Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7139 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1225 pages

Synopsis
The second volume in the "Night's Dawn" trilogy. An ancient menace has escaped from Lalonde, shattering the Confederation's existence. In such times the last thing the galaxy needs is a new, powerful weapon. Yet Dr Mzu is determined to retrieve the Alchemist, so that she can complete a vendetta.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant book, favourite ever
Onbe of my best sci-fil reads

theres always a new theme just around the corner -the book just surprises and entertains you.

Normally one theme is sustained in sci-fi, but here we have new themes and exploration constantly appearing in the book.

I want more like this

problem is I've read all his work - but this is the best so far!

Dem Bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
Having enjoyed TRD, it was only a matter of time before I read "The Neutronium Alchemist". The holiday I started it on was not long enough - a second week on the train to and from work was needed to complete the story's 1,259 pages.

Did I enjoy it? Yes - but I am perhaps easily satisfied by this sort of nonsense. A couple of elements did begin to grate:

More than 100 years after man has begun to colonise the stars, Hamilton tells us that the early attempts break down on ethnic and religious grounds; thereafter colonies were only founded from single ethnic/cultural groups. This would be a somewhat depressing prognosis in any event, but seems anomalous in a world where voluntary genetic engineering has allowed people to modfy their very appearance to transcend race - ebony skin and blond hair seems to be one of Hamilton's obsessions. 400 years later the same divisions still exist!

In a story that brings the dead back into the world of the living, Hamilton has some fun with some well known (English speaking) historical characters, both of whom speak with, at the least, the dialect of the time. None of the possessors, however, seem to have any language difficulties, so while a certain late C18 Englishman speaks in a somewhat laboured neo-Austen, another with the gangland patois of Chicago's Italian district, they and the revived denizens of C26 Earth's teeming "archologies" (population: 85 Billion) seem to have no difficulty in communicating with everyone else from history.

These are, though, minor quibbles if you like space-opera science fictions. Hamilton's whole concept of how mankind might explode into the galaxy - and of how technology might evolve - is breathtaking.

Hamilton would have achieved more, though, if he had pared this down. I will read the third volume, but with Amazon reviews ringing in my ears (or is that eyes), I do so with a fear of disappointment. Will "The Naked God" be like watching the final episode of "The Prisoner"?

Awesome
Lets keep it short - If you like sci fi and you like to read, really like to read - a lot (it is particularly long) then crack on. This trilogy is one of the finest space sci fi sets I have ever read by a long way.