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The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence

The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing story, great characters, OK writing style...
Review: This is the first time I've ever read a book by Hamilton, the series being recommened by a friend of mine who had finished off all four books available so far (remember, the last installment is coming out this year!! wooo!) in a month. After just a little description of what the universe was like (neural nanonics, bitek, etc), I HAD to read it.

The story, I found, was, amazing. The three totally different storylines that interchange throughout the book seem totally different and left me wondering how this was all going to piece together in the end. But, my faith in Hamilton was restored when they came together seemlessly. My one complaint is that the situation of Syrinx and her crew's position at the end of the story was never explained.

At anyrate, I did find the whole evil monster thing interesting, definetly not used to that sort of thing in my Arthur C. Clarke or H.G. Wells readings. Definetly a great added twist. About two minutes after finishing this book, I was already into the second in the series.

My one complaint is Hamilton's writing style. Although is storytelling abilties are immaculate, the way he describes the awesome technologies of the Reality Dysfunction universe leave some to be desired, leaving me having to re-read a paragraph or two to really get a mental image of what he was describing... guess I was too used to Arthur C.'s awesome ability to describe the events of an entire room to the ultimate detail in two sentences.

At anyrate, if you like any Arthur C. Clarke, George Lucas or H.G. Well's work, Hamilton's work is definetly something to look into.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Slow start, but multiple plotlines hold your interest.
Review: A good read, even if it is a little slow getting started. Hamilton has three or four major plotlines going, in addition to his central theme, which you don't even start seeing until halfway through the book.

He uses some interesting assumptions in his proposed universe (such as Gengineering being commonplace), but these details are mere background, and don't get in the way of good storytelling.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Sci-Fi book ever
Review: This is a book i've read 5 time and i stille love it. I love the wast univers of the book, and the detail of persons and plantes it describes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best sience fiction sagas ever!
Review: If you attention span stops after few hundred pages don't bother! Hamilton creates a universe so interesting, complex and unique that it rightfully takes 400-500 pages to introduce the characters and explain how the things function in there. Once you start comprehending the size and the complexity you will be taken away by it and won't be able to stop reading. As you read on Hamilton gives you more new concepts and original ideas then I've come across anywhere else. Introduction of the horror - fantasy aspect into the story was a bit of put-off at first but soon it all made perfect sense. Ideas and characters portrayed in this book are one of the most original ones ever, yet very believable. I see from other reviews that these books might be "too much" for some, but chances are that you will like them and if you do you'll be asking for more soon. This brings me to the only negative side of this trilogy, third book is not out yet.

While you wait, Hamilton's "A second chance at Eden" gives you an extra taste of the same universe but being book of short stories doesn't really compare to the Night's Dawn trilogy. Forthcoming third book, with (hopefully) another 1300 pages should satisfy the hunger.

I've been reading science fiction since I was 10 and this Hamilton's trilogy is one of the best SF stories ever told. It is on the level of Arthur C. Clarke's and Orson Scott Card's sagas if not better. Do try to get complete paperback editions of the first two books worth 1225 and 1272 pages.

There is always a chance you won't like a book most other people do, but you should get these books just to make sure, it's worth the risk.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you only read Sci Fi once, then read this trilogy.
Review: Although it is Sci Fi, it just about covers every subject you would care to mention. There is something for everyone in this grand saga, and will become the yardstick that all others are measured by. I have just come to the end of The Neutronium Alchemist, to find the final installment is yet to be published. I'll be haunting Amazon until the final book is available. Few stories leave you with an empty feeling when the journey is over. This one will leave a vacuum that is near impossible to fill.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pure Sci-Fi, with a twist, and devilishly fun!
Review: These books (and I've read all that have been released) have captured my imagination like few others have. They are filled to the brim with techno-gadgets, high-tech ideas, and statements on the human condition. Fast-paced action and a storyline where you have to know what happens next. Science Fiction mixed with the frailty of our all-too-human lives, enemies that are multi-dimensional, not your typical "save the universe" space opera. All these things and more describe this insanely epic story!

Yes, there are sometimes ponderous side plots. But most of those side plots will come into play later, and sometimes in ingenious ways. Yes, there is some sex. But that's part of life, and the life-and-death questions that this book raises. Yes, there is a gruesomeness to it, a dark side. But this stuff happens folks, in the future as well as today. The most striking thing about it all, is it's realism. Amidst all the high/bio/warfare technology are characters that are believable and situations that make sense. It is epic in this manner, sometimes following characters who are killed off mid-story, and yet in the grand scheme of things...they did their part. As it is now, I feel for the characters. What happens in the final book will mean a lot to me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More of an RPG world for the reader to explore than a book
Review: Some people have said this book is far too 'silly' for it's size, and that there should be some sort of conclusion after 600 pages rather than just 'leaving it' with a cliffhanger. My advice - GET THE PROPER VERSION!!! Don't judge a book by it's size, but if you have to than at least judge it by it's proper size. Paperback - all 1225 pages. Read it like that before you start to slay Hamilton. He wrote it, he didn't publish it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great book, got to read it if you like SF
Review: This is a great book. Keeps you on your toes thru the entire book. But beware, you will have to read the next book, couse it leaves you hanging.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Space Opera Grafted onto Stephen King (or vice versa)
Review: I knew I was buying a space opera and almost bought the entire series unseen and unread. Boy, am I glad I didn't! The first shall be the last (I read).

I was fine until the Convict conscripts (Ivets) shipped to Lalonde (a planet in the pioneer stages of colonization) became possessed by demons and started offing the other colonists in gruesome ways.

The demons will at some point be explained to be malevolent, non-corporeal aliens that just seem like demons or vampires (Salems' Lot anyone?) in the next book, but come on....! My will to supend my disbelief has been rudely broken. There are 3 more books in this series. I can't get there from here.

A big thumbs down on this one (to plagarize from the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert). Ick.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Well written but obscenely long
Review: I've read all four books released to date (two Dysfunctions and two Alchemists) and I hope the next two are the end. I hate the bloatedness that has crept into science fiction. Who needs 3600 pages to tell the story of "Intergalactic Night of the Living Dead?" This is even more annoying because Hamilton is a pretty good writer and he is wasting his time and his words on this decent but extremely thinly plotted epic of space opera. Chtorr, by way of comparison, *needs* thousands of pages, but this silly adventure could have been completed in a single volume. Its punch line is not going to improve with age, nor as a result of this story's incredible bulk. I'd rather be reading more Quantum Murders, thank you very much.


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