Product Description

Born in a colony world in 2310, Lawrence Newton hankered after the golden era of starships exploring the galaxy. But the age of human starflight was drawing to a close, so this hot-heated teenager ran away from home in search of adventure . Twenty years later, he's the sergeant of a washed-out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion of another world. The giant corporations call such campaigns 'asset realization', but in practice it's simple piracy.

While he's on the ground, being shot at and firebombed by local resistance forces, Lawrence hears stories about the Temple of the Fallen Dragon -- and a sect devoted to the worship of a mythical creature that fell to the ground millennia ago. More importantly, its priests are said to guard a hoard of treasure large enough to buy lifelong happiness -- which information prompts him to mount a private-enterprise operation of his own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12980 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Format: Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 650 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The acclaimed Peter Hamilton's standalone SF adventure Fallen Dragon sees him taking a breather after the immense, galaxy-spanning Night's Dawn trilogy, with a tauter story of future skirmishing in a mere few solar systems.

Centuries hence, despite faster-than-light travel, human interstellar exploration is stagnating. There's not enough money in it for the vast controlling companies such as Zantiu-Braun, now reduced to extracting profits via "asset realisation"--plundering established colonies that can't withstand Earth's superior weapons tech.

Lawrence Newton's childhood dreams were all about space exploration. Now he's just another Z-B squaddie, trained to use the feared, half-alive "Skin" combat biosuits, which offer super-muscles, armour and massive firepower, all queasily hooked into the wearer's bloodstream and nervous system. Commanding a platoon in Z-B's raid on planet Thallspring, Lawrence has secret plans to make off with a rumoured alien treasure.

But Thallspring resistance is unexpectedly tough, thanks to locals such as Denise Ebourn who have mysterious access to neuro-electronic subversion gear far subtler and perhaps more dangerous than Skin. Meanwhile, how fictional are the stories Denise tells her school pupils, about a fabled Empire that ruled our galaxy for a million years before becoming... something else?

Hamilton excels at violent action, but not with the dreadful simplicity of space opera. Despite his role in the explosive Thallspring situation, Lawrence genuinely hopes to avoid bloodshed--while Denise's lofty idealism results in chilling atrocities, and even Z-B may be less cruel and monolithic than it seems.

A breakneck interstellar chase leads to a satisfying finale and an unexpected romantic twist. This is solid, meaty SF entertainment. --David Langford

About the Author

Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960, and still lives near Rutland Water. His previous novels are the Greg Mandel series and the bestselling 'Night’s Dawn' trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction , The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God. Also published by Macmillan (and Pan) is A Second Chance at Eden, a novella and six short stories, and The Confederation Handbook, a vital guide to the ‘Night’s Dawn' trilogy. His most recent novels were Misspent Youth and the Commonwealth Saga novels, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, the latter to be published in hardcover in October 2005.

Customer Reviews

Forget the details, it�s the story we all love.
Like all Hamilton stories, it's not the writing style that will capture your heart. It is the story.

Any fan of the 'Night's Dawn Trilogy' will find this book instantly likeable, due to Hamilton's trademark consistency with technological detail. But its strongest point comes through the book's main protagonists. They become humane and likable as you follow their stories across different periods of their lives.

Fans of 'Night's Dawn' may find that some of the technologies in Fallen Dragon are simply old concepts that have been given new names. But don't be put off by this, as Hamilton's real talent is for characterisation and story-telling. And the love story in this book puts many romance novels to shame.

Anyone who was moved by the emotional roller-coaster that was 'Reality Dysfunction' will undoubtedly be touched by Fallen Dragon. If you can forgive the sometimes-tedious detailing of this book, you'll be absorbed in a very decent plot that was created from a very good idea and has been told in a very touching manner.

Like all Hamilton stories, it's not the writing style that will capture your heart. It is the story.

Hamilton does it again with "Fallen Dragon"
If you've enjoyed the "Night's Dawn" trilogy then "Fallen Dragon" will not disappoint. Recognisable scenes on Earth contrast with gripping battle epics on other planets. The latter half of the book makes for some late nights - don't take this book to bed if you need to rise early.
The moral dimension is a constant backdrop to the page-turning action sequences.
This book is sure to be another success for Hamilton.

Very well written. But...
Having read this & the Nights' Dawn trilogy by the same author, the themes in both books are oddly similar - if not at first glance. Both are, after a fashion, novels of redemption & maturing by their lead characters, and the fact that exceptional circumstances lead them to that change in themselves.
Fallen Dragon is set in a future where Space travel has happened, but proven so expensive that it has slipped back to the point where, after colonising a string of planets, earth-base corporations & governments now only use their spacegoing technology in tech-tech piracy raids against the industrial bases of their former colonies: the only profitable use of spaceflight that has yet been discovered.
In the midst of this background, the protagonist - a simple grunt with a very unusual background worthy of Iain M banks - goes hunting for a very special piece of alien technology, the only one to have been found during humanity's expansion to the stars.
Hamiltons imagination, background and plotting are excellent, but his writing remains fairly dry and lacks the liveliness that writers such as Banks or Harrison have brought to SF in the past. In addition, the apparently sudden change of heart of his lead character at the end does not ring true at all considering everything that has gone before - the changes to his personality that would need to have occurred aren't mentioned in the text and so, whilst his shift in his perceptions isn't unrealistic, it doesn't ring true and would have benefited from more development.
In all, this is a three-and-a-half-star book. Five stars for the realisation of an expertly crafted background unlike anything I've read before in SF. However, docking a star or two for unengaging writing and weak characterisation is necessary. A book well worth reading, but don't expect to be emotionally involved with it.