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Books
_The Dreaming Void_, Peter Hamilton
_Triplet_, Timothy Zahn
Hamilton can't write a simple 600 page novel to save his life. (He used to -- the three Greg Mandel mystery/action/SF novels are pretty good and mostly standalone.) This is the first book of a new trilogy, although I managed to forget that completely about halfway through as I started to wonder how he was going to tie all the threads up in the space remaining. Obviously, he didn't, nor will he do so in the next volume. On the other hand -- and a very large manipulating appendage it is -- Hamilton has finally writen more than two believable characters into a single book. The dream-story segments are especially well-written, and it would not have been an awful shame had he just written those and made a single novel out of them. It might have been something like Steven Gould's _Helm_, only with more alien technology masquerading as magic and less aikido. Okay, on second thought not very much like Gould at all.
I borrowed the Zahn from my minion on the dual strength of Zahn's reputation as a competent storyteller and the minion's recommendation as a multiply-read favorite. I was not wrong.. Pleasantly, a single volume, though the ending seems rushed and slightly unresolved, as though Zahn wanted to leave himself an open hook on which to hang a trilogy. I'm currently waiting for Zahn finish up the YA Dragonback series, but it's doing so well it might go on forever.
_Triplet_, Timothy Zahn
Hamilton can't write a simple 600 page novel to save his life. (He used to -- the three Greg Mandel mystery/action/SF novels are pretty good and mostly standalone.) This is the first book of a new trilogy, although I managed to forget that completely about halfway through as I started to wonder how he was going to tie all the threads up in the space remaining. Obviously, he didn't, nor will he do so in the next volume. On the other hand -- and a very large manipulating appendage it is -- Hamilton has finally writen more than two believable characters into a single book. The dream-story segments are especially well-written, and it would not have been an awful shame had he just written those and made a single novel out of them. It might have been something like Steven Gould's _Helm_, only with more alien technology masquerading as magic and less aikido. Okay, on second thought not very much like Gould at all.
I borrowed the Zahn from my minion on the dual strength of Zahn's reputation as a competent storyteller and the minion's recommendation as a multiply-read favorite. I was not wrong.. Pleasantly, a single volume, though the ending seems rushed and slightly unresolved, as though Zahn wanted to leave himself an open hook on which to hang a trilogy. I'm currently waiting for Zahn finish up the YA Dragonback series, but it's doing so well it might go on forever.
no subject
A trilogy? He managed to keep the last series to two... :|
Is the dreaming void set in the same universe as his last series as I've seen written somewhere?
no subject
It is set about 1500 years after the Commonwealth Saga, which was technically one book in two parts but also had a prequel set in the nearish future called _Misspent Youth_. If you missed it, don't seek it out; it's largely about how awful it is to be rich, and also badly written sex.