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The Night's Dawn Saga by Peter F. Hamilton


Werthead

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I just started rereading this series (about 100 pages in) and I'm really glad that I did. As I recall I liked the series, but I think I was too young when I first read it, only in my mid-teens, and I didn't really appreciate it; or absorb it for that matter. I remember the main plot points, but most of the details I've been reading seem new. Really enjoying my re-read.

One question I've got, and I'm still in the middle of the cleverly-disguised info-dump portion of the series so maybe this comes up later, is what year is it supposed to be? From the references to things it seems likes its probably in the 26-2700s, but that seems way too soon considering how well developed things are and how down-pat 100-year colonial development plans are.

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It starts round about 2610 (this is based on the appendix saying that the Garissa-Omuta war was in 2581, and the fact that the 30-year blockade on Omuta ends somewhere in the middle of book 1).

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It starts round about 2610 (this is based on the appendix saying that the Garissa-Omuta war was in 2581, and the fact that the 30-year blockade on Omuta ends somewhere in the middle of book 1).

Yeah, that's about where I thought. Still think that's way too soon considering the state of humanity, but that's a very minor quibble; and anyway is something that it seems like a lot of SF writers do.

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Think how much colonisation we've done of this planet in the last 500 years. It seems plausible enough to me that we'll expand rapidly if we develop FTL travel and discover habitable planets.

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Yup, the trilogy starts in 2610 and ends in 2611, and most of the time actually passes before the reality dysfunction kicks in 1/3 of the way through the first novel (Louise tells Fletcher it's 2611 a few pages into Book 2 as well). I think the actual length of the rest of the story is something like six months.

As for being too soon, I don't think so. The colonisation pattern and baseline economics of the Confederation have been established for almost 400 years by that point, which is enough to make the situation fairly institutionalised, especially as the human characters don't actually live much longer than we do (the Edenists and Kulu royalty surviving well into their 100s is an anomaly, most humans still live to 80-100 or so), so it's been quite a few generations. If you look at the absolutely massive population explosion this century alone, the rapid expansion of the human population to the point where it can fill 800 planets, 11,000 asteroid settlements and 8,000 Edenist habitats is reasonably convincing.

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As for being too soon, I don't think so. The colonisation pattern and baseline economics of the Confederation have been established for almost 400 years by that point, which is enough to make the situation fairly institutionalised, especially as the human characters don't actually live much longer than we do (the Edenists and Kulu royalty surviving well into their 100s is an anomaly, most humans still live to 80-100 or so), so it's been quite a few generations. If you look at the absolutely massive population explosion this century alone, the rapid expansion of the human population to the point where it can fill 800 planets, 11,000 asteroid settlements and 8,000 Edenist habitats is reasonably convincing.

Maybe. Its just, I was reading the bit that's the introduction to Laldone (sp?) and the narration is talking about how the LDC has a 100-year development plan and that it won't see any profits for around that period of time and so on; like you said, institutionalized. And it seems to me that for things to reach that point it would require a huge amount of evidence that it will pay off in the end and that micromanagement isn't necessary; more then just one or two previous cycles of colonies reaching full industrialization. Everyone just seems a little too lackadaisical about the whole thing.

The level technology seems reasonable enough (assuming, as always, that FTL will be possible) and the population isn't unbelievable (particularly considering the amount of sex everyone has), but I don't believe humanity would reach the point where a planet isn't any more special then the US Great Plains in the 19th Century.

Doesn't bother me that much mind you, just a bit of a pet peeve of mine when I think a story is showing humans no longer awed by the cosmos and all its wonders too quickly. We're a very adaptable species of course, but we've just spent 2 million years on only one planet; I think it would take a little while for everyone to be so relaxed about everything.

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I really wanted to like this series, but was bored by some of the subplots and the page count dedicated to them. Agree with those who were let down by the ending. It felt like cheating, and had the side-effect of rendering some subplots irrelevant or even meaningless to the point where I was annoyed at the page count dedicated to them. It's the same issue I have with some Stephen King books. Awesome characters, plot and build-up and suddenly

It is a giant spider killing all the kids

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the LDC has a 100-year development plan and that it won't see any profits for around that period of time and so on; like you said, institutionalized. And it seems to me that for things to reach that point it would require a huge amount of evidence that it will pay off in the end and that micromanagement isn't necessary; more then just one or two previous cycles of colonies reaching full industrialization.

It's not a couple of cycles (start some new colonies, wait 100 years, start a new batch), though, it's an ongoing process. Something turns out to work unusually well or badly in the first few years of colonisation, and the lessons learned can be applied to the next new colony more or less immediately. They've established hundreds of colonies, and know from experience how long it tends to take for them to develop to the point of being profitable.

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It's been a few years that I read it - and I'm a little surprised there's a thread about it here since its being SciFi - but I have many fond memories of the five books. I remember that I very much cared for the main characters and liked the scenario a lot. So many worlds, so many different cultures. The end was a little too "far out" for my taste, I did not hate it but felt that Hamilton somehow did not really find a more logical way to finish the story, but okay...

This is a series very worth checking out, especially the colonization elements which I always tend to like (people on a strange new planet bulding a new colony, and then... an incident happens :-) ). It is not as good as the Hyperion Saga, but definitely very good.

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  • 1 year later...

Maybe not the best place to ask this but I searched and couldn't find any threads related to him, feel free to point me in the right direction. Peter F Hamilton. His Night's Dawn trilogy.

Are all the non-straight men gonna be evil space satanists? Quinn Dexter is the most laughably cardboard villian I have ever read.

In my life. And naturally, so far the only non-straight male. In this uber sexually liberated society where casual sex is the norm, kinky twin sex is only vaguely scandalous and century wide age gaps barely warrant a fluttering of the eyelashes gay sex is only for evil satanists. I can't even. And if I have to wade through 3000+ pages of Joshua's sexcapades I am going to fucking vomit. Currently all the sex in this book (admittedly I'm only at page 300 and something, so maybe it gets better) either reads like it's directed at making the reader uncomfortable because BWAHAHAHAHA EVIIIIILLLL or the stereotypical straight male's sex fantasy...



~IN SPACE~


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This was answered some time ago by PFH himself:

Quinn is not gay or bisexual, but instead someone who uses sex as a means of control and taking power over another person. That's what he is interested in, and does not care if that person is male, female, sexless cyborg or whatever.



There are certainly other gay and bisexual characters in the series who are portrayed in a fairly non-judgemental way, and that's the same in PFH's other books. Suggesting that because Dexter uses gay sex as a tool to control men, that means all gays are evil in the setting is a bit of a strech.



The sex is a bit OTT in the first novel but gets turned way down in the second and third books, as they simply don't have time for it with everything else that is going on.


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It's not much of a stretch if he remains the only salient example of non-heteronormativity. And I'm not entirely sure I buy the rationalization, he seems to find the first guy (the one who explains he's "strictly het") physically attractive. I'm sure the power/dominance aspect of it is a major part, the dominant part even, but it isn't the only part. And really it's less about Quinn and more about the lack of it everywhere else, if Quinn was just one of a host of others it wouldn't be an issue. But we'll see how it goes, I still have many, many pages to go.



And thanks for the merge, I searched for Peter F Hamilton and Night's Dawn separately. I probably should've checked past the 2nd page of results though.


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