Rating: 
Summary: Hamilton Truely transends the Space Opera genra
Review: Hamilton's skill and plotting has always made his book somthing better than just another space opera, but in this book he writes a truely compelling story of war, love, and political intrigue. But the real theme of this book is the damage that people do to themselves and those around them because of their bitter reactions to lifes unfair treatments.
The main character, is a man who grows up as one of the social elite on a newly colonized world. A bitter fight with his father leads to his leaving his home and the girl that he loves in pursuit of his childhood fantasy of becomeing a spaceship pilot. Instead he becomes a soldier in an army that conducts what is basicly legal piracy.
What makes this book great is the way that Hamilton describes the war and the resistance from several view points. All war are colficts of diffent sides, he does not reduce his world to the virtuous heroes, and the evil invaders. Each side is flawed, and both sides are wrong. Both sides in this confict can only lose by reducing to violence, but small groups can inflame the situation, and pride and anger take over. This book was written before the Iraqi invasion, but anyone who wants to know why the fighting there continues, and will continue at some level until all of the forign forces leave should read this book.
The ending is odd and full of parodoxes, but the book earns its sentimental ending, because this is a book about a man finding what he really wanted in life is what he left behind. The book acts as a kind of adult and very male parable about how peoples most precious dreams and ideals can be based on somewhat faulty information.
Rating:
Summary: Mature Hamilton in a non-epic package
Review: "Fallen Dragon" is an awesome sci-fi novel by an incredible talent in the genre. Some of these reviews compare the novel unfavorably to Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy, but I think it's rather better: while ND is an epic space opera which draws strength from both its exploration of posthuman themes and grand drama on a cosmic scale, Fallen Dragon's strength is in its focus on characters and a far more mature style than was evident in ND. Fallen Dragon basically focuses on three characters and their involvement in the travails surrounding a particular colony world (though these events have implications for all human society, one eventually discovers), and this focus helps to create a strong storyline and character development that really matters to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Mature Hamilton in a non-epic package
Review: "Fallen Dragon" is an awesome sci-fi novel by an incredible talent in the genre. Some of these reviews compare the novel unfavorably to Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy, but I think it's rather better: while ND is an epic space opera which draws strength from both its exploration of posthuman themes and grand drama on a cosmic scale, Fallen Dragon's strength is in its focus on characters and a far more mature style than was evident in ND. Fallen Dragon basically focuses on three characters and their involvement in the travails surrounding a particular colony world (though these events have implications for all human society, one eventually discovers), and this focus helps to create a strong storyline and character development that really matters to the reader.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite author lets me down
Review: After reading every Peter F. Hamilton book in print I didn't think it possible for him to write a boring book. But sadly that's just what Fallen Dragon is. While the Night's Dawn and Greg Mandel series kept me up until dawn, I often fell asleep amidst Fallen Dragon's LENGTHY descriptions of a surprisingly mundane colony world. How about a page or two about a pumping station?--not a bizzare alien or super hi-tech pumping station, just a...pumping station. Like the ones you drive by every day without noticing. And it's on a world that ties the most boring parts of earth for "alien" scenery. The characters are just as bland and seem almost comically indifferent about bringing about their objectives. In Hamilton's other books I often sweated the fate of even minor characters, but in this one I could've cared less about the main ones. There are some very cool gadgets to be had, of course. That's a given with Hamilton's books. These little techno jewels are scattered sparsely throughout Fallen Dragon and finding them kept me reading when plot and character (and pumping stations) couldn't. For example, anyone who wants to read about the logical succesor to Heinlein's power armor in Starship Troopers will be impressed with Hamilton's bio-armor concept. The demand among SF readers for good DETAILED scientific extrapolation is consistently overlooked in my opinion. Too often you get a 'cultural statement' book with the science dumbed down to a numbing Star Trek level even in a "hard" SF novel (I blame the editors). Whenever Hamilton breaks through this barrier I just want to cheer. In such passages I had the funny impression of Hamilton waking up at his keyboard and enjoying himself for a minute before switching back to auto pilot. This gets Fallen Dragon an extra star but not my overall recommendation. (Note: The copy I read was a British import with the words 'Advanced Reading Copy' on the cover. Unlike 'Naked God' it appeared to be in a finished state).
Rating: 
Summary: Better in many ways than the Night's Dawn series
Review: An excellent work of science fiction. Hamilton does a great job of blending several story elements into one compelling whole that wraps up nicely at the end. He also avoids some of the biggest weaknesses of the Night's Dawn series: somewhat unrealistic technology, unlikeable characters, and boring, purposeless side plots that made the whole series a lot longer than it should have been. Either he has gotten better at resisting temptation to "overwrite", or his editor was more ruthless about the overall length. Either way, this book was definitely worthwhile reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not great sci-fi, but definately good
Review: As a frequent traveler, I find myself at the mercy of the stocking choices of airport booksellers when I have forgotten to bring sufficient reading material for my trip. This has resulted in my having intaken many, many awful science fiction books (Kevin J Anderson comes to mind as a guilty party). I didn't expect much else from Fallen Dragon, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a story of complexity and depth buried among the space opera. It's certainly not a landmark science-fiction novel, but the concepts are sound, the characters plausible, and there's enough neat ideas between the pages to create an entertaining universe. I liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good beach read but predictable ending
Review: As many other readers have explained, the book does suck you in and the descriptions of the equipment, patrols, and the fight against the invasion quite imagative and well done. However, nearly immediately in the first few chapters of the book you have figured out what will happen at the end, but the journey towards the conclusion is worth travelling. Not the best book I've read, but not a complete waste of your time either.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Visionary Enough
Review: As the novel states at the beginning, the fault of most things in the universe is money. And money is the problem with space exploration in the mid-24th century. Space exploration and colonization just isn't paying for itself. Colonies take centuries to repay investors. To make matters worse, some declare themselves independent of their corporate founders on Earth. The solution? The "asset-recovery mission", legalized piracy where corporate armies swoop down on colonies to plunder them. Lawrence Newton is a sergeant in such an army, and, when he gets word of an impending mission to the planet Thallspring, he starts to plan a little private asset realization of his own. On Thallspring, we get the story of a mission frustrated by local resistance headed up by Denise Ebourn who is much more than the simple storyteller and schoolteacher she appears to be. Alternating with this plot is the story of how Newton, son of corporate elite on the colony Amethi, fled his home after a bitter betrayal. Spurred on by a beloved science fiction "i-drama", he dreams of becoming a starship explorer. Twenty years later, this exiled corporate prince is a corporate mercenary and still dreaming. Counterpointed to Newton's adventures are Ebourn's tales, for her students, of Prince Mozark of the long dead Ring Empire and the civilizations he finds in his quest for life's purpose and what course his people should adopt. Thus the novel not only turns out to be filled with Hamilton's typically clear and exciting combat sequences and technological skullduggery but is also a look at the economic constraints on space travel and colonization, the spreading of corporate uniculture on Earth and on man's colonies, the purpose humans should find in their lives as technology advances, and the influence of science fiction's romances on our future. This novel doesn't immerse you in a world as thoroughly as Hamilton's Night's Dawn series did simply because it has fewer pages, but Hamilton pays careful attention to his technology and economics. And the last hundred pages of this novel will change your whole perception of what has gone before.
Rating:
Summary: Hamilton Doesn't Ignore Economics In His World Building
Review: As the novel states at the beginning, the fault of most things in the universe is money. And money is the problem with space exploration in the mid-24th century. Space exploration and colonization just isn't paying for itself. Colonies take centuries to repay investors. To make matters worse, some declare themselves independent of their corporate founders on Earth. The solution? The "asset-recovery mission", legalized piracy where corporate armies swoop down on colonies to plunder them. Lawrence Newton is a sergeant in such an army, and, when he gets word of an impending mission to the planet Thallspring, he starts to plan a little private asset realization of his own. On Thallspring, we get the story of a mission frustrated by local resistance headed up by Denise Ebourn who is much more than the simple storyteller and schoolteacher she appears to be. Alternating with this plot is the story of how Newton, son of corporate elite on the colony Amethi, fled his home after a bitter betrayal. Spurred on by a beloved science fiction "i-drama", he dreams of becoming a starship explorer. Twenty years later, this exiled corporate prince is a corporate mercenary and still dreaming. Counterpointed to Newton's adventures are Ebourn's tales, for her students, of Prince Mozark of the long dead Ring Empire and the civilizations he finds in his quest for life's purpose and what course his people should adopt. Thus the novel not only turns out to be filled with Hamilton's typically clear and exciting combat sequences and technological skullduggery but is also a look at the economic constraints on space travel and colonization, the spreading of corporate uniculture on Earth and on man's colonies, the purpose humans should find in their lives as technology advances, and the influence of science fiction's romances on our future. This novel doesn't immerse you in a world as thoroughly as Hamilton's Night's Dawn series did simply because it has fewer pages, but Hamilton pays careful attention to his technology and economics. And the last hundred pages of this novel will change your whole perception of what has gone before.
Rating:
Summary: It sure takes that Dragon a long time to fall!!!
Review: First, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In many respects, it was much better then the Night's Dawn Trilogy, which kind of put Hamilton on the Sci-Fi scene. For one thing, this book has a much better ending then Night's Dawn and it doesn't try to do too much as that series did. However, Hamilton's one fault as a writer is that he doesn't know when to stop. The story of a 25th Century dreamer who is forced to become a low-level corporate enforcer in order to realize his dream of star travel is quite good and very imaginative. I enjoyed Hamilton's vision of the future and found it quite plausible in many respects. The book jacket has you believe that this is a story of three individuals, but in reality, it's the story of one and one only. While other characters get their time in this lengthy novel, it's Lawrence Newton's story that forms the basis for the book and that's the one that Hamilton concentrates his themes and arguments on the direction our current society is taking. (Yes, parts of this book are a little preachy, but it's well disguised!!) This book is too long and it starts very slow. It takes a bit of effort to get through the first 100+ pages. There are very lengthy flashbacks, which don't seem to have a point until you get to the end of the book. Literally, the last chapter. Hamilton's editor could have done us a favor and had him chop those flashbacks down a bit. You get the point and the tricks early on and the details are not necessary to appreciate the author's argument. Overall, however, be grateful that Hamilton is no Robert Jordan and he does end the book, with no sequel needed or requested!! I do recommend this book.
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