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The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)
by Peter F. Hamilton
by Peter F. Hamilton
Susanne's review
bookshelves: couldn-t-finish
Oct 11, 10
bookshelves: couldn-t-finish
Recommended for:
sci-fi fans who aren't afraid of a thousand pages of exposition
read count: can't finish
I'm on page 450 and I don't know if I can finish this one. So far we've had:
Awesome:
- Humans biologically bonded to technology: Because I can't wait for my own neural link into the internets.
- Space colonisation programme, settlers, frontiers, etc. = I always enjoy this sort of thing.
Not so awesome:
The protagonist is a tremendous Gary Stu: not only do his adventures all turn out all right, he also ALWAYS gets the girl. He's handsome! In a roguish way! And as soon as he smiles at any female in the vicinity, sexy times are guaranteed!
Terrible:
We've already had rape, torture, general exploitation, and mysogyny. And I'm not even half-way through.
Ridiculous
The plots so far: Joshua has found an artifact that may hold the key to the self-destruction of an entire alien civilisation! What might it be? The most wanted man in the universe (and a bunch of satanists) are possessed by strange energy things fromthe dungeon another dimension! What might they be? Dr Mzu is trying to get away from Tranquility, probably to go looking for the Alchemist! Where might it be? Currently, Styrinx is somewhere buying seafood. (Includes whale watching! And sexy times!) Joshua is on Lalonde buying wood! (No sexy times yet but it can only be a matter of time!)
Abandon suspension of disbelief: Humans have colonised space, have bitek, and whatever, but can only get through the jungle on Lalonde on HORSES, and they can't travel upriver faster than by STEAMBOAT because not only aren't they allowed proper tech on the settlement planet, no, they also don't have transports that can take their soldiers WITH their horses upriver. Everyone knows something really BAD is happening in the Quallheim and yet the army takes a BOAT to get there, which takes a week, minimum. No. Just no.
I really want to find out how it all comes together in the end. But so far I'm not invested in any of the characters and I can never read more than a couple of chapters before the book flies. Think I'll give this a miss.
Awesome:
- Humans biologically bonded to technology: Because I can't wait for my own neural link into the internets.
- Space colonisation programme, settlers, frontiers, etc. = I always enjoy this sort of thing.
Not so awesome:
The protagonist is a tremendous Gary Stu: not only do his adventures all turn out all right, he also ALWAYS gets the girl. He's handsome! In a roguish way! And as soon as he smiles at any female in the vicinity, sexy times are guaranteed!
Terrible:
We've already had rape, torture, general exploitation, and mysogyny. And I'm not even half-way through.
Ridiculous
The plots so far: Joshua has found an artifact that may hold the key to the self-destruction of an entire alien civilisation! What might it be? The most wanted man in the universe (and a bunch of satanists) are possessed by strange energy things from
Abandon suspension of disbelief: Humans have colonised space, have bitek, and whatever, but can only get through the jungle on Lalonde on HORSES, and they can't travel upriver faster than by STEAMBOAT because not only aren't they allowed proper tech on the settlement planet, no, they also don't have transports that can take their soldiers WITH their horses upriver. Everyone knows something really BAD is happening in the Quallheim and yet the army takes a BOAT to get there, which takes a week, minimum. No. Just no.
I really want to find out how it all comes together in the end. But so far I'm not invested in any of the characters and I can never read more than a couple of chapters before the book flies. Think I'll give this a miss.
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Reading Progress
| 09/09/2010 | page 120 |
|
10.0% | "Hard going so far but I think this is going to be awesome." |
Comments (showing 1-16 of 16) (16 new)
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Thank you! :)And, not at all, I'm sorry to report. There's a few female characters in this one, but even the...I don't even know what to call her, Leader? Owner? President? of Tranquility, who seems highly intelligent and pretty awesome in general is mostly just there to have sex with the protagonist.
The 18-year-old girl who escapes her family's settlement in the jungle to try and make enough money in the city to get off the planet she hates? Is forced to have sex with the captain of the boat that carries her back to civilisation (ON TOP of working her passage by helping out on the boat). She remains completely unscathed by this, however, and later contemplates "whoring" (her word!) her way off the planet by sleeping with, you guessed it, the protagonist.
The funny thing is, I don't normally pick up on the lack of strong characters in sci-fi - I never notice things when the tech is good - but with this one it really, REALLY annoys me.
sci-fi fans who aren't afraid of a thousand pages of exposition ... perfect. i actually made it all the way through a decade ago. Could have been editted down to a single great book.
I think maybe 4 , or even 6 ! (double big *gulp*) You might like my 'Yaakme n of Tyrie' novel. Starts out a bit slow, but (I promise) picks up very quickly. I can send you FREE smashwords.com code if you'd like?
"Could have been edited down to a single great book" - very well stated. So much potential for a very good story seemed slightly watered-down. I have yet to read the third and final book, but I'm not holding out much hope that it'll be different. Overall, I've enjoyed the story and the writing style enough to finish the series though!
Ammonite wrote: "Ugh, a Gary Stu? I can't stand those. If only I'd seen your review before I bought the book :(."Aww, I'm sorry. :( But, you never know, maybe it was just me! :)
Yeah the Joshua character is a bit of an indulgence on Peter Hamiltons part, he is a very big fan of golden age sci-fi and often use a form of the tropes from that era. He has admitted that he wanted a real old-school "Han Solo" space pilot, but sadly he often comes off as quite groan worthy.
Casper wrote: "He has admitted that he wanted a real old-school "Han Solo" space pilot..."I have no issues with that, I have to admit. I'm all for self-insertion/wish-fulfillment, normally. This one just didn't work for me. Maybe it was because there wasn't a Leia to go with the Han. :)
Ok. I guess you just persuade me to not try out this book. Gary Stu typical male hero is my biggest gripe, along with the plethora of problems that come with one (like that Harem situation). I might enjoy a well-built world, but not when a Gary Stu inhabits it. No thanks!
Evan wrote: "Jesus. It fucking science fiction. You're not critics. If you don't enjoy it, don't read it."review (noun): a critical article or report, as in a periodical, on a book, play, recital, or the like; critique; evaluation.
I tend to avoid hard-core SF novels because i just got so sick of their depictions of women. I know this author is highly praised so it doesn't seem that characterisation has improved much in this genre.