Review of The Dreaming Void
I have been reading the most wonderful Science Fiction series lately. I am enjoying it so much that I just must share this with a few hundred of my closest friends. The name of the series is The Dreaming Void and it is by Peter F. Hamilton. It is one of those three-part series that are set in the future that science fiction and fantasy seem to do so well. The most intriguing part of it is that every other chapter you see into a “dream” of one of the characters, which in actuality is a reality on the other side of “The Void” an area at the edge of the galaxy where this story takes place. The Void is a kind of cosmic wall of some kind of negative matter that nothing appears to be able to pass through. It is expanding and each time its expansion stretches to include a planet, it devours that planet leaving nothing in its wake. Yet somehow, there are living planets on the other side of The Void, and they have people, in fact they have humans, on them. The dreams you read about are the lives of a group of humans that are descended from an expedition many thousands of years earlier that pierced The Void and landed and survive on this planet. The dreams all center on the life of one individual whose life is somehow linked to those on the other side of The Voice. He has no idea that his life is the dream of another person and yet there are hints in his life that he is more than just an ordinary one. The question is – how and why is he linked?
How the dream affects those who experience the dream, and what it all means to the many planets and civilizations on this side of The Void greatly contribute to make this series such a unique and well written story. Hamilton’s ability to create very believable characters, with faults and heroics, is a big plus in this series. You care what happens to the characters, you want to understand the mystery of the dreams and their significance to both the dreamer and the people in the dreams. His ability to weave two complex storylines, each in a very different culture, pulls you from chapter to chapter as you unravel the twin mysteries and how they are connected. I find that with each chapters end, when we switch back to the other parallel story, I have to stop myself from switching to the chapter beyond because I have gotten so caught up in that storyline. But both storylines are equally compelling, and so I find myself re-engrossed within a paragraph, if not a sentence, in the parallel storyline I left a chapter ago. His vision of each storyline, complete with very different political and social structures, is so strong that I never feel lost or that I am not sure which storyline I am reading. That alone could be a strong reason to recommend this series. Having the concepts presented so compelling and then the characters so believable are just icing on the cake with Hamilton. My thanks to my local librarian, who raved about this writer when he saw me looking at the dust jacket. The enthusiasm he had for this writer, and this series in particular, made me feel I just had to check it out. I am glad that I did.
Of course, when I am not reading and writing about science fiction stories, you can find me in front of my computer creating handy little niche portals like my current guides to making your backyard better. They include this look at how simple it is to build low retaining walls for your backyard and my site Get Ready to Grill that shows you some great Barbeque Grills. I also recently started a series of guides on various home improvement tools, including my latest Band Saw Tools World. Check them out – you will be surprised what great tools and information are out there! See everyone next week!
