A Cracking read so far

CiDeRmAn

Just picked up the new paperback from Peter F Hamilton, Pandoras Star.
WOW!
The best opening chapter ever!
And so far it is up there with the Nights Dawn Trilogy, very good indeed.
Anyone else out there reading his stuff at the moment?
Any ideas when part two of this new trilogy will be out?
Are there many women who read this stuff and what do they think of it?
Thanks

Jimboo_Jones

it does drag a little in the middle, but really, really picks up at the end. Can not wait for the next, and last book

CiDeRmAn

Well had so much fun with the nights dawn trilogy don;t mind having to wait

David Stewart

Unfortunately, Judas Unchained seems to keep getting put back. It's now scheduled for release in October.

CiDeRmAn

Bugger, ah well back to the morse books i got for christmas, what a grumpy bastard he is!

CiDeRmAn

Finished it last week, Need More, NEED MORE NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Its like the Nights Dawn trilogy all over again, the long months of waiting til the next instalment!

Fenster

Its a good book. Its gets off to a slow start, really loses its way around the middle and ends on a right high note.

Manach

An excellent and interesting start so far. But the size of the book, 1000+ pages, means that I can ration my reading till the next one in the series is out. BTW I have not read "Mis-spent Youth" but I persume it is in the same shared universe as this.

David Stewart

There is a passing reference to events in Misspent Youth but you do not have to have read M.Y. to enjoy Pandora's Star.

Jimboo_Jones

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Finished it last week, Need More, NEED MORE NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Its like the Nights Dawn trilogy all over again, the long months of waiting til the next instalment!

First off I REALLY enjoyed the book. I thought the middle was a bit long, but you just know that when he is describing peoples lifes etc, that soon, there is going to be one almighty hammer come crashing down on them.... and o0oohh what a hammer ;p

oh and it ends on such a rush that you just NEED the next one, I read this early 2004 so just think how I feel... humm maybe I should read it again before the next one comes out

CiDeRmAn

Exposition seems to be an obsession with him, the description of the lives of these characters that you just know isn't going to last, ah well, looking forward to the kick ass sequel, may grab my mates copy of mis-spent youth to tide me over although there is the new takashi kovacs novel to read, hmmm....

Jimboo_Jones

I have just finished reading woken furies.

Great book and you get to meet some of the charactors that he has mentioned in previous books. Plenty of action as Tak gets to do what Tak does best on his home turf

Now I am stuck for a book to read, currently waiting for the second in the gap series to arrive...

CiDeRmAn

Like his buddy Jimmy who got nailed with that psychotropic ordinance and tried to claw his own face off, cool!

Pick up some Jonathan Lethem, Gun with Occasional Music, a very cool SciFi book, and while I know you all have if you haven't read and then re-read Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward, Spares etc. you really should, also A Fall Of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke, fantastic stuff. The Ophiuchi Hotline and Steel Beach by John Varley, if you like Hard SF.

Jimboo_Jones

Jimmy isnt there, but he is mentioned again ;p

... I seem confused with what happend between the ending of the second and start of the third book though..

Hamiltons best book is fallen dragon though - loved that book

And the first Nights Dawn book, man the action never stopped in that book.

CiDeRmAn

thought that the reality disfunction, Nights Dawn part the first was a tad slow to get started, ended up putting it down and only picked it up again a month later, Never put it down til it was over and the long wait for the neutronium alchemist was out, great days!

qwertz

Finished the Naked God last night. I liked the trilogy a lot but I feel that the writer should have included another couple of hundred pages. Maybe I feel this way because I don't want it to be over Oh well, on to Red Mars. Hopefully this will tickle my fancy.

CiDeRmAn

The Mars series, theres a blast from the past, waited on each one in turn to get released.
A very different beast from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff out there.
No super weapons or impending galactic doom, just a story of the first Mars colonists and their lives and the life of the planet they inhabit, wonderful stuff, great descriptions of the geography of Mars as it changes with the terraforming.

Best of luck with it, it will broaden your mental horizons, kinda why we read this stuff in the first place, no?

qwertz

Should I read the trilogy first or start with Antarctica which has been released afterwards but is the prequal to the trilogy?

CiDeRmAn wrote:

The Mars series, theres a blast from the past, waited on each one in turn to get released.
A very different beast from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff out there.
No super weapons or impending galactic doom, just a story of the first Mars colonists and their lives and the life of the planet they inhabit, wonderful stuff, great descriptions of the geography of Mars as it changes with the terraforming.

Best of luck with it, it will broaden your mental horizons, kinda why we read this stuff in the first place, no?

CiDeRmAn

Nope, just jump straight in with red mars, but buy the lot so as you are not left dangling trying to find a bookshop that stocks the whole series!

qwertz

Alrightie, you wouldn't want to sell your Green and Blue Mars, would you?

CiDeRmAn

Fraid not, had you asked the Missus she would have sent them to you for free but I have to keep them, they should be available in the like of Chapters on Abbey Street as well as Forbidden Planet, they are in a Classics series which is unfortunate as you lose their great cover art in the process, as mars changes from red desert to earthlike world.

Jimboo_Jones

CiDeRmAn wrote:

thought that the reality disfunction, Nights Dawn part the first was a tad slow to get started, ended up putting it down and only picked it up again a month later, Never put it down til it was over and the long wait for the neutronium alchemist was out, great days!

Reality Disfuction was my fav ....spolier ;p

when they where trying to take out the bad guys, first it was the turn of the sherif and his bonded hound, then spooky and mulder and their bonded hawk, then the special forces army based on the planet and their 'gazer' guns, then the mercs made up from all over .. oh fantastic

Have you finished Woken Furies yet?

bonkey

If you're looking for something to tide you over till the sequel of Pandora's is out, and you haven't read it yet, may I humbly suggest you check out Dan Simmons' Ilium. Just be warned...it too is awaiting the release of its sequel (later this year).

And if you haven't read Simmons, go get Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion and Endymion / Rise of Endymion, his two previous two-parters (Endymion is a sequel-series of sorts to the original Hyperion Cantos). Not a pre-req for Ilium at all, but just DAMNED fine reading.

Oh - and Donaldson's Gap series.

jc

Tristram

Loved the Nights Dawn trilogy, if this is up there I have to get my hands on it.

What did people think of Fallen Dragon(think that was what it was called)?

Jimboo_Jones

Fallen Dragon is perhaps his best book, the tech in there is somewhere between mind star and night dawns, and the charactors seem more real - it has a lovely ending to it as well, which is the only big gripe I had about nights dawn.

Just finished the second in the gap series (stephen donaldson) .. this is turning out to be a craking series.

bonkey wrote:

And if you haven't read Simmons, go get Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion and Endymion / Rise of Endymion, his two previous two-parters (Endymion is a sequel-series of sorts to the original Hyperion Cantos). Not a pre-req for Ilium at all, but just DAMNED fine reading.

yeah I loved the Hyperion books, and they have the most over the top villian ever

so I guess its onto the third in Peter F Hamilton's Mind star series

Tristram

Looks like I hav a busy Summer of reading ahead of me.

bonkey

Jimboo_Jones wrote:

yeah I loved the Hyperion books, and they have the most over the top villian ever

Who?

If you mean the Shrike...it wasn't really the villain.

Ping Chow Chi

you know what he ment though

Fenster

Someone mentioned Woken Furies...it was crap. The plot had a direction in the first half, then threw it out entirely and meandered to a fine deus ex machina in the finale.

Ah well, he's setting up a good sequel, if anything.

super_furry

Just finished The Reality Dysfunction, which I picked up on recommendation from here, and I'm impressed. It's not the usual kind of thing I read and it's a bit of a slow burner - it takes a good while to work out all the jargon - but there's a great story in there and one of the best main characters I've come accross in ages in Joshua Calvaert.

Squall

Night Dawn was fantastic

Loved Pandora star (didnt realise it was a trilogy till the last few pages )