Judas Unchained was finally released in America...

[mike_c]

...and I'm reading it now. I re-read Pandora's Star so I'd remember who all the characters are. So far it's pretty good-- Peter Hamilton is generally excellent, but I REALLY like this story better than the Night's Dawn trilogy.

[mike_c]

1. not that anyone appears interested or anything...

...but I'm within 50 pages or so of finishing Judas Unchained and it's extremely good. Read Pandora's Star first of course. :thumbsup:

[CrownPrinceBandar]

2. I just finished "Pandora's Star".....

and I'm still trying to decide if the first 800 pages of build-up was worth the last 200 of payoff (which was great). But, I'll probably read Judas in paperback so I can get the scoop on the whole Starflyer deal and see what finally happens to Ozzie and crew.

Don't get me wrong, I think Hamilton is a great writer and has a knack for telling a good story. However he seems to take for granted that some of us have a hard time keeping track of who's who, who they're sleeping/fighting with and what world they're on when you stretch the story over almost 1,000 pages. I wish he'd throw us a bone and give us a dramatis personae to keep it straight.

[mike_c]

3. interestingly, he does provide one in Judas Unchained....

You must not be the first person to make that request. I've finished it, and it is fantastic. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

[YankeyMCC]

4. Got me interested

I noticed it is now available from the SciFi book club and I remembered it being mentioned here so I looked into it a bit.

The plot sounds interesting but like the poster above I'm balking a bit at the length. Not that I'm afraid of long novels I've certainly read my share but I've never read Hamilton before so I'm hesitant to make that sort of 'page investment' as my first experience with him.

Right now my thought is to not order it from the club and see if I can get Pandora's Star from the local used book store.

[mike_c]

5. that's exactly what I'd recommend you do....

Tastes differ, and I actually found ALL of Pandora's Star quite compelling. I thought it was a great story, but if you aren't raging at the cliff hanger ending you likely shouldn't invest the time in the sequel. I really like Peter Hamilton generally, and despite the reams that have been written about the Night's Dawn trilogy-- annoyingly released in the U.S. as a series of SIX books in paperback-- I like his subsequent work much better. In addition to Pandoras Star and Judas Unchained, which I thought were fantastic, I really liked Fallen Dragon. I haven't read Misspent Youth because the premise doesn't interest me.

[YankeyMCC]

6. Went to the store today

and they didn't have Pandora's Star

But they did have Reality Dysfunction.

It looked somewhat interesting although the back cover mention of "telepathy" normally would take my interest down a bit.

Have you read those books?

[mike_c]

7. The Reality Dysfunction is the name of the first pair...

...of books from the Night's Dawn trilogy released in the U.S. It's actually a PAIR of paperbacks, The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence and The Reality Dysfunction: Expansion in the U.S. edition, and a single title (The Reality Dysfunction) in the hardback edition.

Three comments about this: first, if you buy one of these in paperback, make sure it's the first one, The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence, otherwise you'll miss the beginning of the series. Second, if you buy it in paperback it's SIX BOOKS, so make sure you can get your hands on all six (I think Amazon sells them, so that should be no problem, but your local bookstore might not). Here's a link to Peter F. Hamilton's biblio for further reference: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/peter-f-hamilton/

Finally, my personal recommendation is to start with Fallen Dragon or Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained-- they're both simply better than the Night's Dawn trilogy, IMO. Get them from Amazon or another online bookseller if you can't find them locally.