The Dreaming Void
I’m almost done with The Dreaming Void the new Peter F. Hamilton’s book set in the Commonwealth Universe 1500 years after the events of the Commonwealth Saga .
Old friends:
My favourite characters of Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained were Paula Myo, Oscar Monroe and Ozzie Isaacs. So you can imagine I was overjoyed Paula was back and as badass as ever (her chapters were obviously too short :P).
Then Oscar was back too (more glee).
And Ozzie replaced God. I could love this book for this alone.
The other character I liked were Justine and Gore Burnelli, Nigel Sheldon, Wilson Kime, The Bose motile and Tarlo. Of those two first are back and we learn the faith of other two. I liked how Wilson finally became the great explorer, he deserved this.
I’m still waiting to learn the rest of Tarlo’s name. We don’t even know if Tarlo is a first or last name. I thought it was important in Judas Unchained, that it meant he was from some big dynasty but it was never even mentioned.
I liked Quatux too so I was glad to see him again. Glad he was better, hurt by what he went through. How could the Barsoomians allow the Cat to do that to their holly grail I still don’t know.
We also learn stuff about Melanie and Orion but I don’t care. Except for the result obviously.
I missed the SI. It was one of most fascinating characters in previous story and a big part of Commonwealth society. It seemed suspiciously absent from this one. Especially after the early summaries said it was to be in conflict with humans about the Void and Pilgrimage. There’s not even a mention what happened to it in the Timeline.
New people:
All I have left are two last Inigo’s Dreams. Yes, I read them separately. I like it and Hamilton is good at creating likable characters but it’s not as if their important to the action and I like the world of Aaron and ANA much better. I don’t get the appeal of the Void at all, but as I understand, it’s in later dreams. I must admit that the City artifact is fascinating - there's a glimpse of science under it all. Rest is not that impressive. Telekinesis and all is fine but I would prefer bionics any day. And as for life - no psychic abilities can do for proper canalization (absent everywhere besides Makkathran). Edeard special ability granted him refrigerator - he's almost a real 20th century boy.
I can understand fascination with this but only as a form of entertainment. Who would rally want to live as peasant or merchant or even noble in some small, stagnant culture on lost planet when they have a whole galaxy of opportunities. And even if they do want it - I’m sure there’s a lot of Isolated worlds with just the right set up. And if you want to play with universe you can do that in ANA - create your own world with your own rules and be powerful telekinetic too. As for being physical in the Void - well there’s no proof of that - maybe they all got translated on entry and locked in a virtual reality with stringent rules. How would they know it wasn’t so?
This whole Void thing is very suspicious - Edeard thinks about humans being on Querencia for 2 thousand years. People through book speculate Edeard might have happened thousands of years ago and is long dead. At the same time we know humans have starships for only 1,5 thousand years. Before that all travel was through dedicated wormholes. Not to mention humans learned about the Void only 1 thousand years ago. Who then flew into the Void?
There must be some large time discrepancy between the Void and normal Universe. Maybe it’s all future events after Pilgrimage?
Somebody else said it first but I agree - Edeard reminds me about Carrot (Discworld) a lot. He has the same qualities and even the same job. :D
All Edeard’s chapters managed to do was to make me realize one more thing I dislike about past - how long it gets to get anywhere. It makes me feel claustrophobic (and I’m not - claustrophobic that is). I probably travel further to work then they do to other village and that’s a big journey. I wouldn’t give up stars for this.
Of new characters Aaron’s storyline is most interesting which is understandable as it’s also the most action packed. All the cool weapons and bionics. The memoryless, artificial personality. And Corrie-Lyn annoying, drunken comic relief. Although I almost laughed when it turned out she was late because she went shopping for real. Aaron knew her, it was predictable she would underestimate seriousness of the situation. I think that she did pretty well in that situation - after all she is not a super powerful, secret agent.
Contrary to most people I don’t think Aaron is somebody we used to know from before. Judging from his dreams/memories I think he is/used to be Knight Guardian (not one of Guardians of Selfhood). He is after Cat not before. He is either one of those who downloaded to ANA and used as a template for an agent. Or just hired to do this job - not part of Higher culture just with bionics as he said. He obviously lived under KG t-sphere and was practicing their exercises in last dream. He also has a feeling he’s not that old enough to have fought in Starflayer’s War. My hypothesis is that he’s Bruce’s son.
I wonder if he looks like when he was with KG, if Cat recognized him. Maybe he was one of her close followers, killed people in her name, maybe he was arrested in this last dream? She seemed to know something in the beginning - she approached him on purpose. And she took detour to kill him. Must be love. The Cat style.
Ethan and the whole Living Dream religion gave e creeps I can’s see anything beautiful about it. Just an excuse for power hungry people to get more control of others. They even managed to taint Ozzie’s wonderful gaiamothes invention. And treat it as their property.
All that doesn’t comply with their vision of the world is wrong. Those who don’t follow it are obviously misguided and the only view that matters is theirs. No one and nothing can stand in the way of fulfilling their wishes even if it means the end of the world. They have a dream (several actually) and they have to follow it even by walking over corpses of others.
I feel sorry for the people on Viotia. This is the perfect example how greed can lead to fatal short-sightedness. I wonder if the rest of Commonwealth will do something, when the persecutions will start.
Araminta’s storyline is like Edeard’s - a story of everyday life. She’s a woman trying to make it, to be somebody, to succeed on her own after disaster of a marriage. It’s one of Hamilton’s favourite motifs and something he is good at. We see her dealing with developing business and her love life. We discover how Ozzie changed the life besides creating religious fanatics. And gradually we learn who she really is.
This caused me to glee every time somebody referred to Second Dreamer as male while she isn’t. and of course she doesn’t have gaiamotes as such so it probably be hard for Living Dream to understand how she could be the One.
I kind of hope that Araminta goes multiple before they find out she’s the Second Dreamer. Ethan and the Living Dream would go ballistic when it turns out she’s not only unbeliever but also not something one can find on Querencia. Then when all those people would move to capture her each can have one body and their own Second Dreamer. The War of Second Dreamers.
Troblum was the least interesting to me. I find his obsession with Starflayer’s War endearing but only the planet-moving wormhole seemed to be of importance. I was so pissed when the Delivery Man destroyed it after Troblum finally made it despite Accelerator sabotage. It seemed so cool. And then Troblum got cool by getting away from the secret Accelerator base to meet Paula Myo. Pursued by the Cat herself. I can’t wait for showdown between Paula and the Cat.
It's hard to talk about the book as a whole because it’s very obviously just a set up. We just meet the characters and learn their background, who they are and what they are capable of. It gives us all the background knowledge about how the Commonwealth culture developed during this 1500 years. The society structure, the capabilities of technology and the religion that influences the main events. It is the book when we meat the sides of conflict and everybody moves their pieces in positions. And then all the story lines and with cliffhangers.
Old friends:
My favourite characters of Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained were Paula Myo, Oscar Monroe and Ozzie Isaacs. So you can imagine I was overjoyed Paula was back and as badass as ever (her chapters were obviously too short :P).
Then Oscar was back too (more glee).
And Ozzie replaced God. I could love this book for this alone.
The other character I liked were Justine and Gore Burnelli, Nigel Sheldon, Wilson Kime, The Bose motile and Tarlo. Of those two first are back and we learn the faith of other two. I liked how Wilson finally became the great explorer, he deserved this.
I’m still waiting to learn the rest of Tarlo’s name. We don’t even know if Tarlo is a first or last name. I thought it was important in Judas Unchained, that it meant he was from some big dynasty but it was never even mentioned.
I liked Quatux too so I was glad to see him again. Glad he was better, hurt by what he went through. How could the Barsoomians allow the Cat to do that to their holly grail I still don’t know.
We also learn stuff about Melanie and Orion but I don’t care. Except for the result obviously.
I missed the SI. It was one of most fascinating characters in previous story and a big part of Commonwealth society. It seemed suspiciously absent from this one. Especially after the early summaries said it was to be in conflict with humans about the Void and Pilgrimage. There’s not even a mention what happened to it in the Timeline.
New people:
All I have left are two last Inigo’s Dreams. Yes, I read them separately. I like it and Hamilton is good at creating likable characters but it’s not as if their important to the action and I like the world of Aaron and ANA much better. I don’t get the appeal of the Void at all, but as I understand, it’s in later dreams. I must admit that the City artifact is fascinating - there's a glimpse of science under it all. Rest is not that impressive. Telekinesis and all is fine but I would prefer bionics any day. And as for life - no psychic abilities can do for proper canalization (absent everywhere besides Makkathran). Edeard special ability granted him refrigerator - he's almost a real 20th century boy.
I can understand fascination with this but only as a form of entertainment. Who would rally want to live as peasant or merchant or even noble in some small, stagnant culture on lost planet when they have a whole galaxy of opportunities. And even if they do want it - I’m sure there’s a lot of Isolated worlds with just the right set up. And if you want to play with universe you can do that in ANA - create your own world with your own rules and be powerful telekinetic too. As for being physical in the Void - well there’s no proof of that - maybe they all got translated on entry and locked in a virtual reality with stringent rules. How would they know it wasn’t so?
This whole Void thing is very suspicious - Edeard thinks about humans being on Querencia for 2 thousand years. People through book speculate Edeard might have happened thousands of years ago and is long dead. At the same time we know humans have starships for only 1,5 thousand years. Before that all travel was through dedicated wormholes. Not to mention humans learned about the Void only 1 thousand years ago. Who then flew into the Void?
There must be some large time discrepancy between the Void and normal Universe. Maybe it’s all future events after Pilgrimage?
Somebody else said it first but I agree - Edeard reminds me about Carrot (Discworld) a lot. He has the same qualities and even the same job. :D
All Edeard’s chapters managed to do was to make me realize one more thing I dislike about past - how long it gets to get anywhere. It makes me feel claustrophobic (and I’m not - claustrophobic that is). I probably travel further to work then they do to other village and that’s a big journey. I wouldn’t give up stars for this.
Of new characters Aaron’s storyline is most interesting which is understandable as it’s also the most action packed. All the cool weapons and bionics. The memoryless, artificial personality. And Corrie-Lyn annoying, drunken comic relief. Although I almost laughed when it turned out she was late because she went shopping for real. Aaron knew her, it was predictable she would underestimate seriousness of the situation. I think that she did pretty well in that situation - after all she is not a super powerful, secret agent.
Contrary to most people I don’t think Aaron is somebody we used to know from before. Judging from his dreams/memories I think he is/used to be Knight Guardian (not one of Guardians of Selfhood). He is after Cat not before. He is either one of those who downloaded to ANA and used as a template for an agent. Or just hired to do this job - not part of Higher culture just with bionics as he said. He obviously lived under KG t-sphere and was practicing their exercises in last dream. He also has a feeling he’s not that old enough to have fought in Starflayer’s War. My hypothesis is that he’s Bruce’s son.
I wonder if he looks like when he was with KG, if Cat recognized him. Maybe he was one of her close followers, killed people in her name, maybe he was arrested in this last dream? She seemed to know something in the beginning - she approached him on purpose. And she took detour to kill him. Must be love. The Cat style.
Ethan and the whole Living Dream religion gave e creeps I can’s see anything beautiful about it. Just an excuse for power hungry people to get more control of others. They even managed to taint Ozzie’s wonderful gaiamothes invention. And treat it as their property.
All that doesn’t comply with their vision of the world is wrong. Those who don’t follow it are obviously misguided and the only view that matters is theirs. No one and nothing can stand in the way of fulfilling their wishes even if it means the end of the world. They have a dream (several actually) and they have to follow it even by walking over corpses of others.
I feel sorry for the people on Viotia. This is the perfect example how greed can lead to fatal short-sightedness. I wonder if the rest of Commonwealth will do something, when the persecutions will start.
Araminta’s storyline is like Edeard’s - a story of everyday life. She’s a woman trying to make it, to be somebody, to succeed on her own after disaster of a marriage. It’s one of Hamilton’s favourite motifs and something he is good at. We see her dealing with developing business and her love life. We discover how Ozzie changed the life besides creating religious fanatics. And gradually we learn who she really is.
This caused me to glee every time somebody referred to Second Dreamer as male while she isn’t. and of course she doesn’t have gaiamotes as such so it probably be hard for Living Dream to understand how she could be the One.
I kind of hope that Araminta goes multiple before they find out she’s the Second Dreamer. Ethan and the Living Dream would go ballistic when it turns out she’s not only unbeliever but also not something one can find on Querencia. Then when all those people would move to capture her each can have one body and their own Second Dreamer. The War of Second Dreamers.
Troblum was the least interesting to me. I find his obsession with Starflayer’s War endearing but only the planet-moving wormhole seemed to be of importance. I was so pissed when the Delivery Man destroyed it after Troblum finally made it despite Accelerator sabotage. It seemed so cool. And then Troblum got cool by getting away from the secret Accelerator base to meet Paula Myo. Pursued by the Cat herself. I can’t wait for showdown between Paula and the Cat.
It's hard to talk about the book as a whole because it’s very obviously just a set up. We just meet the characters and learn their background, who they are and what they are capable of. It gives us all the background knowledge about how the Commonwealth culture developed during this 1500 years. The society structure, the capabilities of technology and the religion that influences the main events. It is the book when we meat the sides of conflict and everybody moves their pieces in positions. And then all the story lines and with cliffhangers.