Rating: 
Summary: Pretty close to perfect, but some flaws.
Review: When I first picked up Dysfunction, I put it down a little ways into the second chapter. That would be when Peter yammers on for about 40 pages on the Laymil (spell that right?)Then I picked it up again, and realized that it was pretty darn good. In fact, one of the best I've read. However, it has a few flaws. Lets concentrate on whats GOOD, first: 1. Hailton is a MASTER of creating a universe. The time is so in-depth and REAL that you feel like you're actually in the story. 2. Hamilton is a fanstastic character righter. How he can come up for names for what must be at least 100+ characters is beyond me. 3. Hamilton hammers out the plot with authority. Bad things however: 1. Hamilton can drag on for a while, and make the story come to almost a dead stop at times. 2. Peter is a little gratuitous with the sex. Oh, yeah. That reminds me. For those who say that the book has TOO much violence...it DOEs have alot, but it IS all fictional. Blaming the school shootings on a book is sick and irrisponsible. Its just what people WANT to do to detract from the fact that kids need psychological help a lot more these days than they did in the past. Hamilton describes scenes as he does for DETAIL, NOT just to be sick.
Rating:
Summary: Solid introduction to a great series
Review: This book is worth reading if only as a stage-setter for even better books to come. Hamilton details his worlds and events with admirable precision. I enjoyed the complexity, but I can understand how some readers might want to stay away from the hundreds of characters and hundreds of situations. However, once the stage is set, the series really takes off. Read it, and your reward is the pleasure of reading the rest of the books.
Rating:
Summary: A great read but not the best!
Review: I just started reading the Reality Dysfunction: Emergence of late and I can only say that it is becoming interesting to me at the same time bit more longwinded and overelaborated. I liked the way Hamilton building up event after event leading one thing to the next in the preparation of a greater event yet to come. It's good he evolved major characters into becoming "major players" in the upcoming events as evidently in his next two books of the Night's Dawn Trilogy. It's a great introduction with this first book with lot of interesting details and descriptions of a future universe. That's science fiction for you! However, on the other hand, his writings of the story may be too much for some readers to absorb, some unnecessary detailings and descriptions that has little to do with the events and more has to do with "what it does". Methink his British editors may have gone overboard with Hamilton's story version of the events. If one who survived World War I and would live to write a story about World War II (before there was WW II), the author would have assume everything he can do to bring certain events leading up to the final end of the novel about a World War II. His editors will certainly goes overboard on the author's WW II story version. In Hamilton's case, he may be the victim of grand scheme of things he created for the novel. In conclusion, I'm looking forward to read the next part of the first book and hope to conclude in the Naked God in the near future. A great read of a great science fiction saga but not the best among the best sci-fi novels ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Space Opera at its finest
Review: THERE ARE *NO* SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW I'll only bother to review this first novel in Hamilton's series as well as the last. I mean, c'mon, if you haven't started reading, you want to know if it's worth it. And if you HAVE started reading, you want to know if it ends well--was all that time worth it? Yes, and yes. I can see some facts were jumbled in some of these reviews. As it stands now (2/1/00), there are a total of five novels that comprise this series: The Reality Dysfunction Parts I & II, The Neutronium Alchemist Parts I & II, and the series concludes with a massive The Naked God. Yes, each is a rather long novel. Hey, for me that was a bonus--this was one of those rare series that I never wanted to end. Sure there were characters and situations I didn't find too entertaining, but there are SO many characters and locations that readers won't have to suffer through any particularly long, boring stretches. How Hamilton manages to weave all the various storylines together and move it all forward in some coherent fashion is beyond me--another good indication of a book well done. I cannot overdo it--the number of characters and the level of their interactions with each other is astounding. Luckily, readers today benefit from the fact that the series exists in whole right now. Rather than having to wait for Hamilton to write the next installment (and forget the characters' relationships to each other), readers can blitz through them all in not-so-rapid succession. This series is one of my favorites and as such means that it is one that forced me to think, always kept me "hooked" with that, "Good lord, what's going to happen next! " wonderment, and put forward some novel concepts. Yes, the series is quite long and you will have to invest some serious time, but hopefully you'll be quite entertained a majority of the time. Bottom line: A fine beginning to an outstanding series, but it's only a beginning--it gets better!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but overlong
Review: The Reality Dysfunction is a real mixed bag. It's full of great concepts and it's set in an interesting universe. The plot is reasonably engaging, and some of the characters are well done. The writing is at times good, but at other times sloppy. (Hamilton seems to have real problems with point of view at times.) Overall, though, it's far too long for what it is. This volume is about the first sixth of the overall trilogy (it's half of the first book), and it's almost 600 pages long. There really isn't enough here to merit that length. It's dissapointing, because it really had the potential to be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Divine.
Review: This entire series is godly in power and inspiration. The characters, the technology, the background, the atmosphere, the emotive overtones, the liquid, flowing prose of Peter F. Hamilton is as addictive as heroin, and you can't stop reading until your body is screaming at you for sleep or relief. The entire universe he creates is so full and rich you almost drown in its beauty and electricity. You're THERE. You become the story and the story becomes you. The flow of time, the events, the characters, it all becomes alive.
Rating: 
Summary: could be worth reading if
Review: When buying this book I was looking for a book about the future were humans would be living in space. I find this book to be a great vision or fantasy about what such a life could be. However I did not find the plot or the main characters much interesting, but often these things are not so good in sf. There is lots of sex and violece, but if anything I find it boring. That is because there is so much of it. The descriptions of these things are not very far going, there are just too many. Another thing that got me wondering: There are, at least in the first part, quite much focus on sex, but everything is very straight. I think the book lacks some tension in the plot, and at some point I almost lost count of how many Evil people there were that wanted to destory the universe. All this said I still would recommend the book, that is if you are looking for a book about the a space future, as a vision of that the book really is food for the fantasy. The vision is colerful and interesting (at least when it comes to the technical development).
Rating:
Summary: Enough About Space Opera Already - This Book is GOOD!
Review: I've read LOTS of SciFi books, and most are trash. Not this one. I found Mr. Hamilton's 'style' and scope intriguing and somewhat compelling. The book is difficult at points because of its 'realism', but if you can't handle adult literature, then don't read it. I put it in a class with the Hyperion books and the works of Vernor Vinge. Most of the negative reviews I read (always the most interesting to me I must admit) were either by the grossed-out or the bored. I was neither. I rarely recommend books, but this one I do. Relax and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: The end is finally nigh!
Review: For those of you who have been waiting since 1997 for the conclusion of this epic space opera, the end is finally nigh. THE NAKED GOD has been published.
Rating:
Summary: First chapter in an amazing space adventure
Review: This first book in the Night's Dawn trilogy (with the American edition of the first two books of the trilogy being split into two books each) is an engrossing read no one with an interest in science fiction will be able to put down. While it has a steep learning curve with regards to the technology 'techno-babble', it is worth every minute spent on it. After reading this book you must run, don't walk, to the nearest computer and order the remainder of the series.
| 
