The Dreaming Void introduces “The Void” a universe within the universe that is gradually devouring the galaxy, like some kind of cosmic Pac-Man. Some religious types want to make a pilgrimage there to find some kind of Promised Land, while others suspect it will cause the Void to expand and accelerate the galaxy consumption.
As usual initially there are quite a few neologisms for the readers to grapple with, but PFH has a knack of revealing the meaning of his weird words by implication, so the meaning of most of these words can be fairly easily inferred. The fantasy - like chapters initially threw me for a loop a little but once I get used to them they are even more fun than the sci-fi ones. I think this is due to the likable Chosen One protagonist called Edward. The world building in these chapters is also a nice change from the high tech scenario of the other chapters, at the same time this is not the average fantasy setting with magic and dragons. There is technology of a sort here, based on the conceit that everybody has mental powers to some degree, and such powers take place of electricity and most aspects of life. The most advanced and important type of science seems to be bioengineering through manipulation of organic matters into desired forms.
The science fiction side of it is as great as ever, setting the story 1,500 years after The Common Wealth Saga means that Hamilton has to come up with a lot of new technology which is far in advance of the already futuristic technology depicted in the previous series. So communication and networking across the galaxy through wormholes is in use. Most of the enhanced humans of the yore are now transhuman uploaded into some kind of galactic data storage, living in their private virtual worlds. Top of the line spaceships are armed with black hole creation weapons etc. There are numerous alien races of course, and the most advanced of them still make humanity look like cavemen. The trouble with setting the story so far in the future (3589 AD) is that while many things changed out of all recognition, some things don’t seem to have changed enough, like people are still behaving as they do today, drinking beer, falling in love and whatnot. Still, PFH is only human, not transhuman so I can live with this minor flaw in his depiction of humanity in the far future; and who is to say he is not right?
Hamilton knows how to write characters, they are not terribly deep or complex but they are mostly interesting and believable enough to be more than mere plot devices. The central characters are all quite likable, and it helps that a few of them are from the Commonwealth Saga (thousands of years do not mean much in term of mortality in this universe). His narrative is always a breeze to read, though there are a few sex scenes which are decidedly unsexy and made me cringe, and I thought he left that kind of thing behind after the Night’s Dawn trilogy. Hopefully he will have curbed this tendency in future volumes.
Reading over this review (I do proofread my own writing occasionally!) the emphasis seems to be on the "fun factor" of the book. I do think the whole point of reading PFH is for the fun of it, I don't think you can expect much in the way of insightful commentary on the human condition or acerbic social satire. Nothing wrong with that of course we all need to just kick back and enjoy sometime, and this is far from being mindless entertainment, as the sci-fi aspect of it is very imaginative and stimulating. I am certainly looking forward to reading the next volume The Temporal Void.
(Five-ish stars, like 4.6 or something)
May 20, 2018
This book bombs the Bechdel test.
Those of you who just rolled your eyes are dismissed.
For the rest of you, I'd like you to get your heads around the fact that this novel is over 600 pages long. It's an effing slog. In it at no time do two female characters discuss anything other than the men they've screwed and the ones they want to screw. There aren't more than a handful of conversations involving two women. Most of the female presence in this story is of the 'visual aid' variety. Big bosoms and diaphanous clothing abound.
Or...
There's a scene near the end where one of the many testosterone factories gets his badass on. He's hauling balls down the corridors of a space station. The airlocks are barely opening before he reaches them. The narrative makes it plain that his badassery is so profound, he'll just run through the things if they don't open. A technician gets in his way by walking down the hall and he clips her wrist, shattering it.
It's a bit part. The character has a single appearance and her role is as an obstacle. I didn't need to be told she was a woman. I knew it before the pronoun dropped because that's how this author thinks.
There are three female characters I could stand. One of them fell by the wayside when she went from a divorcee who's taken her settlement and invested it into residential property that she's renovating (with the aid of construction robots) to the woman who slept with the appliance salesman. In itself, I wouldn't have a problem with that. The thing is, the appliance salesman is a 'multiple.' That is, he's a singular man occupying many, telepathically linked male clone bodies. This woman hooks up with six of him their first night together. The sexual Olympics just grows creepier from there.
And woman number two? She's a sexy nun. I don't believe it gets more pervert tropetastic than that. The thing that held my interest in her is primarily that the men around her are decent enough fellows, so she isn't sexualized to the nth degree.
Woman number three pops up in the same segment of the story, and she's mostly alright. She joins the city guard for experience so she can go on to become a personal guard to some noblewoman in the future. That's the most we learn about her, except that she has a fairly firm ethical core. Also, the protagonist of this section finds her attractive and snogs her when the opportunity presents itself.
She and the sister become exceptions to the rule. Sadly, the author couldn't be bothered to put them together for a chat of the non-girl-talk variety.
The end result is a book where every female character is judged for her sex appeal, and not much else. The majority of them are absurdly lascivious. There's seriously a seductress/assassin called 'The Cat' in this gem. But then, it's like twenty percent mediocre pornography that pretends to apply to the plot.
My advice: read Hyperion instead. The plot's similar, the writing is head and shoulders above this, and the characters won't make you cringe. Or The Mote in God's Eye. There's an awesome book that concerns big bad aliens becoming annoyed by our hubris. And there are many more. Find them and read them. This is bargain basement stuff. It's the final series you should read if you're O.C.D. and just have to exhaust the stories of this type.
Needless to say, I've had my fill of Mr. Hamilton.
Those of you who just rolled your eyes are dismissed.
For the rest of you, I'd like you to get your heads around the fact that this novel is over 600 pages long. It's an effing slog. In it at no time do two female characters discuss anything other than the men they've screwed and the ones they want to screw. There aren't more than a handful of conversations involving two women. Most of the female presence in this story is of the 'visual aid' variety. Big bosoms and diaphanous clothing abound.
Or...
There's a scene near the end where one of the many testosterone factories gets his badass on. He's hauling balls down the corridors of a space station. The airlocks are barely opening before he reaches them. The narrative makes it plain that his badassery is so profound, he'll just run through the things if they don't open. A technician gets in his way by walking down the hall and he clips her wrist, shattering it.
It's a bit part. The character has a single appearance and her role is as an obstacle. I didn't need to be told she was a woman. I knew it before the pronoun dropped because that's how this author thinks.
There are three female characters I could stand. One of them fell by the wayside when she went from a divorcee who's taken her settlement and invested it into residential property that she's renovating (with the aid of construction robots) to the woman who slept with the appliance salesman. In itself, I wouldn't have a problem with that. The thing is, the appliance salesman is a 'multiple.' That is, he's a singular man occupying many, telepathically linked male clone bodies. This woman hooks up with six of him their first night together. The sexual Olympics just grows creepier from there.
And woman number two? She's a sexy nun. I don't believe it gets more pervert tropetastic than that. The thing that held my interest in her is primarily that the men around her are decent enough fellows, so she isn't sexualized to the nth degree.
Woman number three pops up in the same segment of the story, and she's mostly alright. She joins the city guard for experience so she can go on to become a personal guard to some noblewoman in the future. That's the most we learn about her, except that she has a fairly firm ethical core. Also, the protagonist of this section finds her attractive and snogs her when the opportunity presents itself.
She and the sister become exceptions to the rule. Sadly, the author couldn't be bothered to put them together for a chat of the non-girl-talk variety.
The end result is a book where every female character is judged for her sex appeal, and not much else. The majority of them are absurdly lascivious. There's seriously a seductress/assassin called 'The Cat' in this gem. But then, it's like twenty percent mediocre pornography that pretends to apply to the plot.
My advice: read Hyperion instead. The plot's similar, the writing is head and shoulders above this, and the characters won't make you cringe. Or The Mote in God's Eye. There's an awesome book that concerns big bad aliens becoming annoyed by our hubris. And there are many more. Find them and read them. This is bargain basement stuff. It's the final series you should read if you're O.C.D. and just have to exhaust the stories of this type.
Needless to say, I've had my fill of Mr. Hamilton.
September 13, 2013
Too many characters, too many factions and factions within factions, mind boggling technology, and what else is one to expect from Peter F Hamilton. Well, maybe we should add in some very cool action sequences with bionic weaponry blasting everything to slag, some returning characters from the Commonwealth Saga like Paula Myo, Gore and Justine Buirnelli, Sheldon, Oscar Monroe - Yes, we are back in the same Universe some thousand years after the Starflyer war, and just when I thought I had a handle of all the technology and characters and political factions, Hamilton ups the ante with more of everything. I felt just as lost at the beginning of this book as I was at the start of Pandora's Star.
So what has changed in the last thousand years? A major change is that SI – the artificial intelligence that had acquired sentience – has been replaced by ANA – a conglomerate of minds that have migrated inwards from the external universe to be downloaded into a new intelligence. ANA is also the prevailing government of the Central Worlds. Further confusing us (or me) is that all the downloaded minds retain much of their individual identity and so though ANA is a unified intelligence it is by no means a united intelligence (or is that the other way round?). ANA has factions is what I’m trying to say.
On top of that we add the “gaifield” – it’s like the old unisphere (internet) but instead of being an internet of information it’s more an intranet where emotions and dreams are directly shared live between participants via implanted “gaimotes.” And there’s a whole lot more but I'll let you stumble through that yourself. It took me most of the book to get my head around it. There is a timeline at the end of the book (so I discover at the end) that gives a summary of advances and developments since the Starflyer war to the present day so maybe if you do what I didn’t do and read that first things may be a little clearer as far as factions and tech goes.
Anyway, FTL drives have been developed to the point where the circumnavigation of the galaxy has been possible, and in the process we have discovered a self contained universe at the core –ie “The Void,” that is expanding in phases to devour the stars around it. The Void is inaccessible with nothing being able to penetrate the space time boundary around it – except, that is, for the “dreamer” who is able to dream what is going on inside and, through the gaifield, that dream is shared by all who are part of the gaifield network. The book then switches between chapters from the Commonwealth Saga story to the story inside the “Dreaming Void.”
The Void story is a straight forward fantasy, complete with a magic system comprised of a combination of Telepathy and Telekinesis. Everybody in this fantasy like world has these abilities to varying degrees and so people communicate mentally using Longtalk and they can extend their vision and share it using Farsight and manipulate the external universe with the Third Hand – And this parallel fantasy story is actually really good. I found myself looking forward to those chapters as a refreshing break from the mind boggling web of characters and factions and technology in the Scifi chapters.
At the end of the day I found myself caring more about the fantasy story. On the scifi side I was flat out just trying to figure out what each of the myriad characters stood for and what their various factions believed to get too invested in any one of them. Maybe now with some of the build up and confusion out of the way I can settle into the next book better. This isn’t a standalone by the way – the book ends with a nowhere near finished story. I also would not recommend reading this book before reading The Commonwealth Saga. While a lot of the newer technology and developments are gradually explained, the book assumes we are already familiar with the older technology and history and a lot of that is glossed over.
Its 3 stars for the Scifi story and 4 stars for the parallel fantasy style story making it...
3.5 stars
So what has changed in the last thousand years? A major change is that SI – the artificial intelligence that had acquired sentience – has been replaced by ANA – a conglomerate of minds that have migrated inwards from the external universe to be downloaded into a new intelligence. ANA is also the prevailing government of the Central Worlds. Further confusing us (or me) is that all the downloaded minds retain much of their individual identity and so though ANA is a unified intelligence it is by no means a united intelligence (or is that the other way round?). ANA has factions is what I’m trying to say.
On top of that we add the “gaifield” – it’s like the old unisphere (internet) but instead of being an internet of information it’s more an intranet where emotions and dreams are directly shared live between participants via implanted “gaimotes.” And there’s a whole lot more but I'll let you stumble through that yourself. It took me most of the book to get my head around it. There is a timeline at the end of the book (so I discover at the end) that gives a summary of advances and developments since the Starflyer war to the present day so maybe if you do what I didn’t do and read that first things may be a little clearer as far as factions and tech goes.
Anyway, FTL drives have been developed to the point where the circumnavigation of the galaxy has been possible, and in the process we have discovered a self contained universe at the core –ie “The Void,” that is expanding in phases to devour the stars around it. The Void is inaccessible with nothing being able to penetrate the space time boundary around it – except, that is, for the “dreamer” who is able to dream what is going on inside and, through the gaifield, that dream is shared by all who are part of the gaifield network. The book then switches between chapters from the Commonwealth Saga story to the story inside the “Dreaming Void.”
The Void story is a straight forward fantasy, complete with a magic system comprised of a combination of Telepathy and Telekinesis. Everybody in this fantasy like world has these abilities to varying degrees and so people communicate mentally using Longtalk and they can extend their vision and share it using Farsight and manipulate the external universe with the Third Hand – And this parallel fantasy story is actually really good. I found myself looking forward to those chapters as a refreshing break from the mind boggling web of characters and factions and technology in the Scifi chapters.
At the end of the day I found myself caring more about the fantasy story. On the scifi side I was flat out just trying to figure out what each of the myriad characters stood for and what their various factions believed to get too invested in any one of them. Maybe now with some of the build up and confusion out of the way I can settle into the next book better. This isn’t a standalone by the way – the book ends with a nowhere near finished story. I also would not recommend reading this book before reading The Commonwealth Saga. While a lot of the newer technology and developments are gradually explained, the book assumes we are already familiar with the older technology and history and a lot of that is glossed over.
Its 3 stars for the Scifi story and 4 stars for the parallel fantasy style story making it...
3.5 stars
May 22, 2012
This book (and indeed, the entire series) is trite fluff, and it contains almost no interesting ideas that weren't directly borrowed from much better books. The author's prose is both verbose and insipid, though he does setup some amusing situations. The principal distinctive characteristic of the author for this series is his profound laziness with respect to his story development. Many pages are used to describe characters, who then act contrary to their development when convenient to advance the story. Story elements are taken en masse from other books. All powerful beings show up to fix everything. Really, the only cheap "I couldn't think how to resolve everything" trope that isn't used is the main character waking up and finding that everything was really just a dream, and he actually almost does use this approach.
Read the books he's taking his source material from; read Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Mote in God's Eye, anything by Vernor Vinge, Ian Banks Culture series, and Greg Bear's Eon.
Read the books he's taking his source material from; read Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Mote in God's Eye, anything by Vernor Vinge, Ian Banks Culture series, and Greg Bear's Eon.
March 6, 2024
This is a battle for the destiny of humanity. Our soul will be decided by the outcome.
Hamilton's books tend to be very dense, in terms of both information and page count. For me they tend to be a bit of a roller coaster ride, running the gamut between dislike and enthrallment.
The Dreaming Void is no exception. There were portions of the novel that I didn’t like, and then there were portions of the novels that I liked a lot. Given the fact that it is such a sprawling story with so many facets and factions, it is probably an inevitability. I will say this: I don’t think Hamilton cares.
The nest was full of enigmas, the mental poetry left behind by observers baffled by the terrible dark heart of the galaxy.
I was keen to return to the Commonwealth Universe, having really enjoyed Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained way back. I have been procrastinating, though; the idea of wading through another 1000+ page tome was just too daunting. I am therefore glad to announce that somewhere along the line the author has learnt to trim things down a bit (the Night’s Dawn Trilogy almost rendered me catatonic).
”Hello”
And the Skylord answered.
As you would expect, it’s mostly good stuff. Big idea space opera with lots of ideas and tech.
I wasn’t overly fond of the dream sequences though, they read like any other medieval bildungsroman fantasy out there, and they feature quite predominantly throughout. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy (I really like fantasy), but the juxtaposition against the high-tech space sequences were a bit jarring.
All in all though, despite my gripes, everything comes together nicely. It's fairly typical Hamilton fare, so fans won't be disappointed.
Also, I should mention, the stakes in this one is quite high. 3.5 stars rounded up. Next up: The Temporal Void
[Their] planet-sized DF machines were flying into new positions.
”[They] are getting ready for the last fight,” he said numbly. “If they lose, that monster will consume the whole galaxy.”
Hamilton's books tend to be very dense, in terms of both information and page count. For me they tend to be a bit of a roller coaster ride, running the gamut between dislike and enthrallment.
The Dreaming Void is no exception. There were portions of the novel that I didn’t like, and then there were portions of the novels that I liked a lot. Given the fact that it is such a sprawling story with so many facets and factions, it is probably an inevitability. I will say this: I don’t think Hamilton cares.
The nest was full of enigmas, the mental poetry left behind by observers baffled by the terrible dark heart of the galaxy.
I was keen to return to the Commonwealth Universe, having really enjoyed Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained way back. I have been procrastinating, though; the idea of wading through another 1000+ page tome was just too daunting. I am therefore glad to announce that somewhere along the line the author has learnt to trim things down a bit (the Night’s Dawn Trilogy almost rendered me catatonic).
”Hello”
And the Skylord answered.
As you would expect, it’s mostly good stuff. Big idea space opera with lots of ideas and tech.
I wasn’t overly fond of the dream sequences though, they read like any other medieval bildungsroman fantasy out there, and they feature quite predominantly throughout. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy (I really like fantasy), but the juxtaposition against the high-tech space sequences were a bit jarring.
All in all though, despite my gripes, everything comes together nicely. It's fairly typical Hamilton fare, so fans won't be disappointed.
Also, I should mention, the stakes in this one is quite high. 3.5 stars rounded up. Next up: The Temporal Void
[Their] planet-sized DF machines were flying into new positions.
”[They] are getting ready for the last fight,” he said numbly. “If they lose, that monster will consume the whole galaxy.”
February 7, 2022
First things first: Don’t start your galactic journey here! Even if “The Dreaming Void” is listed as the first of the trilogy, it makes heavy use of the worldbuilding, storyline and characters from the Commonwealth Saga – events that precede the current timeline by about 1200 years. I should have read “Pandora’s Star” first. It took me about half of this doorstopper to get a clear picture of the various human factions and there are new characters introduced in the last quarter of the novel whose name and deeds I’m supposed to be familiar with. Honestly, this was a three star book for me, with plenty of good things in it but also with a sprawling mess of multiple storylines that seem go nowhere. As I turned the last page, the unanswered questions far exceed the given answers. Everything here is setup for events in the next two volumes. I finally settled on four stars, because it’s not the author’s fault that I didn’t do my homework about prequels and felt lost in space.
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The Void is a mystery that is beyond even ANA to unravel. If we can ever figure it out, we will have advanced our understanding of the universe by a significant factor.
It’s not easy, maybe not even desirable, to reduce the plot to a single topic, but the trilogy is centred on the Void, just like our galaxy is spinning around what was believed to be the massive black hole at its core. Further study reveals that instead of the black hole he have this Void – a natural or created phenomenon that has an impenetrable event horizon and can go through expansion phases that ‘devour’ star systems nearby.
The most advanced alien race encountered by humans during their expansion is the Raiel. They have tried to control or turn off the Void, unsuccessfully. After losing their whole fleet of spaceships to the event horizon, the Raiel have set up a monitoring station, manned by all the sentient races in the galaxy. In the human compound, a man named Inigo has dreams about a civilization inside the Void, proof to some that the barrier can be breached. But many say that such an attempt might trigger a new expansion phase, one that will devour the whole galaxy.
This is where the events of the trilogy start: Inigo’s vision has led to the creation of the Church of the Living Dream, numbering billions adherents on several planets. Inigo himself has gone AWOL, but his successor vows to his followers that he will lead them on Pilgrimage into the Void.
It’s going to be a cusp event. Every faction knows it.
All eyes are focused on the building of the fleet for the Pilgrimage. Some aliens [the Ocisen Empire] have already launched their whole fleet to destroy the home planet of the Living Dream. The Raiel have access to unknown and powerful technology and might not be happy with the planned visit to the Void. The Church itself is searching for a Second Dreamer: an unknown person who has started to have dreams about the Void and who can give legitimacy or support for their voyage.
“The humans of Living Dream believe it to be both their right and their destiny. They are billions in number. How can that much belief be wrong?”
“Because they might be endangering trillions.”
Humanity has managed to splinter during the expansion into factions with different, often conflicting priorities. These factions are now sending agents with enhanced DNA and ‘biononics’ [ a sort of Marvel-like superpowers] to try and influence events according to their own agendas. Most of the first volume has multiple, and not really converging yet, storylines concerning these agents’ efforts to control the Pilgrimage.
“This whole event has me badly troubled. There are too many people playing with catastrophic unknowns.”
ANA from my opening quote stands in for Advanced Neural Activity system, a virtual space where humans can upload their personalities, memories included, and where they can continue to be sentient and to interact with the physical world after their bodies are discarded. Because the ANA is organized in the quantum space around Earth, these humans cannot be considered a form of post-physical civilization, but they are halfway there.
The problem with ANA is that there are no restrictions to what you can do inside that virtual space. Ascended humans have brought with them all the problems and issues they faced back down in the physical world, and there are probably even more factions inside than there were originally on Earth and in the Commonwealth. Moderates are trying to keep the balance in the Commonwealth between different opinions of the future of humankind. Darwinists are non-interventionists who want to let evolution lead wherever it may lead. Separatists are not interested in anything that takes place in the physical world. The most active factions inside ANA are the Conservatives and the Accelerators. They are the ones who take steps to influence the Pilgrimage through secret agents.
Evolution requires progression or extinction. say the Accelerators who see a benefit in breaching the Void, regardless of risks. Conservatives oppose giving dangerous and secret technology to new worlds who can misuse it.
Conspiracies, world-hopping, James Bond on steroids action, weird sexual practices, politics, technology, fantasy crossovers – there’s a bit of each in this goulash of ideas, enough for each reader to pick something interesting along the way.
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I’m a cultural anthropologist.
Weird, isn’t it, the sort of connections and highlights each of us picks from the text. I would have probably passed over this remark from Aaron, one of the lead characters, if I didn’t come across it in the last two novels by Jack Vance that I read.
It made me think that Peter F Hamilton is really trying to emulate or to pay homage to the master who has imagined a similar expansion of humanity into space. The Gaean Reach has led to the creation of a multicultural and weird diaspora where people with similar interests have chosen to built their planets in their own fashion. Vance, and Hamilton, invite us to marvel at this diversity and enjoy the thrill of discovery.
The similarity ends here: neither the amoral adventurers nor the beautiful language of Jack Vance can be retrieved from the more functional and dry presentation of Peter Hamilton. That doesn’t mean that the new series is difficult or poorly written. In fact, my favourite parts of the first volume are exactly the ones where science doesn’t play a role. The Edeard storyline of the planet Querencia is the closest we get to the vibe of the Gaean Reach.
While I am still mystified by the powerful attraction the Living Dream adherents feel for life in Querencia, I enjoyed reading this classical fantasy tale of an orphan apprentice with hidden talents who magically cuts his own path through the world.
Having read some years back the “Night’s Dawn” series by the same author, I was not surprised by his predisposition to spice up the story with sex games. Apparently space travel makes you horny, and some characters try to get laid as often as they manage to advance the plot. The scenes are not really mishandled, but they do cause the occasional chuckle . On the whole, I still consider Hamilton’s approach to gender issues more palatable and entertaining than the current polarization between censure of anything sensual and militant promotion of alternative lifestyles. His concept of multiple humans [one mind cloned in multiple bodies] is sure to lead to unexpected combinations in the boudoir.
I wanted to add a few words about the science part of the Commonwealth universe, but right now I’m not sure I can do it credit. Both the FTL solutions, the gaiamotes/midichlorians and the biononics enhancements read to me more like waving a hand and making it happen, just like magic, than a serious attempt to imagine future technologies. It makes the series feel like popcorn blockbuster material, but it does read fast, once you get your head around the worldbuilding.
>>><<<>>><<<
My only problem right now is to decide if I want to continue with the second book before I forget what went on in here, or if I go back to ‘Pandora’s Star’ and get my facts straight about the Starflier War.
July 28, 2021
First off, let me say I really like Hamilton's work and I have read most of it that was published before this. Because of how much I enjoy him, that made my disappointment with this novel more poignant. I know his latest trilogy explores a new milieu and for reason I am looking forward to it as TDV felt like a rehash of the Commonwealth Saga, albeit 1000 years later, but lacking the freshness of it.
Hamilton's trilogies are famous for being door stops and sprawling and this is no exception. I lost count of the characters and the POVs Hamilton constantly shifts among here. Further, TDV is just the set up as it ended without even a token resolution to the escapades elucidated here.
In the 1000 years since the Commonwealth Saga, many interesting new technologies have been developed, including the creation of 'Highers', or people basically uploading themselves to a massive data base around Earth. In fact, the Commonwealth itself has basically split into two parts-- the Higher core and the External planets populated by 'normals' and people less modified (although still very different than normal) than Highers. Slowly, ever so slowly, Hamilton enlightens us to the political machinations among the highers-- some are pushing for a hardcore takeover of the rest of humanity to force a posthuman future (the 'Radicals') and others (the 'protectorate') push for the status quo. Of course, these two extremes are only part of the general divisions among the Highers.
What does this have to do with the Dreaming Void? Several centuries earlier, humanity discovered that the center of the galaxy is not a huge black hole, but a strange alien artifact other aliens call 'the void'. The void is ancient, and occasionally expands, killing all planets and life in its path. In fact, the novel starts off depicting the research station on the edge of the Void, where numerous alien civilizations have been studying the Void for millions, it not billions of years. (shades of Baxter here BTW). For the first time ever (at least according to one species, who have been there for millions of years) some communication is coming from the Void in the form of a dream of a human civilization beyond the void. Due to various hightech innovations, people so equipped can share their feelings and such and can access the dreams themselves from the mind of the Dreamer.
The Dreamer started basically a new religion (the Living Dream) on a remote External planet but after a while, the dreams stopped, and the Dreamer, Inigo, split the scene and vanished. Decades later, the Living Dream gets a new 'pope' and avows to launch a pilgrimage to go beyond the Void. The deal is, however, that various alien species have warned that such an act may cause the Void to expand dramatically and take over the galaxy altogether!
Now, some factions want this disaster to happen, thinking that it will facilitate their agenda (radical Highers for example) and other factions want to quash the pilgrimage altogether, with some alien races even saying they will do so by force. Neat backdrop! But what does Hamilton do with this?
Once the basic outline of the story emerges, Hamilton does little with the plot; instead, he focuses upon a wide (and I mean wide) array of people involved in the political machinations, including several from the Commonwealth Saga (Easter eggs anyone?). He also, in a typical manner, depicts the people and various locations in very imaginative detail. Kudos! The problem is, however, that the characters are kinda lame and all seem fixated upon sex. I swear, about 1/3 of the book is simply about fucking and sucking-- pairs, orgies, 'multiples'-- you name it. And when people are not fucking, they are all thinking about fucking. If I want to read some soft-core porn, so be it, but I did not really enjoy having it in a 'big ideas' science fiction novel. It gets old very quick. Hamilton is a great 'big ideas' guy, but not a great porn writer, so this really knocked down my enjoyment here. I am not a prude or anything, but please-- will people with 1000+ life spans still be fixated upon sex _all the time_? I really doubt it.
So, loved the big ideas and tech-- Hamilton reminds me of Banks and Asher (and maybe Baxter) regarding this. Story so-so but a bit plodding (to be expected) but mired down in bad porn. 2.5 stars, rounding up.
Hamilton's trilogies are famous for being door stops and sprawling and this is no exception. I lost count of the characters and the POVs Hamilton constantly shifts among here. Further, TDV is just the set up as it ended without even a token resolution to the escapades elucidated here.
In the 1000 years since the Commonwealth Saga, many interesting new technologies have been developed, including the creation of 'Highers', or people basically uploading themselves to a massive data base around Earth. In fact, the Commonwealth itself has basically split into two parts-- the Higher core and the External planets populated by 'normals' and people less modified (although still very different than normal) than Highers. Slowly, ever so slowly, Hamilton enlightens us to the political machinations among the highers-- some are pushing for a hardcore takeover of the rest of humanity to force a posthuman future (the 'Radicals') and others (the 'protectorate') push for the status quo. Of course, these two extremes are only part of the general divisions among the Highers.
What does this have to do with the Dreaming Void? Several centuries earlier, humanity discovered that the center of the galaxy is not a huge black hole, but a strange alien artifact other aliens call 'the void'. The void is ancient, and occasionally expands, killing all planets and life in its path. In fact, the novel starts off depicting the research station on the edge of the Void, where numerous alien civilizations have been studying the Void for millions, it not billions of years. (shades of Baxter here BTW). For the first time ever (at least according to one species, who have been there for millions of years) some communication is coming from the Void in the form of a dream of a human civilization beyond the void. Due to various hightech innovations, people so equipped can share their feelings and such and can access the dreams themselves from the mind of the Dreamer.
The Dreamer started basically a new religion (the Living Dream) on a remote External planet but after a while, the dreams stopped, and the Dreamer, Inigo, split the scene and vanished. Decades later, the Living Dream gets a new 'pope' and avows to launch a pilgrimage to go beyond the Void. The deal is, however, that various alien species have warned that such an act may cause the Void to expand dramatically and take over the galaxy altogether!
Now, some factions want this disaster to happen, thinking that it will facilitate their agenda (radical Highers for example) and other factions want to quash the pilgrimage altogether, with some alien races even saying they will do so by force. Neat backdrop! But what does Hamilton do with this?
Once the basic outline of the story emerges, Hamilton does little with the plot; instead, he focuses upon a wide (and I mean wide) array of people involved in the political machinations, including several from the Commonwealth Saga (Easter eggs anyone?). He also, in a typical manner, depicts the people and various locations in very imaginative detail. Kudos! The problem is, however, that the characters are kinda lame and all seem fixated upon sex. I swear, about 1/3 of the book is simply about fucking and sucking-- pairs, orgies, 'multiples'-- you name it. And when people are not fucking, they are all thinking about fucking. If I want to read some soft-core porn, so be it, but I did not really enjoy having it in a 'big ideas' science fiction novel. It gets old very quick. Hamilton is a great 'big ideas' guy, but not a great porn writer, so this really knocked down my enjoyment here. I am not a prude or anything, but please-- will people with 1000+ life spans still be fixated upon sex _all the time_? I really doubt it.
So, loved the big ideas and tech-- Hamilton reminds me of Banks and Asher (and maybe Baxter) regarding this. Story so-so but a bit plodding (to be expected) but mired down in bad porn. 2.5 stars, rounding up.
March 27, 2020
-Ajustada a lo que suele proponer su autor y solo el comienzo de una trama mayor.-
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El vacío de los sueños (publicación original: The Dreaming Void, 2007) nos lleva hasta el siglo 34, mucho tiempo después de la Guerra del Aviador Estelar. En el centro de la galaxia está el Vacío, un agujero negro supermasivo de naturaleza artificial bajo vigilancia de distintas razas, incluyendo la humana. Uno de los científicos de la estación Centurión, que observa y vigila el Vacío, tiene una serie de sueños sobre lo que ocurre en el interior de la estructura y será el fundador de un movimiento casi religioso que ansía entrar en el Vacío, algo que otras razas están dispuestas a impedir usando la fuerza porque creen que podría activar su expansión y causar la tragedia. El libro también nos presenta a Edeard, un joven con capacidades psíquicas que abandona su asentamiento tras un ataque de bandidos. Trabajo que forma parte de la línea narrativa conocida como Saga de la Federación o Saga de la Commonwealth, pero doce siglos después de los eventos descritos en Judas desencadenado, y que inicia su propia saga: la Trilogía del Vacío.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El vacío de los sueños (publicación original: The Dreaming Void, 2007) nos lleva hasta el siglo 34, mucho tiempo después de la Guerra del Aviador Estelar. En el centro de la galaxia está el Vacío, un agujero negro supermasivo de naturaleza artificial bajo vigilancia de distintas razas, incluyendo la humana. Uno de los científicos de la estación Centurión, que observa y vigila el Vacío, tiene una serie de sueños sobre lo que ocurre en el interior de la estructura y será el fundador de un movimiento casi religioso que ansía entrar en el Vacío, algo que otras razas están dispuestas a impedir usando la fuerza porque creen que podría activar su expansión y causar la tragedia. El libro también nos presenta a Edeard, un joven con capacidades psíquicas que abandona su asentamiento tras un ataque de bandidos. Trabajo que forma parte de la línea narrativa conocida como Saga de la Federación o Saga de la Commonwealth, pero doce siglos después de los eventos descritos en Judas desencadenado, y que inicia su propia saga: la Trilogía del Vacío.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
December 25, 2018
The Dreaming Void: Good Start to a Follow-Up Trilogy in the Commonwealth Universe
Much like the Commonwealth Saga, this is a very long, detailed, imaginative, and sprawling epic space opera that involves dozens of characters, plots, advanced technologies, alien races, ancient galactic mysteries, nefarious plots and counterplots, all told in an engaging narrative that doesn't get bogged down in exposition like a lot of other hard SF stories. It's far more entertaining than the more grim future vision of Alastair Reynolds, to which Peter Hamilton is often compared to. The human characters here remain far more human than the cold post-humans of Reynolds, which sometimes strains credulity, as they regularly make contemporary cultural references and seem not so different from us, despite being set in a galactic society set in the 31st century, but that largely lies in how you would imagine future humans will be like.
The story is split into two main storylines, a fantasy-like coming of age story about Edeard, a young man coming into his own powerful telepathic powers in a medieval society, and another far more complex future narrative about the search for a Second Dreamer broadcasting dreams of a utopian world within the Void, a giant black hole that is steadily consuming the galaxy from the center outward. There are far too many characters and factions and plot lines to describe here, but suffice to say if you like complex world-building, far-future technologies and exotic and powerful alien species and AIs, you will be well entertained by this blockbuster trilogy.
Despite its length, I found this trilogy worth listening to in audiobook narrated by John Lee, and it provided me several weeks of engrossing listening during my daily tube commute.
Much like the Commonwealth Saga, this is a very long, detailed, imaginative, and sprawling epic space opera that involves dozens of characters, plots, advanced technologies, alien races, ancient galactic mysteries, nefarious plots and counterplots, all told in an engaging narrative that doesn't get bogged down in exposition like a lot of other hard SF stories. It's far more entertaining than the more grim future vision of Alastair Reynolds, to which Peter Hamilton is often compared to. The human characters here remain far more human than the cold post-humans of Reynolds, which sometimes strains credulity, as they regularly make contemporary cultural references and seem not so different from us, despite being set in a galactic society set in the 31st century, but that largely lies in how you would imagine future humans will be like.
The story is split into two main storylines, a fantasy-like coming of age story about Edeard, a young man coming into his own powerful telepathic powers in a medieval society, and another far more complex future narrative about the search for a Second Dreamer broadcasting dreams of a utopian world within the Void, a giant black hole that is steadily consuming the galaxy from the center outward. There are far too many characters and factions and plot lines to describe here, but suffice to say if you like complex world-building, far-future technologies and exotic and powerful alien species and AIs, you will be well entertained by this blockbuster trilogy.
Despite its length, I found this trilogy worth listening to in audiobook narrated by John Lee, and it provided me several weeks of engrossing listening during my daily tube commute.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
August 27, 2022The author knew he had a three-book deal on this one.
In the 130 pages I read, he spent very little time on character (which doesn't bother me if there were a good plot or a lot of action, but none of that was here), very little time on plot (see previous parentheses) and a whole lot of time on description. World-building is always interesting to imagine, and there was some of that here, of course, but this was mostly just description of setting a la Ian Fleming talking about the bottom of the sea, or Victor Hugo going on and on about every speck of dust on the floor of Notre Dame Cathedral--gah. I think I would probably give Peter F Hamilton another try if I found one of his more appreciated books, but I just couldn't get through this one.
I almost DNF'd a short book recently, but stuck with it so I could feel that I had the right to complain because there's always that person out there who says: "it gets better if you just hold out a little longer". Just like those jerkoffs that want me to watch all ten episodes of some Netflix crapshoot because "it gets really good at episode 8". This book is more than 600 pages long. If you want to keep my attention, don't stretch one idea into three books. Or at least give me some whams! and bams! within the first 50 pages because at this point, I could care less if this one eventually gets good.
DNF score: three second raspberry.
In the 130 pages I read, he spent very little time on character (which doesn't bother me if there were a good plot or a lot of action, but none of that was here), very little time on plot (see previous parentheses) and a whole lot of time on description. World-building is always interesting to imagine, and there was some of that here, of course, but this was mostly just description of setting a la Ian Fleming talking about the bottom of the sea, or Victor Hugo going on and on about every speck of dust on the floor of Notre Dame Cathedral--gah. I think I would probably give Peter F Hamilton another try if I found one of his more appreciated books, but I just couldn't get through this one.
I almost DNF'd a short book recently, but stuck with it so I could feel that I had the right to complain because there's always that person out there who says: "it gets better if you just hold out a little longer". Just like those jerkoffs that want me to watch all ten episodes of some Netflix crapshoot because "it gets really good at episode 8". This book is more than 600 pages long. If you want to keep my attention, don't stretch one idea into three books. Or at least give me some whams! and bams! within the first 50 pages because at this point, I could care less if this one eventually gets good.
DNF score: three second raspberry.
December 2, 2018
Brilliant as the others. And because the events are taking place more than one thousand years after the ones in Pandora's star, it will be hard to understand the complexity of this universe if you skip the first series. So, if you plan to read it, read Commonwealth Saga first.
March 2, 2015
The Dreaming Void is the start of a new trilogy that takes place in the same universe as Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, but thousands of years later. Like those books, it's a huge, epic space opera full of powerful aliens, amazing tech, and galaxy-threatening perils, and like those books, I found it packed with Big Ideas and should-have-been intriguing characters that never really thrilled me.
Given my similarly lukewarm feelings about Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Charles Stross, I am starting to think that British SF just doesn't do it for me.
In The Dreaming Void, there are numerous factions at work in the human Commonwealth, centuries after the great war with the alien Primes that almost wiped it out. It's governed by a sort of collective AI/post-human network known as the Advanced Neural Activity, while humans are somewhat divided in how trans-human/post-human/enhanced/immortal they want to be.
At the center of the conflict in the story is the Void, sitting at the center of the galaxy and swallowing stars at a sedate-by-human standards pace, but rapidly enough to significantly shorten the galaxy's lifespan on a cosmic scale. While the Void is kind of like a black hole in that nothing that enters it can escape, humans have apparently disappeared into the Void before and supposedly, according to dreams shared by a messianic figure named Inigo, survived there. Then Inigo disappears, and his billions of followers undertake a pilgrimage to the Void. This upsets a number of alien races, including the Raiel, who believe that messing with the Void could cause it to enter an "expansion" phase in which it begins growing and swallowing up the galaxy at a dramatically faster pace.
There are a lot of characters all engaged in separate subplots, not all of whom seem to bear directly on the central threat. While you don't need to have read Pandora's Star or Judas Unchained first, there are many references to events in that book, and several returning characters. (Humans, thanks to uploads, rejuvenations, and stasis fields, can now have lifespans measured in centuries or even millenia.) In particular the return of the Javert-like Paula Myo will no doubt be greeted with applause by fans of the first two books, and the constant references to Ozzie Isaacs suggest he's almost certain to appear again, probably at the series climax. But there's also a subplot about a young ex-waitress named Amarinta and her many love affairs, in which Hamilton carries on that fine sci-fi tradition of trying to write imaginative sci-fi sex and just making me want to skip ahead to the intrigue and the aliens.
Running through the book are Inigo's dream chapters, which are the saga of a young man named Edeard on a barely-post-medieval world within the Void. It is implied that these people are descendants of the human explorers who first entered the Void, but Edeard's story reads more like a traditional epic fantasy, in which psychic powers replace magic, and Edeard is of course the Chosen One. Despite realizing at an early age that he is far more powerful than all the other telepathic and telekinetic humans on his world, he watches his village get wiped out by bandits, then travels to the big city and becomes a member of the constabulary, where naturally he learns that everything is corrupt and he can't really make a difference — until he unleashes his spectacular abilities.
Oddly, despite reading like fantasy rather than SF, and taking place completely parallel to the main plot, I found Edeard's chapters the most interesting ones in the book.
There is plenty left hanging at the end of this whopper of a book, and it was just enjoyable enough for me to maybe want to continue the trilogy, but it just didn't grab me. A lot of it seems like rehashing the Pandora's Star duology. Sure, one would expect some of those events to be mentioned, but it's over a thousand years later — even in a super-technological society with functional immortals, I think Hamilton could have made the Commonwealth more different from its previous incarnation than it is. There is also a sameness to Paula Myo chasing cultists and nefarious agents around the galaxy trying to figure out which faction, human or alien, is really up to what. And while theoretically, a void at the galactic core threatening to expand and swallow the whole galaxy should feel like an existential threat, there is, at least not yet, none of the sense of impending doom we got when the Primes were on the verge of exterminating humanity in Judas Unchained.
So, this is really a 3.5 star book, but rounded upward since I probably will read the next one.
Given my similarly lukewarm feelings about Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Charles Stross, I am starting to think that British SF just doesn't do it for me.
In The Dreaming Void, there are numerous factions at work in the human Commonwealth, centuries after the great war with the alien Primes that almost wiped it out. It's governed by a sort of collective AI/post-human network known as the Advanced Neural Activity, while humans are somewhat divided in how trans-human/post-human/enhanced/immortal they want to be.
At the center of the conflict in the story is the Void, sitting at the center of the galaxy and swallowing stars at a sedate-by-human standards pace, but rapidly enough to significantly shorten the galaxy's lifespan on a cosmic scale. While the Void is kind of like a black hole in that nothing that enters it can escape, humans have apparently disappeared into the Void before and supposedly, according to dreams shared by a messianic figure named Inigo, survived there. Then Inigo disappears, and his billions of followers undertake a pilgrimage to the Void. This upsets a number of alien races, including the Raiel, who believe that messing with the Void could cause it to enter an "expansion" phase in which it begins growing and swallowing up the galaxy at a dramatically faster pace.
There are a lot of characters all engaged in separate subplots, not all of whom seem to bear directly on the central threat. While you don't need to have read Pandora's Star or Judas Unchained first, there are many references to events in that book, and several returning characters. (Humans, thanks to uploads, rejuvenations, and stasis fields, can now have lifespans measured in centuries or even millenia.) In particular the return of the Javert-like Paula Myo will no doubt be greeted with applause by fans of the first two books, and the constant references to Ozzie Isaacs suggest he's almost certain to appear again, probably at the series climax. But there's also a subplot about a young ex-waitress named Amarinta and her many love affairs, in which Hamilton carries on that fine sci-fi tradition of trying to write imaginative sci-fi sex and just making me want to skip ahead to the intrigue and the aliens.
Running through the book are Inigo's dream chapters, which are the saga of a young man named Edeard on a barely-post-medieval world within the Void. It is implied that these people are descendants of the human explorers who first entered the Void, but Edeard's story reads more like a traditional epic fantasy, in which psychic powers replace magic, and Edeard is of course the Chosen One. Despite realizing at an early age that he is far more powerful than all the other telepathic and telekinetic humans on his world, he watches his village get wiped out by bandits, then travels to the big city and becomes a member of the constabulary, where naturally he learns that everything is corrupt and he can't really make a difference — until he unleashes his spectacular abilities.
Oddly, despite reading like fantasy rather than SF, and taking place completely parallel to the main plot, I found Edeard's chapters the most interesting ones in the book.
There is plenty left hanging at the end of this whopper of a book, and it was just enjoyable enough for me to maybe want to continue the trilogy, but it just didn't grab me. A lot of it seems like rehashing the Pandora's Star duology. Sure, one would expect some of those events to be mentioned, but it's over a thousand years later — even in a super-technological society with functional immortals, I think Hamilton could have made the Commonwealth more different from its previous incarnation than it is. There is also a sameness to Paula Myo chasing cultists and nefarious agents around the galaxy trying to figure out which faction, human or alien, is really up to what. And while theoretically, a void at the galactic core threatening to expand and swallow the whole galaxy should feel like an existential threat, there is, at least not yet, none of the sense of impending doom we got when the Primes were on the verge of exterminating humanity in Judas Unchained.
So, this is really a 3.5 star book, but rounded upward since I probably will read the next one.
September 21, 2022
This is the first volume of the ‘second’ trilogy set in the Commonwealth universe. The first duology consists of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, which I reviewed here and here respectively. The two sub-series can be read standalone, for in the second the action starts more than fifteen centuries after the first. However, there are a few returning characters and ‘meeting’ them after a millennium-long pause is usually a pleasant experience, so I suggest reading the first duology first.
The book starts with a lot of sentient species co-existing at a research and control station run by Raiel, an old (at least a hundred thousand years old) species. The station is quite similar to High Angel from the previous duology, but this one has a specific goal – to study the Void, a giant impenetrable sphere in the center of our galaxy, where in other galaxies a giant black hole is located. On a surface, it is quite similar to a black hole in the sense that no matter can leave it and everyone captured at its event horizon is lost. However, it is more than that, for it seems that it is like a post-material artificial habitat created by a sentient species at the dawn of the universe and what is important story-wise, it can spread at superluminal speeds, so in the worst case our galaxy and everyone within it may perish.
A young human researcher named Inigo visits the station and a strange thing happens: he dreams a dream about humans (?) living within the Void. His dreams are shared by many and a cult of his followers appears, a significant fraction of which assume that a pilgrimage to the Void should be made for the life within is the pinnacle of human existence. What follows is the intrigues between several factions of Highers – humans modified both genetically and with nano-tech, who often leave their physical bodies altogether, downloaded themselves into ANA (Advanced Neural Activity system, a digital reality, Earth’s gov’t). Some of them try to preserve the status quo, other to rush ahead, and most of them use humans ‘lower’ compared to them – Advancers and Naturals as pawns in this game, supplying them with ultrafast warp engines or bio-modifications. This story is alternated with Inigo’s dreams, which tell a story of Edeard – a man supposedly living in the Void, in a society with fantasy flavor, where most humans are psychic – they use ‘third hand’ – telekinesis, ‘longtalk’– telepathy and ‘farsight’ – visions. The society on one hand seems rustic with villages, an established religion, set traditions. On the other, their capacities are great, say Edread is an apprentice to the Shapers guild that manipulates embryos to get gene-modified specialist creatures.
The setting is interesting, once again with a great number of characters and many different societies. At the same time, there are some repetitions, like stressing that anyone can modify their looks but mostly giving a ‘male gaze’ on people around. Also, there are several sex scenes with multiple partners where different techs are used, which are awkward. Overall, I liked the first duology more, but this volume is interesting as well.
The book starts with a lot of sentient species co-existing at a research and control station run by Raiel, an old (at least a hundred thousand years old) species. The station is quite similar to High Angel from the previous duology, but this one has a specific goal – to study the Void, a giant impenetrable sphere in the center of our galaxy, where in other galaxies a giant black hole is located. On a surface, it is quite similar to a black hole in the sense that no matter can leave it and everyone captured at its event horizon is lost. However, it is more than that, for it seems that it is like a post-material artificial habitat created by a sentient species at the dawn of the universe and what is important story-wise, it can spread at superluminal speeds, so in the worst case our galaxy and everyone within it may perish.
A young human researcher named Inigo visits the station and a strange thing happens: he dreams a dream about humans (?) living within the Void. His dreams are shared by many and a cult of his followers appears, a significant fraction of which assume that a pilgrimage to the Void should be made for the life within is the pinnacle of human existence. What follows is the intrigues between several factions of Highers – humans modified both genetically and with nano-tech, who often leave their physical bodies altogether, downloaded themselves into ANA (Advanced Neural Activity system, a digital reality, Earth’s gov’t). Some of them try to preserve the status quo, other to rush ahead, and most of them use humans ‘lower’ compared to them – Advancers and Naturals as pawns in this game, supplying them with ultrafast warp engines or bio-modifications. This story is alternated with Inigo’s dreams, which tell a story of Edeard – a man supposedly living in the Void, in a society with fantasy flavor, where most humans are psychic – they use ‘third hand’ – telekinesis, ‘longtalk’– telepathy and ‘farsight’ – visions. The society on one hand seems rustic with villages, an established religion, set traditions. On the other, their capacities are great, say Edread is an apprentice to the Shapers guild that manipulates embryos to get gene-modified specialist creatures.
The setting is interesting, once again with a great number of characters and many different societies. At the same time, there are some repetitions, like stressing that anyone can modify their looks but mostly giving a ‘male gaze’ on people around. Also, there are several sex scenes with multiple partners where different techs are used, which are awkward. Overall, I liked the first duology more, but this volume is interesting as well.
Shelved as 'dnf_or-set-aside-for-now'
September 24, 2022On first chapter and I already found something that makes this book dated imo.
In the previous books often the author meant that women who went through the rejuvenation procedures could do that and look mid-twenties even if they were centuries old, but that "one could notice" they were older and as such not as desirable as the real young girls of twenty or under twenty.
In one of those previous books the author had even two characters, a guy who was happy because he had a young lover who was under 20/30, and not one of the rejuvenated women and his other characters who were male and rejuvenated millionaires always were married or had a harem of "really young girls and not rejuvenated ones" and so on.
So I noticed a pattern here of ageism specifically directed towards women and this was the one thing I really didn't like in the two previous books.
It goes on in this book with the "centuries old woman who looks like mid-twenties" asking the guy if he wants to sleep with her out of nowhere and he declining and showing no interest in her.
If the author is stating his own prejudices, the prejudices of his characters, or both, I can't say, but it is quite annoying to see this prejudices repeated in the two first books and in this third one as well. Especially because not in any moment the author mentions that rejuvenated men aren't as desirable as younger men.
I will continue this book for now because I'm interested in the plot, but I had to mention this very outdated part. This was published in 2008 so it does not have an excuse for mysoginy and ageism as a book in the 50s or 60s would have.
***
I continued it, but the constant changing of POVs and slow plot development kept me distant and uninterested. I'll set this aside because it isn't for me.
In the previous books often the author meant that women who went through the rejuvenation procedures could do that and look mid-twenties even if they were centuries old, but that "one could notice" they were older and as such not as desirable as the real young girls of twenty or under twenty.
In one of those previous books the author had even two characters, a guy who was happy because he had a young lover who was under 20/30, and not one of the rejuvenated women and his other characters who were male and rejuvenated millionaires always were married or had a harem of "really young girls and not rejuvenated ones" and so on.
So I noticed a pattern here of ageism specifically directed towards women and this was the one thing I really didn't like in the two previous books.
It goes on in this book with the "centuries old woman who looks like mid-twenties" asking the guy if he wants to sleep with her out of nowhere and he declining and showing no interest in her.
If the author is stating his own prejudices, the prejudices of his characters, or both, I can't say, but it is quite annoying to see this prejudices repeated in the two first books and in this third one as well. Especially because not in any moment the author mentions that rejuvenated men aren't as desirable as younger men.
I will continue this book for now because I'm interested in the plot, but I had to mention this very outdated part. This was published in 2008 so it does not have an excuse for mysoginy and ageism as a book in the 50s or 60s would have.
***
I continued it, but the constant changing of POVs and slow plot development kept me distant and uninterested. I'll set this aside because it isn't for me.
August 2, 2013
The story takes place 1.000 years after the Commonwealth saga. We see a few new faces, but also characters from the first two books. The same things I loved about the first series by Peter F. Hamilton continues in this series. A super detailed and rich world, even though it's the same universe a lot has changed in 1k years.
The plot builds up slowly, but I think you can expect this from Hamilton novels and I guess the whole scope of the story is much bigger than started in the first volume. So I immediately ordered the next two books in the Void trilogy.
If you loved the Commonwealth Saga definitely get this triology, great space opera. I so badly want to live in this future universe :)
December 3, 2015
A massive space opera, with a galaxy full of alien species, FTL drives, stealth space ships, a big mystery at the center of the galaxy (the Void), and more PoVs than you can shake a stick at.
So. A nice space adventure in the truly operatic tradition. Sadly, it didn’t quite scratch my style itch.
The prose style is very straightforward. There’s a fair amount of description, but for the most part, the writing exists simply to ferry us along from place to place, conversation to conversation. There’s no sharpness to it, no real wit or joy. I managed all 700 or so pages without ever once stopping and going, “Oh hey that was nice turn of phrase” or “Oh hey, that was an interesting idea – I’ve never thought about that!’
Perhaps because of this dearth of tone, I found myself asking, What is this book's theme? What is really about? What is its heart? Its soul?
I am reminded of an interesting argument I saw between two self-published authors. The first argued that successful fiction is entertaining. That is it. It should never be “about” anything. In fact, authors trying to make their stories “about” something are idiots and are unlikely to ever be successful. The second author countered that the truly successful fiction – the stuff you see on best-seller lists – is not just entertaining but also contains a deeper core.
There’s some easy examples of the second author’s point. What immediately springs to my mind is Stephen King’s IT. Now that’s a fairly entertaining book, but it’s also pretty clearly ABOUT the nature of childhood.
Or George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones series, which just about everyone knows. Imagine that story without the thematic core of the wages of war & the necessity of cruelty. Would that even be possible? If so, they would certainly be inferior.
Unfortunately, The Dreaming Void lacks this deeper core. There’s no real thematic unity to all the different points of view and to the galaxy-spanning plot. As such, while I was entertained at a superficial level, I was never drawn in at a deeper, more human level.
Because I was not as emotionally engaged as I wanted to be, my intellect swooped in and started to question some of the smaller details. Y'know those little irks that an emotionally-driven suspension of disbelief tends to gloss over.
For example, many characters exist in a post-physical state as part of a giant computer called ANA. Others are half-man, half-machine – and the half-man part is heavily genetically modified. AND YET, despite this, they think and act exactly like regular ol’ human beings today. Would they really? I recently read a short story called ‘Empty’ which was told from the PoV of a robot – and it had a distinctive voice to it. It really felt like a robot’s mindset. Exotic. Yet still containing enough human elements to generate empathy within me. Not so with these post-physical humans.
This book also adopts what I’m going to call a Heinlein-esque Libertarianism, towards sex & female characters. It reminded me very much of Stranger in a Strange Land, though to a much lesser degree (thank goodness). Nevertheless, the majority of female characters, both major and minor, are sexualized and with the exceptions of two characters, come across as mere props to their more interesting and powerful male counterparts. Corrie-Lyn, in particular, depressed me. She begins the story holding a powerful political position, but her consequent behavior is childish in the extreme. She even gets distracted by shopping at a key moment. No, really.
So it's not perfect. But I am continuing with book two. It IS an enjoyable adventure. Once I finish it, though, I won’t be in a big hurry to read more Peter Hamilton.
[Note: Though reading the previous duology isn't technically required, I found it more or less essential at an emotional level. In particular, the character of the Cat serves as a unifying boogeyman and villain throughout the series... but her villainy is NOT well established in this trilogy. Likewise with many of the other characters - there's definitely a sense of the author relying on already established psychologies.
...Course you're then left with the daunting task of reading FIVE books. And in my opinion you're better off reading 5 other books.]
So. A nice space adventure in the truly operatic tradition. Sadly, it didn’t quite scratch my style itch.
The prose style is very straightforward. There’s a fair amount of description, but for the most part, the writing exists simply to ferry us along from place to place, conversation to conversation. There’s no sharpness to it, no real wit or joy. I managed all 700 or so pages without ever once stopping and going, “Oh hey that was nice turn of phrase” or “Oh hey, that was an interesting idea – I’ve never thought about that!’
Perhaps because of this dearth of tone, I found myself asking, What is this book's theme? What is really about? What is its heart? Its soul?
I am reminded of an interesting argument I saw between two self-published authors. The first argued that successful fiction is entertaining. That is it. It should never be “about” anything. In fact, authors trying to make their stories “about” something are idiots and are unlikely to ever be successful. The second author countered that the truly successful fiction – the stuff you see on best-seller lists – is not just entertaining but also contains a deeper core.
There’s some easy examples of the second author’s point. What immediately springs to my mind is Stephen King’s IT. Now that’s a fairly entertaining book, but it’s also pretty clearly ABOUT the nature of childhood.
Or George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones series, which just about everyone knows. Imagine that story without the thematic core of the wages of war & the necessity of cruelty. Would that even be possible? If so, they would certainly be inferior.
Unfortunately, The Dreaming Void lacks this deeper core. There’s no real thematic unity to all the different points of view and to the galaxy-spanning plot. As such, while I was entertained at a superficial level, I was never drawn in at a deeper, more human level.
Because I was not as emotionally engaged as I wanted to be, my intellect swooped in and started to question some of the smaller details. Y'know those little irks that an emotionally-driven suspension of disbelief tends to gloss over.
For example, many characters exist in a post-physical state as part of a giant computer called ANA. Others are half-man, half-machine – and the half-man part is heavily genetically modified. AND YET, despite this, they think and act exactly like regular ol’ human beings today. Would they really? I recently read a short story called ‘Empty’ which was told from the PoV of a robot – and it had a distinctive voice to it. It really felt like a robot’s mindset. Exotic. Yet still containing enough human elements to generate empathy within me. Not so with these post-physical humans.
This book also adopts what I’m going to call a Heinlein-esque Libertarianism, towards sex & female characters. It reminded me very much of Stranger in a Strange Land, though to a much lesser degree (thank goodness). Nevertheless, the majority of female characters, both major and minor, are sexualized and with the exceptions of two characters, come across as mere props to their more interesting and powerful male counterparts. Corrie-Lyn, in particular, depressed me. She begins the story holding a powerful political position, but her consequent behavior is childish in the extreme. She even gets distracted by shopping at a key moment. No, really.
So it's not perfect. But I am continuing with book two. It IS an enjoyable adventure. Once I finish it, though, I won’t be in a big hurry to read more Peter Hamilton.
[Note: Though reading the previous duology isn't technically required, I found it more or less essential at an emotional level. In particular, the character of the Cat serves as a unifying boogeyman and villain throughout the series... but her villainy is NOT well established in this trilogy. Likewise with many of the other characters - there's definitely a sense of the author relying on already established psychologies.
...Course you're then left with the daunting task of reading FIVE books. And in my opinion you're better off reading 5 other books.]
August 1, 2016
Executive Summary: A decent story in Mr. Hamilton's Commonwealth universe, but not as satisfying as the original Duology.
Audio book: I really enjoy John Lee's reading voice. It seems to fit well with the universe. He doesn't really stick out to me as someone who does a lot of voices and accents for the characters, but at the same time I wouldn't want anyone else to read this series.
Full Review
I really enjoyed Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained when I listened to them last year. I was happy to discover he had a follow-on series. Now that he's got ANOTHER new Commonwealth series coming out this year, I figured I should finally get around to this one.
So far this one feels more like a fantasy book than sci-fi in many places, especially Edeard's story. This is set 1200 years after the events of Judas Unchained, but thanks to technology, we get to revisit some of the characters from that series.
That was really awesome for me as the original series had some characters I really liked. Not everyone I was hoping to catch up with show up, but maybe in one of next two books. I did love how some of characters use Ozzie's name all the time as a part of speech.
For the most part however, it's a new cast of characters, though some of them are distantly related to characters from the previous series. There seem to be three main story lines, but a bunch of smaller ones.
Edeard's started a little slow, but probably was my favorite by the end. "Aaron"'s story was pretty good overall, but there were a few slow parts. Araminta's story on the other hand was more miss than hit. A lot of it felt like self-fulfilling male sexual fantasy that seemed to add little to the overall plot.
The book suffers a bit from too many characters/story lines that made it hard to follow at first, especially in audio. Eventually I got my bearings though, but I still was wondering exactly how all the stories are going to tie together.
I think maybe if I had read this and could have flipped back to early parts to check names of people/places and confirm some theories, but since I can't I found myself a bit confused at the end to. I expect things to be made more clear in the next book and be spelled out for me, whereas someone more on top of things than I am will have it all figured out already.
Overall I thought it was a decent book, and I'll definitely continue on, but I hope he'll focus less on certain aspects from this book in the next one.
3.5 Stars rounded down.
Audio book: I really enjoy John Lee's reading voice. It seems to fit well with the universe. He doesn't really stick out to me as someone who does a lot of voices and accents for the characters, but at the same time I wouldn't want anyone else to read this series.
Full Review
I really enjoyed Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained when I listened to them last year. I was happy to discover he had a follow-on series. Now that he's got ANOTHER new Commonwealth series coming out this year, I figured I should finally get around to this one.
So far this one feels more like a fantasy book than sci-fi in many places, especially Edeard's story. This is set 1200 years after the events of Judas Unchained, but thanks to technology, we get to revisit some of the characters from that series.
That was really awesome for me as the original series had some characters I really liked. Not everyone I was hoping to catch up with show up, but maybe in one of next two books. I did love how some of characters use Ozzie's name all the time as a part of speech.
For the most part however, it's a new cast of characters, though some of them are distantly related to characters from the previous series. There seem to be three main story lines, but a bunch of smaller ones.
Edeard's started a little slow, but probably was my favorite by the end. "Aaron"'s story was pretty good overall, but there were a few slow parts. Araminta's story on the other hand was more miss than hit. A lot of it felt like self-fulfilling male sexual fantasy that seemed to add little to the overall plot.
The book suffers a bit from too many characters/story lines that made it hard to follow at first, especially in audio. Eventually I got my bearings though, but I still was wondering exactly how all the stories are going to tie together.
I think maybe if I had read this and could have flipped back to early parts to check names of people/places and confirm some theories, but since I can't I found myself a bit confused at the end to. I expect things to be made more clear in the next book and be spelled out for me, whereas someone more on top of things than I am will have it all figured out already.
Overall I thought it was a decent book, and I'll definitely continue on, but I hope he'll focus less on certain aspects from this book in the next one.
3.5 Stars rounded down.
February 1, 2011
Actually, I'm only WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE of finishing this interesting book, which was a gift from one of my daughters more than a year ago.
While worthy and as I said interesting in many ways, it was not for me a compelling read. Hamilton is gifted but seems to write without any discipline with regard to outlining his story arcs in advance of writing, or if he DOES so, it is not set out for the reader in any clearly discernible way.
His gifts and strengths do lie in his imagination, and the scope of the palette on which he builds his yarns. His weakness is in launching so many story lines at once and flitting between them willy-nilly, that most readers would be at a loss as to what the hell is going on, overall. And this is exacerbated by the action being spread over thousands (or is it hundreds of thousands?) of light-years of real estate, and an indeterminate amount of time, which could be as few as several Earth months, or as many as several Earth years, if we only had a clue as to where Earth stood in this panoply.
Having reported that I'm close to finishing this major work, I must also sadly add that I have not a clue as to how anything will ultimately turn out. After reading almost 700 pages, I will only be in a good position to set out in the second tome of this TRILOGY. I despair of knowing any much more at the end of the second book, should I venture on.
The damnable part of it is, I might keep reading. There are few characters and story lines I much care about, but those which do interest me are well drawn, and might keep me going.
The best I can say of this series is that it would make great television, as it is drawn from a superior imagination, but expresses no clear notion of where it is going, at least this far in. As sci-fi "popcorn for the mind", it's very good. Among great sci-fi novel-series, so far it can only be an also-ran.
While worthy and as I said interesting in many ways, it was not for me a compelling read. Hamilton is gifted but seems to write without any discipline with regard to outlining his story arcs in advance of writing, or if he DOES so, it is not set out for the reader in any clearly discernible way.
His gifts and strengths do lie in his imagination, and the scope of the palette on which he builds his yarns. His weakness is in launching so many story lines at once and flitting between them willy-nilly, that most readers would be at a loss as to what the hell is going on, overall. And this is exacerbated by the action being spread over thousands (or is it hundreds of thousands?) of light-years of real estate, and an indeterminate amount of time, which could be as few as several Earth months, or as many as several Earth years, if we only had a clue as to where Earth stood in this panoply.
Having reported that I'm close to finishing this major work, I must also sadly add that I have not a clue as to how anything will ultimately turn out. After reading almost 700 pages, I will only be in a good position to set out in the second tome of this TRILOGY. I despair of knowing any much more at the end of the second book, should I venture on.
The damnable part of it is, I might keep reading. There are few characters and story lines I much care about, but those which do interest me are well drawn, and might keep me going.
The best I can say of this series is that it would make great television, as it is drawn from a superior imagination, but expresses no clear notion of where it is going, at least this far in. As sci-fi "popcorn for the mind", it's very good. Among great sci-fi novel-series, so far it can only be an also-ran.
September 16, 2011
I'm so glad I stuck with Peter F. Hamilton. I think he's now one of my favorite SF authors. And, in this audiobook, John Lee has redeemed himself as a narrator. I was totally annoyed by his narration of Pandora's Star, but was totally engrossed in his narration of The Dreaming Void. In fact, I downloaded The Temporal Void from Audible while I was listening to the last half hour of this book.
I'm not going to bother telling what this book was about because the synopsis sums it up pretty well. What I really liked here was the characters. It was nice seeing cameo appearances from some major characters from the Commonwealth Saga, but the new characters were absolutely fabulous. I especially enjoyed the parts that focused on Eddeard. (Sorry if I spelled that wrong.) His world was so unique. I really like how Hamilton managed to depict it without resorting to infodumps. The world is revealed gradually, through the action, rather than described in excruciating detail. This is quite a change from the way way Hamilton wrote about the various worlds in Pandora's Star. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Void Trilogy.
I'm not going to bother telling what this book was about because the synopsis sums it up pretty well. What I really liked here was the characters. It was nice seeing cameo appearances from some major characters from the Commonwealth Saga, but the new characters were absolutely fabulous. I especially enjoyed the parts that focused on Eddeard. (Sorry if I spelled that wrong.) His world was so unique. I really like how Hamilton managed to depict it without resorting to infodumps. The world is revealed gradually, through the action, rather than described in excruciating detail. This is quite a change from the way way Hamilton wrote about the various worlds in Pandora's Star. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Void Trilogy.
February 5, 2015
I must have been a teenager the last time I read proper science fiction (you know, the stuff with spaceships and shit). I have no idea what stopped me reading science fiction then (I remain to this day deeply in touch with my childhood Doctor Who fan) and no real clue why I got it into my head to start reading it now. All I know is that Peter Hamilton seems a big name in British science fiction these days and so I thought I’d give him a whirl.
If I’m honest this isn’t the easiest book to write review of, as it’s very clearly part of a bigger trilogy. To put forward a firm and unbending opinion would be a little like switching a film off after half an hour and saying loudly what you think of the whole. However I’ve so far enjoyed this futuristic riff on religion. A black hole-esque phenomenon (the void of the title) exists at the edge of our galaxy, and inside is perceived to exist a utopia – where a character knows as the Water Walker is a messiah. When believers announce their intention to go into this void, various factions react to preserve their own interests.
Hamilton’s prose isn’t the most exciting I’ve ever read, but he clearly has a fantastic imagination and a talent for creating wild and vast alien worlds and future-scapes. And even though it can be sometimes hard to keep all the characters fixed in one’s head (imagine if Tolstoy didn’t have that guide to characters at the beginning [this is the only time I’m going to compare Peter Hamilton to Tolstoy]), this is an intriguing read which has left me hungry for the second part. I will be grabbing hold of it very soon.
If I’m honest this isn’t the easiest book to write review of, as it’s very clearly part of a bigger trilogy. To put forward a firm and unbending opinion would be a little like switching a film off after half an hour and saying loudly what you think of the whole. However I’ve so far enjoyed this futuristic riff on religion. A black hole-esque phenomenon (the void of the title) exists at the edge of our galaxy, and inside is perceived to exist a utopia – where a character knows as the Water Walker is a messiah. When believers announce their intention to go into this void, various factions react to preserve their own interests.
Hamilton’s prose isn’t the most exciting I’ve ever read, but he clearly has a fantastic imagination and a talent for creating wild and vast alien worlds and future-scapes. And even though it can be sometimes hard to keep all the characters fixed in one’s head (imagine if Tolstoy didn’t have that guide to characters at the beginning [this is the only time I’m going to compare Peter Hamilton to Tolstoy]), this is an intriguing read which has left me hungry for the second part. I will be grabbing hold of it very soon.
October 10, 2013
This is the first novel of a trilogy by Peter Hamilton--it is science fiction, interspersed with "dreams" that are fantasy. The science fiction follows along similar lines to Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga; some of the same characters return, but they are a thousand years older!
Neither the science fiction plot-lines nor the fantasy contained much in the way of interesting new ideas. And while I generally enjoy science fiction more than fantasy, here I enjoyed the fantasy episodes quite a bit more. The characters in the fantasy episodes are more interesting, and the plot line is definitely more entertaining.
Neither the science fiction plot-lines nor the fantasy contained much in the way of interesting new ideas. And while I generally enjoy science fiction more than fantasy, here I enjoyed the fantasy episodes quite a bit more. The characters in the fantasy episodes are more interesting, and the plot line is definitely more entertaining.
September 26, 2023
What an absolute sci-fi masterpiece. Commonwealth is hands down my favorite series of any genre, and it just keeps getting better.
Hamilton did a trick I also LOVED in Iaian M. Banks' Culture novel Inversions. He turned his sci-fi series into fantasy. Inigo's dreams are sprinkled throughout the book alongside the chapters about Paula Myo, Troblum, Aaron & Corrie Lynn, and of course The Second Dreamer. So you get this wonderful oscillation between two different, and equally good, stories. The contrast between medieval Makkathran and the super-high-tech Commonwealth made for such an enjoyable ride. I just love everything about Hamilton's writing.
If you've read the first two books, keep on going. I would even go as far as to say The Dreaming Void could be the strongest entry in the series yet.
I'm off to dive into The Temporal Void. Happy reading!
Hamilton did a trick I also LOVED in Iaian M. Banks' Culture novel Inversions. He turned his sci-fi series into fantasy. Inigo's dreams are sprinkled throughout the book alongside the chapters about Paula Myo, Troblum, Aaron & Corrie Lynn, and of course The Second Dreamer. So you get this wonderful oscillation between two different, and equally good, stories. The contrast between medieval Makkathran and the super-high-tech Commonwealth made for such an enjoyable ride. I just love everything about Hamilton's writing.
If you've read the first two books, keep on going. I would even go as far as to say The Dreaming Void could be the strongest entry in the series yet.
I'm off to dive into The Temporal Void. Happy reading!
September 7, 2011
This was a holiday read that I only picked up because I fancied a chunky SF epic and this was the only one on my parents' bookshelf. Having been mildly diverted by the Night's Dawn trilogy around a decade ago, I was curious to see how Hamilton justified his tag as "Britain's Number One Science Fiction Author". Not very well as it turns out.
This was a largely risible effort, confirming the often-levelled accusation that far from being the genre of ideas, SF, at least in its mainstream space opera form, is quite the opposite, a refuge for cosy, conservative escapist fantasies. Despite what others have said, I can promise you that the "ideas" in this novel - psionics, posthumans, Matrix-esque virtual realities, enigmatic aliens, gestalt humans, stupidly powerful spaceships, blah blah blah - have been done to death a million times before and in far more interesting and entertaining ways. The contemporary touchstone for this sort of thing is the Culture series of novels and even though Iain Banks has drifted into fan service with the last couple in the series, nevertheless he can still craft an entertaining story and think through the implications of some of the more out-there speculative elements. This book on the other hand is just a bunch of lukewarm "ideas" tossed together in the hope that something will stick. Any one of the plot elements that are thrown in are enough to profoundly shape the book's universe and act as the crux of a decent narrative. Combined together as they are it is just not convincing as a work of speculation.
The characters are for most part posthumans with incredible abilities that would wholly reshape their society and cultures and yet their thought processes and actions don't reflect that at all. They are just superheroic versions of you or I, reacting to arbitrary plot shifts. There is no meaningful character development. There is no convincing attempt to explain their motivations. Even though the galaxy is on the brink of total destruction no-one seems in the least bit concerned. Instead dozens of pages are spent describing depressing posthuman gangbangs. Any challenges are overcome almost instantly in a kind of tedious videogame parade of awesomeness. Setbacks are never more than temporary. The dialogue is largely woeful. Every emotion is conveyed by describing the characters as either grinning or smirking at each other like imbeciles. One character allegedly has amnesia so severe that he can only remember his own name and yet this barely shapes his character or behaviour at all.
The plotting is no better. I have a very strong suspicion that actually the author had two different novels, one SF and one Fantasy, and then for whatever reason just decided to try and fuse them together. The SF novel revolves around various scheming posthumans and aliens living in a Culture-ish universe; the Fantasy novel is about some other characters with "psionic" (i.e. magic) abilities (the rules of quantum physics work differently in their universe or something) who live in a tedious almost-but-not-quite-medieval society. What links the two is that the Fantasy world is nested in the centre of the SF universe in something called the Void and the people in the SF world can dream what is going on in the Fantasy world. Apparently some people in the SF world are so taken with these "dreams" that they want to emigrate there. The catch is if they do that they might (or might not) trigger the destruction of the the entire galaxy.
Fine as it goes. The glaring problem is that there is no convincing reason why anyone in the SF world, where people have literally transcended death, can do pretty much whatever they please, and seem to spend most of their time having endless amounts of sex, would ever want to emigrate to a medieval feudal society full of well-meaning fascists, particularly when doing so will in all likelihood destroy the universe.
It is just baffling and I have to confess that this is a question that so bugs me that I've been compelled to read the next doorstop in the series just to see if there is going to be any sort of explanation. Unfortunately, if anything it gets worse. Please for your own sanity, steer well clear.
This was a largely risible effort, confirming the often-levelled accusation that far from being the genre of ideas, SF, at least in its mainstream space opera form, is quite the opposite, a refuge for cosy, conservative escapist fantasies. Despite what others have said, I can promise you that the "ideas" in this novel - psionics, posthumans, Matrix-esque virtual realities, enigmatic aliens, gestalt humans, stupidly powerful spaceships, blah blah blah - have been done to death a million times before and in far more interesting and entertaining ways. The contemporary touchstone for this sort of thing is the Culture series of novels and even though Iain Banks has drifted into fan service with the last couple in the series, nevertheless he can still craft an entertaining story and think through the implications of some of the more out-there speculative elements. This book on the other hand is just a bunch of lukewarm "ideas" tossed together in the hope that something will stick. Any one of the plot elements that are thrown in are enough to profoundly shape the book's universe and act as the crux of a decent narrative. Combined together as they are it is just not convincing as a work of speculation.
The characters are for most part posthumans with incredible abilities that would wholly reshape their society and cultures and yet their thought processes and actions don't reflect that at all. They are just superheroic versions of you or I, reacting to arbitrary plot shifts. There is no meaningful character development. There is no convincing attempt to explain their motivations. Even though the galaxy is on the brink of total destruction no-one seems in the least bit concerned. Instead dozens of pages are spent describing depressing posthuman gangbangs. Any challenges are overcome almost instantly in a kind of tedious videogame parade of awesomeness. Setbacks are never more than temporary. The dialogue is largely woeful. Every emotion is conveyed by describing the characters as either grinning or smirking at each other like imbeciles. One character allegedly has amnesia so severe that he can only remember his own name and yet this barely shapes his character or behaviour at all.
The plotting is no better. I have a very strong suspicion that actually the author had two different novels, one SF and one Fantasy, and then for whatever reason just decided to try and fuse them together. The SF novel revolves around various scheming posthumans and aliens living in a Culture-ish universe; the Fantasy novel is about some other characters with "psionic" (i.e. magic) abilities (the rules of quantum physics work differently in their universe or something) who live in a tedious almost-but-not-quite-medieval society. What links the two is that the Fantasy world is nested in the centre of the SF universe in something called the Void and the people in the SF world can dream what is going on in the Fantasy world. Apparently some people in the SF world are so taken with these "dreams" that they want to emigrate there. The catch is if they do that they might (or might not) trigger the destruction of the the entire galaxy.
Fine as it goes. The glaring problem is that there is no convincing reason why anyone in the SF world, where people have literally transcended death, can do pretty much whatever they please, and seem to spend most of their time having endless amounts of sex, would ever want to emigrate to a medieval feudal society full of well-meaning fascists, particularly when doing so will in all likelihood destroy the universe.
It is just baffling and I have to confess that this is a question that so bugs me that I've been compelled to read the next doorstop in the series just to see if there is going to be any sort of explanation. Unfortunately, if anything it gets worse. Please for your own sanity, steer well clear.
December 16, 2012
I didn't think I would enjoy this book. It had 2 strikes going against it before I even read a single page.
I came away from the Commonwealth Saga less than impressed. It was ok, it certainly wasn't bad or anything, but it wasn't my cup of green tea. It sounded great on paper, but I thought it was poorly executed at critical times and felt very bloated.
Upon reading the description on the book jacket: "At the very heart of th galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, ... steadily expands in all directions.. But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it." Hold up a second...a hard science fiction space opera set in the year fucking 3589 that has to do with the most boring subject of all: other people's dreams!??? This sounds like a calamity on paper waiting to happen.
But hey, I found it at a used bookstore for a dollar and Im a sucker for giving authors second chances, so why not?
It worked. I can't explain it very well, but I"ll try. It simply worked.
Why does it work?
1. Nicely organized. Seven chapters and seven dreams (the dreams read as a single narrative that can easily be read on their own as a stand alone story). The seven conventional chapters read as a typical Hamilton novel - alot of jumping around from character to character. This can be a challenge at times, you will sometimes pick up a characters story thread again after 100 or more pages, so I found myself flipping back, wondering wtf was he/she doing again? But
Hamilton does a good job of flicking us on the head and reminding us, so it's never really that confusing.
2. Likeable characters. I really enjoyed all the character threads. I complained earlier about a certain character doing nothing but having orgies and selling houses, but boy do I feel stupid after posting that, if I would've just read on a bit more...I won't doubt you
again Mr. Hamilton. I highly recommend you read the Commonwealth Saga first, notwithstanding my lukewarm feelings towards it; alot of characters from that series pop up here and I honestly didn't realize how much I liked them until they made their appearance. They aren't just cameos. Some of my favorite heroines from the Commonwealth Saga make glorious triumphant returns here and I cheered as if I was watching a football game when they entered the game.
3. There's a mystery here, that I felt compelled to figure out. It's never spoonfed though, it's challenging at times. There are so many moving pieces, so many characters, from such diverse backrounds and sometimes conflicting ideaologies, that you never get the entire picture... its up to the reader to put the pieces
together, and to pick a side. There is tremendous moral ambiguity here. Each faction is fighting to basically determine the evolutionary path that humanity will take. High fucking stakes.
This can be read as a standalone book, but be aware that it is only the first part of a trilogy, so there isn't any closure at the end.
The Dreaming Void can be read without having read the Commonwealth Saga, but you'd be missing out a bit. If you really liked that series, or like me were just ok with it, I still recommend this. However, I have to temper my enthusiasm a bit because I have a feeling the Void Trilogy will be something that needs to be judged as the sum of its parts, and not just on this introductory book.
January 24, 2016
Disappointing. Not as compelling as the previous Commonwealth Saga duo "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained". Even though my favorite character, Paula Myo returns, she isn't quite the same after her last re-life. The thread involving Araminta just seems to be an excuse to include a LOT of unnecessary and uninteresting group sex into the novel. Also, I found the the concept of "multiple humans" to be quite lame. I thought the "Water Walker" plot thread was more interesting than the rest, but even that couldn't convince me to purchase the next book.
August 15, 2020
4.5 ⭐️‘s rounded up. The Dreaming Void is the first of what seems to be a promising trilogy. It’s part of a longer series of books dealing with The Commonwealth. Although I should have read the earlier ones in the series ahead of time - I had become impatient with my library ignoring my *recommend* request 😀 - a little research showed I would be ok not reading them in order and I was able to follow along with the story in this pretty well. There were references to things like “The Starflyer War” and events that sounded pretty cool that I could tell were in the other books, but I was able to keep up. If anything it makes me want to read these even more.
The setting is in the far future... the 35th century. There is a mysterious section of of the galaxy dubbed The Void that shows the characteristics of black hole. Like most black holes it kind of sucks up all matter near it in a not so pleasant way. As it turns out - this one is a bit different... there’s people in there. There is a character from our universe named Inigo (no... his last name is not Montoya... but someone did kill the father of the object of his dreams). Inigo starts having visions (or dreams) about a civilization that exists inside The Void. These dreams inspire over a century’s time a movement called The Living Dream that tries to interpret the meaning of the dreams. This group - 5 billion strong - is effectively a religious movement. One of the key plot points of the book is that they decide to make a pilgrimage to The Void. Inigo’s idea? No - he’s disappeared from the spotlight.
Seems harmless... right? Well - for those not going on the pilgrimage - sure. Those going into the black hole are probably not going to be so lucky. Non human groups (and some humans too) think this is not such a great idea. One of the other groups called the Raiel have first hand experience of what happens when you try to enter The Void... basically everyone trying dies and an acceleration of the devourment of the universe occurs. Faced with scientific evidence of the consequences the Living Dream abandons their plans.
I’m just kidding... remember it’s humans we are talking about. They dismiss the Raiel’s objections in a very xenophobic way and decide to go ahead with their plans anyway. The Raiel are an ancient civilization - extremely advanced - and see us as very primitive. If you have ever watched the TV series Babylon-5 (highly recommended) they are like the Vorlons (not physically - but how they regard humans)
Parts of the story take place in our universe and others are a slow unveiling of Inigo’s dreams and the civilization inside The Void. There are a lot of characters and several plot lines to follow.
Ok - that’s as much of the plot as I’m going to divulge - I don’t want to throw too many spoilers out there. I will however go into some of the cool future-tech. Like I was saying - we are in the 35th century - the iPhone 2700 has just been released, AOL is making a comeback, and George R R Martin’s descendants have finally released the last Game of Thrones book... ok - none of that’s true, but here’s a sampling of cool Commonwealth tech that is in the book.
- Biononics - this tech allows you alter your characteristics. You can be taller, stronger, change your hair, set your own age... become a hard to stop killing machine (there may be one of those in the book 😀) The enhancements are so pervasive most people have no idea what anyone looks like.
- U-Shadow - this is kind of a digital assistant which is a copy of yourself. Think of it as a souped up version of Syri/Alexa, but it works reliably (those things never understand me). Rather than ask it simple question like “what’s the weather today?” You can give it complex tasks like to go do research on a topic... it will do the task just like if you did it yourself- send the results right into your brain- and free you up to do whatever you want.
- ANA or advanced neural activity system is a massive electronic collective brain of sorts that you can download your personality into or create alternative copies of yourself. Not good for privacy 🤔
- Cure for death... well - not exactly. That personality you can upload - it has memories too - so if you die you can just get downloaded from your last backup copy in a new body... it only takes a few months. What if your body is just getting old and wearing out? Same thing.. . Just replicate yourself in a new one... with biononics you can make yourself look just like you did before. This leads to most people living hundreds of years.
- Multiple’s... is having an immortal presence and a U-Shadow to do all the hard stuff for you just not enough for you? There’s a solution... become a ‘multiple’ This means there can be 20 physical copies of you - all different in appearance- that share the same consciousness - talk about multi-tasking. I wonder how they would do with the ‘Invisible Gorilla’ experiment.
- The spaceships are pretty cool too of course- especially Aaron’s 🚀
So what about the cool tech for the civilization inside The Void? That’s a completely different story. These people seem to have at one point had been very advanced, but had a decline - so there are carryovers of the old technology- but overall they are quite primitive. That doesn’t make them less interesting. Telekinesis and telepathy are quite common. Some gifted individuals are so talented they can ‘egg shape’ and effectively alter the DNA of growing eggs and create new creatures to perform tasks. The morality of that is disturbing- especially considering that there are so many failed attempts at this, but it’s fascinating.
Overall I found this quite good. I struggled to keep up with the plethora of characters at times, but that’s ok. There were a lot of loose ends and unexplained things that I’m sure will play out in the next two books. Also, since it kind of ended on a cliff hanger it left me wanting more.
The setting is in the far future... the 35th century. There is a mysterious section of of the galaxy dubbed The Void that shows the characteristics of black hole. Like most black holes it kind of sucks up all matter near it in a not so pleasant way. As it turns out - this one is a bit different... there’s people in there. There is a character from our universe named Inigo (no... his last name is not Montoya... but someone did kill the father of the object of his dreams). Inigo starts having visions (or dreams) about a civilization that exists inside The Void. These dreams inspire over a century’s time a movement called The Living Dream that tries to interpret the meaning of the dreams. This group - 5 billion strong - is effectively a religious movement. One of the key plot points of the book is that they decide to make a pilgrimage to The Void. Inigo’s idea? No - he’s disappeared from the spotlight.
Seems harmless... right? Well - for those not going on the pilgrimage - sure. Those going into the black hole are probably not going to be so lucky. Non human groups (and some humans too) think this is not such a great idea. One of the other groups called the Raiel have first hand experience of what happens when you try to enter The Void... basically everyone trying dies and an acceleration of the devourment of the universe occurs. Faced with scientific evidence of the consequences the Living Dream abandons their plans.
I’m just kidding... remember it’s humans we are talking about. They dismiss the Raiel’s objections in a very xenophobic way and decide to go ahead with their plans anyway. The Raiel are an ancient civilization - extremely advanced - and see us as very primitive. If you have ever watched the TV series Babylon-5 (highly recommended) they are like the Vorlons (not physically - but how they regard humans)
Parts of the story take place in our universe and others are a slow unveiling of Inigo’s dreams and the civilization inside The Void. There are a lot of characters and several plot lines to follow.
Ok - that’s as much of the plot as I’m going to divulge - I don’t want to throw too many spoilers out there. I will however go into some of the cool future-tech. Like I was saying - we are in the 35th century - the iPhone 2700 has just been released, AOL is making a comeback, and George R R Martin’s descendants have finally released the last Game of Thrones book... ok - none of that’s true, but here’s a sampling of cool Commonwealth tech that is in the book.
- Biononics - this tech allows you alter your characteristics. You can be taller, stronger, change your hair, set your own age... become a hard to stop killing machine (there may be one of those in the book 😀) The enhancements are so pervasive most people have no idea what anyone looks like.
- U-Shadow - this is kind of a digital assistant which is a copy of yourself. Think of it as a souped up version of Syri/Alexa, but it works reliably (those things never understand me). Rather than ask it simple question like “what’s the weather today?” You can give it complex tasks like to go do research on a topic... it will do the task just like if you did it yourself- send the results right into your brain- and free you up to do whatever you want.
- ANA or advanced neural activity system is a massive electronic collective brain of sorts that you can download your personality into or create alternative copies of yourself. Not good for privacy 🤔
- Cure for death... well - not exactly. That personality you can upload - it has memories too - so if you die you can just get downloaded from your last backup copy in a new body... it only takes a few months. What if your body is just getting old and wearing out? Same thing.. . Just replicate yourself in a new one... with biononics you can make yourself look just like you did before. This leads to most people living hundreds of years.
- Multiple’s... is having an immortal presence and a U-Shadow to do all the hard stuff for you just not enough for you? There’s a solution... become a ‘multiple’ This means there can be 20 physical copies of you - all different in appearance- that share the same consciousness - talk about multi-tasking. I wonder how they would do with the ‘Invisible Gorilla’ experiment.
- The spaceships are pretty cool too of course- especially Aaron’s 🚀
So what about the cool tech for the civilization inside The Void? That’s a completely different story. These people seem to have at one point had been very advanced, but had a decline - so there are carryovers of the old technology- but overall they are quite primitive. That doesn’t make them less interesting. Telekinesis and telepathy are quite common. Some gifted individuals are so talented they can ‘egg shape’ and effectively alter the DNA of growing eggs and create new creatures to perform tasks. The morality of that is disturbing- especially considering that there are so many failed attempts at this, but it’s fascinating.
Overall I found this quite good. I struggled to keep up with the plethora of characters at times, but that’s ok. There were a lot of loose ends and unexplained things that I’m sure will play out in the next two books. Also, since it kind of ended on a cliff hanger it left me wanting more.
November 4, 2022
Solid start to a trilogy. Lots of stuff I'm not sure where it's going or what it's purpose is especially the "dream" chapters. But I've learned to trust PFH to make it all make sense. I love when this book directly relates to the Commonwealth Saga and yes some characters from that do turn up. Also I continue to enjoy the worldbuilding and seeing how the Commonwealth has changed since Judas Unchained both in technology and as a society.
October 1, 2015
The Dreaming Void is a book told on an epic scale with events being portrayed on a grand large canvas that literally crosses eons of time! :D
The story itself is stretched across space and this space is given it own history with long terms studies of the void in the middle of the galaxy having taken place over an extended period of time and that same time this is set against the backdrop of events that are taking place within the galaxy! :D
At the same time in order to confound things a separate story is taking place within the void as well with only two Dreamers outside able to get an insight into this through there dreams! :D
This makes the story dance around and chapter switch between characters and the different factions that are striving for political dominance as well as all the other species who have have their agenda as well! :D This creates a number of separate storylines that at the beginning you cannot be sure how they are interacting but as the book progresses there are little hints about how everything is connected and this adds to the sense of mystery and discovery that is a theme throughout the book! :D
Amongst all of this though the action quota is very high as in one moment you could be having a political debate and in the very next chapter guns are blazing! :D This keeps the book moving at a very swift and breakneck pace with many characters and their reactions to situations surprising you as well as what they are capable of! :D
At the same time their s lot of humour threading its way throughout the book for example when on a combat mission Corrie-Lyn goes clothes shopping! :D This all adds to make many of the characters really stand out and have you routing for them not to mention laughing at some of their attics at the same time it edge of the seat stuff as you really do not know how things are going to go as the plotlines are all wide open and could go anywhere! :D
Events throughout the commonwealth though are also portrayed though with fine detail and questions regarding it actions are posed in a way you would expect but it is interesting to note how many of the characters while in extreme positions of power do seem to be the genuine article as to political shenanigans that you would expect which also helps as well to keep the plotlines turning and twisting as you are often expecting the other shoe to drop which it may well do in other books! :D
We also get to see a large divergence in many different societies as they have spread across the galaxy at the same time though these have often started off as almost social experiments and shows us how technology has been incorporated in these societies which operate at many different levels with some having technology embargoes but at the same time being aware of the higher technologies and gives us some insights into the industrial espionage aspects that would take place I n these societies which again adds to the palimpsest and depth of events!
More would be made sense in the other books but The Dreaming Void is breakneck read full of intriguing worlds and events! :D
Brilliant and highly recommended! :D
The story itself is stretched across space and this space is given it own history with long terms studies of the void in the middle of the galaxy having taken place over an extended period of time and that same time this is set against the backdrop of events that are taking place within the galaxy! :D
At the same time in order to confound things a separate story is taking place within the void as well with only two Dreamers outside able to get an insight into this through there dreams! :D
This makes the story dance around and chapter switch between characters and the different factions that are striving for political dominance as well as all the other species who have have their agenda as well! :D This creates a number of separate storylines that at the beginning you cannot be sure how they are interacting but as the book progresses there are little hints about how everything is connected and this adds to the sense of mystery and discovery that is a theme throughout the book! :D
Amongst all of this though the action quota is very high as in one moment you could be having a political debate and in the very next chapter guns are blazing! :D This keeps the book moving at a very swift and breakneck pace with many characters and their reactions to situations surprising you as well as what they are capable of! :D
At the same time their s lot of humour threading its way throughout the book for example when on a combat mission Corrie-Lyn goes clothes shopping! :D This all adds to make many of the characters really stand out and have you routing for them not to mention laughing at some of their attics at the same time it edge of the seat stuff as you really do not know how things are going to go as the plotlines are all wide open and could go anywhere! :D
Events throughout the commonwealth though are also portrayed though with fine detail and questions regarding it actions are posed in a way you would expect but it is interesting to note how many of the characters while in extreme positions of power do seem to be the genuine article as to political shenanigans that you would expect which also helps as well to keep the plotlines turning and twisting as you are often expecting the other shoe to drop which it may well do in other books! :D
We also get to see a large divergence in many different societies as they have spread across the galaxy at the same time though these have often started off as almost social experiments and shows us how technology has been incorporated in these societies which operate at many different levels with some having technology embargoes but at the same time being aware of the higher technologies and gives us some insights into the industrial espionage aspects that would take place I n these societies which again adds to the palimpsest and depth of events!
More would be made sense in the other books but The Dreaming Void is breakneck read full of intriguing worlds and events! :D
Brilliant and highly recommended! :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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