THE NEUTRONIUM ALCHEMIST: Consolidation & Conflict

This book was great, don't get me wrong, but if you're committed to reading the entire series (ie you've read the Reality Dyfunction and want to see how it all ends eventually) do yourself a favor and start reading right after the Reality Dyfunction. I made that mistake and waited a few years in between (hey I do have other things to do) and attempting to dive in, at least in the beginning, can be rough going. Fortunately Hamilton does his best to bring readers up to speed on the run but he can't explain everything without bogging it all down in lengthy backwards exposition and so you've just got to figure it out as you go. On the book itself, it's just as good as the first two books, just in a different way. The Reality Dyfunction was good for the shock of its ideas, both for the complexity and gritty hardness of Hamilton's universe and the central concept of the dead coming back and taking over people (which could have turned into some cliched horror deal, but didn't). This book shows that the last one wasn't a fluke and he can actually develop all those ideas of the last novel into something workable. Thus, there aren't all out firefights and breakneck action here, mostly a retrenching as the characters gear up for the inevitable second conflict. We get to see how the possessed are trying to fortify their positions and how the living are trying to reclaim their worlds. Through it all there's an impressive knot of political and social machinations, as everyone tries to manipulate the crap out of everyone else. The characters are all still well defined and sometimes still surprising, which is good considering how much time you have to spend with some of them. There are lots of plots spinning around but don't fret, none of them are horribly complex and there's little overlap and Hamilton avoids the problems of some authors (ahem . . . Robert Jordan) by not giving his million characters all similar sounding names so you can't tell them apart. It's a quieter book that simmers with closed intensity, which will probably explode in the next book. Don't even think of starting this one without having read the Reality Dyfunction, it won't make any sense at all and you'll just be hurting yourself. But this is the next logical step after that book and a welcome one. And I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I liked the idea of Al Capone showing up, talk about adapting to yourself situation. Great stuff, and I've learned from my mistakes, I'm reading the second part of this as we speak. Review on that to come shortly, not that anyone is out there waiting. Pity.

These Hamilton books have it all - hard SF, speculative SF, fantasy, horror, combat, space opera, sex (with and without responsibility). Multiple plots perfectly interwoven. Characters that are strong and believable yet not "over the top" (too far). I have not once said, "Why would this person do that?" I have not once said, "OK, get on with it." And they're BIG books, but real page-turners from cover to cover. These books are about realistic people, made larger than life by their circumstances, pitted face to face with pure evil (and the possibility of pure good) incarnate. Mythical, spiritual, raw-edged escapism at its best. Take it from a guy who quit counting after the 20th time he saw Star Wars, the original, in a theater. Hamilton rocks.

I can only reiterate what others have said, this is an exellent read and one of the best I have read this Decade, Honest! It can be difficult to keep up with the characters, but a glossary at the back of the books helps considerably. Read it and then join the queue eagerly awaiting the third (but hopefully not final) volume in the series.

This so far is the best Sci-Fi series I've read. It truely uses science whereas many other books claim to, but get too involved with interplanetary politics. Or simple murder mystery in space with some aliens as a side bar like what Gentry Lee has done with Clarke's Rama. Hamiliton does use many characters, but its is a big universe. He is setting the standard for modern Sci-Fi, and he has just dated Asimov, Clarke and others. They were all great writers, but limited by the technology of their times. Hamiliton uses current tech. and current fantasized future technology to sculpt an incredible series. He will certainly appear in the marquee of great Sci-Fi writers.

To anyone reading these reviews, the only thing I can say to you is that it is better than anyone says. People try to tell you that the story could've been told with less words and less chapters even. Let me tell you the truth. Don't let the size of the book intimidate you. Any good reader breezes right through Hamiltons outstanding use of parrallelism without slowing down as is done in naturalism. This entire series is worth every minute you spend on it. I've actually skipped work to continue flipping pages and drooling over the development. The cheesy subject only makes it cooler. Hamilton shows exactly how the human race would react to this plague. This series is outstanding.