ed.rybicki
11/19/2013
This is an update from my three-years-ago review, which covers the whole series.
I am conflicted... on the one hand, this guy is absolutely BRILLIANT; on the other - this reads like totally superb space opera crossed with some kind of weird fringe fantasy. Seriously: Al Capone coming back into a hard SF universe? Come on!!
Having said that, I carried on reading the series, and I have in fact read pretty much everything Hamilton has written.
Because he really is THAT good at pulling you into his large-sprawling, very well conceived universe.
Seriously: the background to the story is extremely well described; the physics and logic are impeccable; the characters are pretty good.
But why oh WHY did he have to invoke people returning fromt eh dead?! I mean, to have this well-tuned universe humming along, and then to populate it with the Undead??
I want there to be an alternate universe, in which Hamilton's universe gets a more plausible storyline. I truly, truly do. Fortunately, he himself - being pretty prolific - has redeemed himself by writing the Commonwealth series, which really is very good.
Of course, he partially fucked it up again by writing the Void Trilogy, but we won't go there.
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