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The Reality Dysfunction (The Night's Dawn) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher: Orbit
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $8.75
You Save: $8.24 (48%)
New (33) Used (13) from $8.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  214 reviews
Sales Rank: 37079
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1120
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 2
ISBN: 0316021806
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780316021807
ASIN: 0316021806
Publication Date: October 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new. Perfect condition.
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Amazon.com Review
This is space opera on an epic scale, with dozens of characters, hundreds of planets, universe-spanning plots, and settings that range from wooden huts and muddy villages to sentient starships and newborn suns. It's also the first part of a two-volume book that is itself the first book of a series. There's no question that there's a lot going on here (too much to even begin to detail the plot), but Hamilton handles it all with an ease reminiscent of E. E. "Doc" Smith. The best way to describe it: it's big, it's good, and luckily there's plenty more on the way.
Product Description
Space is not the only void...
In AD 2600 the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp.
But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all our fears. An extinct race which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it "The Reality Dysfunction." It is the nightmare which has prowled beside us since the beginning of history.
THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION is a modern classic of science fiction, an extraordinary feat of storytelling on a truly epic scale.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 209 more reviews...
 A lot of bang for the buck! November 20, 2008
The reality Dysfunction is sweeping, gory, scary, ominous, and totally over the top. That is one reason I like it. Mr. Hamilton manages to write well enough to keep you reading, and not mind the suspicion that the subsequent books will be a let down. I bought 4 books of the series and tried to get into the second volume after the Reality Dysfunction, but it totally failed to grab me. So I gave the whole bunch away to an appreciative friend.
I should say I had the same experience with other multivolume sci-fi stories: The Foundation had a great beginning, but I lost interest in the second volume; same thing with Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books: I totally love Red Mars, a true sci-fi classic. And I recommend Green Mars, the second book to hardcore fans. But Blue Mars, in my opinion, just loses steam.
I recommend reading the Reality Dysfunction if you like action, imaginative semi-horror gore, and just want to escape for a while into another world. I have rarely seen better.
 A Big Disappontment June 14, 2008
No matter how I tried I could not get into this book. I got to page 198 then put it into the recycle bin.
The book goes on and on jumping from one character to another to another...more jumbled then anything. And all this introduction is incredibly boring since nothing exciting happens. Even the space battles are very drab.
The conversations between characters are very cheesey, and wore on me quite quickly. I felt as though I was reading a book for a young teen.
 If you have a Kindle... April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Just FYI, if you have a Kindle and are interested in this book/series, there is a compilation of all 3 (or 6 depending on how you look at it) books listed as The Night's Dawn Trilogy available for download for a little under $8. That's obviously a fair amount cheaper than buying the books individually and you don't have to lug around 3000+ pages. I am enjoying this series immensely but am only about halfway through so will have to reserve my final judement. Oh and I just noticed the ability to insert a product link so here it is:
The Night's Dawn Trilogy
Fascinating, Exciting, Absurd, and Frustrating February 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Reality Dysfunction (parts 1 and 2) could be retitled "The Author's Dysfunction." The books start with some interesting sci-fi scenarios such as living and intelligent spaceships and habitats and human genetic modifications to achieve telepathy. There also are some interesting plots such as the Confederation's struggle to eliminate antimatter weapons and the investigation of an advanced alien society that committed mass suicide thousands of years past. These alone would have made a great, long novel, especially since Peter Hamilton writes well. Unfortunately, Mr. Hamilton could not leave well enough alone. He adds character after character (scores of them by the end of these two books), plot after subplot, location after location. Even more unfortunately, the overriding plot becomes a ghost story. The spirits of the vilest human dead, who have lived as miserable disembodied energy-beings for centuries, suddenly gain access to living persons whom they possess. The first thoughts of these vile re-embodied spirits are to help other vile spirits possess their own living hosts. (I found this unlikely, since the spirits hated each other in their afterlife existences.) But, the ghostly plot gets worse. The spirits, who instantly traveled hundreds of light-years (How did they get that ability?) to possess their human hosts, now have incredible super powers. They can screw-up all electronic devices, throw firebolts, instantly repair or reshape their bodies, work together to bring down buildings, and change planetary climate. And, in yet another subplot, one of the returned spirits is Al Capone, who will probably organize them like his old Chicago mob.
This ghost story now is absurd beyond any believing, because most science fiction does not include violations of the first law of thermodynamics (you cannot get energy from nothing) and of the second law of thermodynamics (high energy systems tend to fall apart unless more energy is added). Even fantasy books with magic usually require some source of magical power.
I should have read more critical reviews before buying (thankfully, in used paperback format) the entire six-book series. You should not read this series unless you can put your logic, reason, and science knowledge on hold.
Feels half finished February 15, 2008
The hardest part of writing a story is ending it well. Hamilton avoids that pitfall by just not ending his stories. He writes a great intro and exciting action scene then just abandons the story to start a new one. My problems with it as of the first five chapters are...
1. The first four chapters are basically half finished short stories with little or no relation to one another. Each is a good start but ultimately unsatisfying alone.
2. There is a lot of fictional techno-babble. When I read a story I like to feel as if I could be part of that story. After four chapters I started to become acclimated but the constant barrage of unfamiliar language and culture keeps destroying the immersion factor.
One review mentioned realistic space combat. I'd like to know what universe they live in that ships can make 70G+ acceleration or 7G+ right angle turns with human crews, especially unsecured civilian passengers. Sure people are hurt but you can't call any of this realistic with a straight face.
The author is obviously talented and very creative but in his intense effort to prove himself is more or less alienating the reader and failing to create a coherent narrative. Hamilton would be far more enjoyable with a more disciplined and less epic storytelling approach.
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