Rating: 
Summary: Not another "Starship Troopers" knockoff
Review: This is an interesting read, although somewhat diligent reading is required to "get inot" the story. It is NOT a ripping Buck Rogers style sci-fi adventure. Rather it is a tale of a man's search for meaning and how he can live out a dream. Many unusual situations and environments are presented and an overtone of warning and corporations and control is evident. Many times this book reminded me of "Desolation Road." CAUTION: Many uses of the F--- word and other profanities. It could have been better done without the simplisticly crude language, which to me is just sloppy writing to develop a character in a certain way.
Rating: 
Summary: The best Sci-fi I've read in years
Review: When I picked up this book, I expected to get one of those churned out - good but not great sci-fi reading experiences. Instead what I received was many hours of fascinating reading. The book had some great technologies which were a plausable extension of where today's technology could go - given a couple of centuries to mature. The characters were believable and interesting. This is a story of one man's coming of age - in the backdrop of big corporations and military excursions. I don't regret one second I spent on this book. If you're not sure about starting the epic "reality dysfunction" by the same author, read this book and you will become an avid fan.
Rating:
Summary: A story about love and starflight
Review: When I was young, the books that claimed my pocket
money were the typical science fiction and fantasy
stories. You the know the type, the story is always
something like an unlikely band of heroes is thrown
togethor by unusual circumstances and must now risk
everything to save the world. The stories were
exciting and they always ended happily. Although they
provided an enjoyable way to escape into another
kind of life, but rarely left me with anything
interesting to think about after I had read them. _Fallen_Dragon_ is not that kind of story.
There are plenty of exciting scenes and the
action made me stay up far too late eager to find
out what happened next. But what I enjoyed most
about the book is how it made me think about the
important things in life: What do I really want to
devote my energy to accomplishing? How important or
my family and friends and how important is my
career? What dreams are worth chasing and which
should I discard as the naivete of youth fades?
Would it be possible to start a company or
organization to achieve some of my more grandiose
visions (as did the leaders of the ZB company in the
book)? I will skip the detailed description of the plot,
since that is available elsewhere, and instead
describe some of the features which made it so
exciting. The story hinges on two of the passions
that fuel our quest for greatness: love and the
desire to discover something new and exotic. The romantic aspect of the story stems from a young
love affair which has a powerful effect on both
characters. Since love is connected to some of our
most powerful drives, many stories are centered
around this theme. What makes the relationship in
this story unique is that it made me wonder what
can make love such a strong bond. My conclusion is that love can make you do many
things, both for good or ill. But the ones we love
the most are those who bring out the best in
ourselves. We might falter from a difficult task
despite the promise of fame, wealth, or power, but
who would fail to reach for the brass ring while our
beloved watches? Of course we often value most those things which are
difficult to obtain. We rarely appreciate what have
when we reach it, instead, either looking forward
eagerly as we approach or looking back wistfully
after we have already passed. Thus the second main theme of the book is one most
science fiction fans must secretly share: to serve
aboard a starship destined for new and far away
places. To avoid giving away too much, I will
simply say that while the grand visions of space-flight
and the desire to explore are a major part of the
story, reading the book gave me a new perspective on
both. I am sure a part of me will always wish I
were born in a later era when travelling to another
planet would be a possibility, but _Fallen_Dragon
made me think deeply about the costs of such
an enterprise. In conclusion, _Fallen_Dragon_ is an exciting
tale about the dream of exploring the universe on a
starship and about love. I will leave it to you to
decide which of these is the more important element.
Rating:
Summary: Not Visionary Enough
Review: While the vision of things technical and scientific dance in the mind's eye like crystalline sugarplumbs... and that even the characterizations actually do work (it's easy to forget that exposition is character) and you do care about the people in the story... the basic idea that futuristic corporations embark on piracy of their own colonies simply fails on historical, political, and economic grounds as to invite disbelief, ruining an otherwise wonderful book. It was a "concept" that hadn't been really thought through, despite the parallel to the 18th century East India Company, and detracted from the book. Still, the idea could have been made to work and should have: Hamilton has shown in other books the ability to do better.
Rating: 
Summary: evolution still thrives!
Review: Wow! By the time I had turned page five I knew that I was going to be hard-pressed to get any other work done that day! I liked FALLEN DRAGON! I finished the book, right in the place I'm sure Peter Hamilton wanted to leave me - wanting more! So I'm now on the hunt for his other works. The greatest gift I feel that Peter Hamilton gave me from reading FALLEN DRAGON, is the understanding that our human evolution is defintely not over!
Rating:
Summary: A Decent Read
Review: _Fallen Dragon_ takes place in the not-so-distant future. The era of galactic exploration is winding down and, in its wake, we have a society run by corporations who earn their profits by plundering the colonies which have become self-sufficient. As the story begins, the Z-B corporation, the largest and most powerful of these pirate-companies, is embarking on a mission to pillage yet another planet. The story itself centers around three characters who are involved in this invasion. One is commander of the invasion, one is a solider participating in the invasion, and the third is a citizen of the invaded planet. Through their eyes, the author explores many "big ticket" topics, including the role of corporations in society, the economics of exploration and colonization, and what motivates humans on both an individual and global scale. There is a lot to like about this book. The philosophical discussions are interesting; I found his view of colonization especially intriguing. However, he doesn't get bogged down in philosophical rantings. He balances out the "ivory tower" stuff with lots of action and explosions which are his trademark. Also, I liked how the different threads of storytelling together. Even though the plot bounces around in both space and time, he does it in such a way as to not disrupt the flow of the story. I also liked the way he fleshed out the character of Lawrence Newton (the aforementioned solider). He is, by far, the most detailed character in the book, and the one I most related to. By going into such depth about his motivations and background, I really empathized with him by the end of the book. Finally, I liked how he introduced key facts little by little in order to highten the suspense of the book. For instance, I liked the way he would drop the name "Santo Chico" non-chalantly into the conversation without going into any detail, only to flesh out its significance later on. Even though I enjoyed the book, it did have some flaws which prevent me from giving it more than 3 stars. The most important part of the book is the ending, and in this respect, the book fell flat. I don't want to give away the ending, but it was too predictable and way to convienent. Also, although I liked the character of Newton immensely, I thought there were times when he did things that were WAY out of character for him just to further the story. Finally, I felt that the pacing of the book wasn't quite right. There were times when he would spend pages describing things on which he should have only spent a paragraph or two. I do not mind detailed descriptions when it is crucial to the story, but it seems like he goes out of his way to describe EVERYTHING in the most minute detail. In contrast, there are times when I would have liked to have had more details about certain things. For instance, he spends quite a bit of time describing a water pumping station, and yet he doesn't go into much detail about some of the key future technologies employed in the book. I suppose it is easier to research water pumping stations than it is to research some futurist nano-technology, but this is a sci-fi book... tell us about the "fun stuff"! As the title says, this is a decent read. It's worth picking up if you like sci-fi and you need to pass the time on the plane, but don't expect a classic.
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