The Chronicle of the Fallers by Peter F. Hamilton

[Werthead]

Book 1: The Abyss Beyond Dreams

AD 3326. Nigel Sheldon, the originator of wormhole technology and the person responsible for the creation of the Intersolar Commonwealth, is semi-retired and planning to leave this galaxy for a new one. However, his plans are interrupted by the enigmatic Raiel, the powerful aliens who guard the Milky Way from the expansion of the Void, the mysteriously growing mini-universe hidden in the galactic core. The Raiel need Sheldon to go into the Void and help recover one of their ancient warships. Sheldon agrees...but soon finds himself on the wrong planet in the wrong time and the only way out is to support a full-scale revolution.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams is the first novel in a duology, to be followed by Night Without Stars. This series, The Chronicle of the Fallers, is the latest work in Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth universe. Familiarity with the previous works in this universe (the Commonwealth Saga duology and the Void Trilogy) is recommended as this book contains spoilers for the earlier ones, but is not strictly essential.

As with the preceding Void Trilogy, this novel is divided into two sections and almost two distinct genres. In the opening sequence we have far-future SF, set thirteen centuries hence when humanity is immortal, can cross the galaxy in a matter of weeks and live any kind of life imaginable. The bulk of the book is set within the Void itself, where high technology does not work but the inhabitants gain the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Whilst the Void sequence was set on Querencia, which was more of a fantasy setting, the Fallers books are set on Bienvenido. Unlike Querencia, where a lot of history was lost after the human refugees settled on it, Bienvenido has maintained more of a history and identify, as well as a slightly higher level of technology. This gives the novel more of a steampunk feel, allowing Hamilton to mix up some more genres.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams starts off by feeling a little bit too much like The Dreaming Void. One of our primary POVs is Svlasta, a soldier wounded in battle with the mysterious Fallers (hostile aliens who can assume human appearance) who soon becomes the architect of social change. The similarities with Edeard's story in the earlier books are uncanny. However, Hamilton is clever enough to subvert the reader's expectations and soon moves off in another direction. It's not long before we're meeting some clever (and very conscious) Russian Revolution parallels and seeing how all revolutions carry within them their own capacity for self-destruction.

As usual, Hamilton's prose is unornamented but highly readable. His characters are well-delineated, although they're all a little too prone to using British swear words and idioms. The book is structurally similar to the Void novels but this is deliberate and soon used to set up and then undercut expectations in an interesting way. There are a few complaints, however. One of these is how quickly the ending unfolds (bordering on the abrupt) and how rapidly one of our main characters descends into outright madness. Whilst foreshadowed earlier on, the actual transition feels a little too rapid.

Another is only an issue for long-standing fans. The Commonwealth universe is undeniably a fascinating place, but we've now spent four (out of a planned five) big novels on the subject of the Void. Given the size and variety of the Commonwealth, it would be nice to see more of it than this same bit of it. I can see the fascination, as it allows the author to experiment with different genres without having to fully abandon his SF roots to do it, but there is the feeling that it would be nice to wrap up the Void and move on. The next book in the series will hopefully do just that.

Otherwise, The Abyss Beyond Dreams (****) is a very solid Hamilton SF novel: big ideas, fun characters and affecting moments of gut-wrenching horror. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

[ljkeane]

I just finished this and I thought it was reasonable but not Hamilton's best.

I thought a few elements of the story were more than a bit questionable. Hamilton has a bit a of a thing for awesome genius billionaires going off and saving the day for the human race which I've always thought was treading a line with being a bit dubious, for me Nigel Sheldon's actions in this book decidedly go over that line. He basically destabilises a society, directly or indirectly kills thousands of people, mind rapes probably a couple of hundred more for convenience's sake and feeds someone to an alien for scientific purposes. There were a couple of nods towards this being a bit beyond the pale in the book but we'll have to see what happens in the next book.

[SilentRoamer]

Thanks for the spoiler free review Werthead.

Being a long time Hamilton fan I actually bought this before Christmas but haven't read it yet. It's a huge hardback - think I am going to have to dive in soon though. I will stay clear of this thread as already the first post contains spoilers!

[red snow]

most of the series was on e-offer before xmas so i picked them up. Due to their massive size I think they'll suit the e-format better for me. I'm usually not a fan of the "person on the cover" but I do find the new UK covers more appealing than the old covers. Not sure why - I just felt the old painting style ones appeared dated (I guess they have to be being older covers). Anyway, those things encouraged me to buy them and I'll try reading one at some point in the year.

[Wilbur]

Thank you, Wert, for this timely review, as I am about half of the way through the audio of The Abyss Beyond Dreams with John Lee, and it is pretty diverting so far.

I agree with ljkeane about feeling a bit queasy when it comes to the focus on magical billionaire inventor blonde leader Nigel Sheldon, as he comes to become an almost-superman in terms of the action of the book. I guess what makes me uncomfortable is that several books that tell The Continuing Adventures Of sort of remind me of late-period Heinlein and his increasingly incestuous focus on one particular super-character.

Books that have super-competent blonde protagonists? FIne with me.

Books where the wealthy, tasteful protagonist is cleverer than anyone else? Also can be OK within a book.

Book after book of this same ironclad super-protagonist being better than anyone else? This starts to feel like it might be a bit off, rather like an investment banker writing wish-fulfillment fantasy from his Wall Street office.

On the other hand, I just ran across a reveal that may break down some of that concentration of super-cool in a single character a bit, which is a relief to me, as I enjoy Hamilton's books up to now. Plus the fact that the reveal is entirely harmonious with everything else we know about the Commonwealth universe adds to the palliative effect.

I was also worried that Slvasta would be a literary replicant of Edeard, but once his cabal began to embrace the doctrines of our friend Karl and the tactics of fellow travelers Ulyanov and Jugashvili, I realized that we were in for a new ride on this new planet in the Void.

One thing that took me a couple of "books" within the novel to understand was that the books are not set consecutively in time. Some of the books appear to begin at a point in the timeline before the point where the book previously ended. I should have gathered that "time" was an important thing to keep in mind given the events in the first book, but I wasn't that quick on the uptake.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Read it, liked it, nothing particularly deep or interesting in it but a nice bubblegum read.

[williamjm]

I thought a few elements of the story were more than a bit questionable. Hamilton has a bit a of a thing for awesome genius billionaires going off and saving the day for the human race which I've always thought was treading a line with being a bit dubious, for me Nigel Sheldon's actions in this book decidedly go over that line. He basically destabilises a society, directly or indirectly kills thousands of people, mind rapes probably a couple of hundred more for convenience's sake and feeds someone to an alien for scientific purposes. There were a couple of nods towards this being a bit beyond the pale in the book but we'll have to see what happens in the next book.

I also wasn't that keen on having the book's main female character apparently being there primarily to admire how generally awesome Nigel Sheldon was, although at least Hamilton resisted the temptation to put them in a romantic relationship (although there's still book 2).

Overall, I thought it was reasonably good but some way from Hamilton's best - I had thought Great North Road was one of the best things he'd done but this felt like a step backwards to some extent. I also didn't feel it was as compelling a story as the bits set on Querencia in the Void Trilogy and the setting wasn't as interesting, other than the threat of the Fallers it felt a bit of a bland world in comparison. It felt a bit like it couldn't entirely settle on what the focus of the story should be. The Fallers are the initial focus of the story and their introduction in the prologue set them up as a credible threat but in the latter parts of the book they almost got forgotten about, they're not really the slightest threat to Nigel's schemes. The Revolution was reasonably interesting but the fact that so much of it was being manipulated distracted a bit from the plotline examining how the revolution changed the characters of the revolutionaries.

[Werthead]

It felt like a bit of a side-story and it suffered from being a prequel: it's set 200 years before the Void Trilogy, so we know the Void isn't going to collapse or disappear or anything.

If we assume the Void has transtemporal abilities, then the ending of the book could indeed be set 200 years later so Book 2 can pick up after Void. Either that, or there'll simply be a 200-year time jump.