The Confederation Handbook, by Peter F. Hamilton

July 5, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Peter F. Hamilton, Science Fiction 

This is a handbook – a book of “facts”, The Confederation Handbook, Peter F. Hamilton not a science fiction story. The Confederation Handbook is a companion volume to Hamilton’s massive Night’s Dawn Trilogy, which was a trilogy in Britain, but not in the USA. It lays out the history and technology of the major cultures, discusses the planets on which the action of the trilogy occurs, and fills in a little background information.

In this galactic almanac Peter F.  Hamilton reveals the true potential of his brilliantly realized epic. Expanding on its concepts and complexities, The Confederation Handbook explores the 600-year history of more than 21,500 inhabited worlds, asteroids, and bitek habitats. You can discover how Edenist space colonies are grown; the real story of the Kulu Kings and the exiled Lord of Ruin; why Adamist religions caused the human schism by rejecting Affinity;  the tragic legacy of Rubra, the Edenist rebel who created Valisk;  learn about Voidhawk breeding and Tyrathca mating rituals, and much more!

The Confederation Handbook covering geology, politics, technology, weaponry, and alien life forms, and is a must read for Peter Hamilton’s legion of fans.

To some extent it is also a book of spoilers. Much of Night’s Dawn consists of going through a long series of adventures to find out the quirks of Hamilton’s galaxy. It is the wealth and appeal of his background, and the daring of his conceit – science fiction that overtly tackles all the issues usually left to religion – that make Night’s Dawn so popular.

With this book you get in neat summary the information that would otherwise require you to read thousands of pages of the trilogy itself. Indeed, if you read the first volume of Reality Dysfunction& and would like to know where the story goes, you have only to read this book, skip the next four and a half volumes, and read the last 100 pages of Naked God, and you will have the plot. On the other hand, readers who have read and learned all the information provided in the trilogy will find little new here.

Links to Peter F. Hamilton’s books: amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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Masters of Time, by A.E. van Vogt

February 25, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A.E. van Vogt, book review, Fiction, Science Fiction 

A.E. van Vogt (actually Alfred Elton van Vogt, April 26, 1912 – Masters of Time, by A. E. van VogtJanuary 26, 2000) was one the the classical masters of science fiction, and one of my favorites as well. Masters of Time is one of his earliest works, a real classic science fiction story. So to some extent Masters of Time is, and should be read as, an example of the first primitive attempts at writing modern science fiction. This novel from the early 1940s was first published in the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction.

A woman, Norma, is contacted, and offered a job. She finds out that her secretarial job is in a business which exists as a front for a recruiting station for a war in the distant future. As well, Indeed, Norma’s boyfriend professor Garson is caught up in this. The man who hires Norma is a tall, powerful, and callous individual named Dr. Lell, who turns out to be one of the Masters of Time.

Taking place in a multidimensional matrix of space and time, we follow Norma’s and Garson’s attempts understand the frightening new technoligies used to control them, the operation of the future cultures, and the new concepts of time and space forces upon them. Also, of course, they seek to be free and return to their own time. And the technologies are powerful indeed – Dr. Lell, for instance, can make Norma older or younger at will.

The storyline in Masters of Time is at times a little hard to follow. Yet, to me, this book is very interesting, and rereading it I am still amazed by the level of sophistication of A. E. van Vogt’s thinking and plotting. Relative to the time period of its writing this is an impressive book, and still worth a reading!

Unfortunately, some of A.E. van Vogt’s books are getting hard to find.
Order A. E. van Vogt from amazon US: Masters of Time, and see also his wonderful books Slan: A Novel, The World of Null-A, and The War Against the Rull.
You can also order books by A.E. van Vogt from amazon UK: Masters of Time, Slan, The World of Null-A, and War Against The Rull.

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