It's not a bad book. Intriguing characters, some of the multiple storylines have interesting premises, and overall it's an easy read, but it is one giant prelude to what comes later in the trilogy, and it could be significantly shorter and punchier. Hamilton likes to paint rich portraits of both his characters and locations, but he is overly verbose. Sometimes less is more. ( )

This was a big book. I like Hamilton's work and I knew when I got into it that it would be a long read. This continues on from the "Pandora's Star" series and is the first of three. I liked it quite a bit, the adventure and scope of it all is large which is typical for Hamilton. There are lots of multiple story lines that crisscross throughout. I liked the Commonwealth part of the book more than the void part. This is mostly because I am not a big fantasy fan and the void portion reads more like a fantasy than anything else.
I plan to start the second book right away and I hope I like it just as much although I have read that the void story line is much larger so I will see how I get through that.
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I liked the mix between the fantasy of the dreams and the scifi of the rest of the book. Good start to the trilogy. ( )

367 ( )

Not as action packed and mind-blowing an initial volume as was Pandora's Star, as a lot of stage setting occurs among many characters and a far-ranging, intricate plot. But it was compelling, and multiple epic cliffhangers left me eager for the next volume in what is really one continous mega-novel published in 3 parts. No one does science fiction like Hamilton does it, he is a marvel. His plotting, characters, and prose are superior to anything else in the genre. Hoping for and expecting thrilling things to come in the past it 2 volumes. ( )