As promised, here is my book review of The Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton. I was impressed by this highly entertaining science fiction novel. One of my criteria for a good book is to find myself still reading it at 4 am… Hamilton’s Dreaming Void certainly kept me up late into the wee hours of the morn.

The Dreaming Void is Peter Hamilton’s newest work — an impressive novel that captures the essence of science fiction. And it’s a big, big book. It’s a blend of epic Space Opera, Cyberpunk, and Fantasy — a compelling combination of genres that blends together into a highly entertaining and addicting work. It can take a while to get into the novel (Hamilton throws you right into his world with nary an introduction) but one you get into the book, you really get into the book.

The Dreaming Void is set in the same world as his previous Commonwealth Saga (Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained) albeit 1500 years into the future. Rest assured though, while reading the previous novels will give you background information, The Dreaming Void can stand on its own. In the future explored by The Dreaming Void, death ( as initially explored in the Commonwealth Saga) is an anachronism. Humans are now virtually immortal — consciousness is downloaded into indestructible computer chips inserted into the brain. If you die, it’s just a matter of retrieving the chip and inserting it into a new human body. Those who have read Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon will find themselves right at home with this concept.

Since his last novel, Judas Unchained, humanity has finally transcended the fleshly constraints of the human body and evolved into a sort of metaphysical existence. Oh, there are still the old flesh and blood humans (though they are highly augmented by genetic technologies) kicking around. But many humans have downloaded their consciousness into a sort of grand neural network and now live transcendental lives. In a world where death has been conquered and the human consciousness has ascended into the metaphysical realm, what else is there to the human story? This underlying question forms the basis of the novel’s plot. And the answer is the “Void” — a massive event horizon that is destined to consume the galaxy. However, within the Void exists another universe, one that inexplicably contains humans with extraordinarily powers… A religious group launches a crusade to enter the Void — an event that may or may not trigger the end of the galaxy. I’ll let you read the book to get into the nitty-gritty of the plot, but let’s just say that more then a few human and alien factions are thrown into turmoil and power struggles ensue. Superhuman agents are thrown into the frey as the transcendental human factions (the godlike humans who are at the top of the human evolution scale) attempt to stop or support the crusade.

Hamilton has always seamlessly combined strong characterization within the framework of his novel concepts. You know with Hamilton you’re going to get a great cast of well developed characters with a hell of a lot of action, political scheming, and epic battles. The Dreaming Void meets these expectations. What’s also interesting about this novel is the sort of Fantasy world that exists in conjunction with the science fiction world. One moment you are reading hardcore, futuristic cyberpunk/space opera, then the next instant you are transported to a sort of magical, medieval world, reading an addictive and well drawn coming of age story. It’s a highly entertaining and adds a new dimension to the book.

I am looking forward to see where Hamilton is going to take the plot with the sequel, The Temporal Void which is due out in a couple months.

8.5/10