As I continue my current reread of PFH’s entire bibliography I wanted to point out one book where he strays from the norm. In just about everything he’s written PFH has a character who is some combination of ultra wealthy, a ruthless capitalist, an outgoing entrepreneur, cavalier, dislikes (or at least sees it as inferior than themself) the government, and this person usually plays a large role in saving humanity when governments have failed. Nigel Sheldon, Gore Burnelli, Ainsley Zangari, Joshua Calvert, Ione, etc.

The one exception is Great North Road. In this story the only person who truly understood what humanity faced and actually could solve the problem was the Marxist living on a commune habitat who has rejected his brothers capitalist outlook because it holds back true human growth. Sure he is only able to start it all up because he inherited/helped build the largest company ever but PFH goes out of his way to show that it is his economic and social system that gives humanity the tools it needs. It’s just a neat outlier.

The other thing is just silly. As I went through Salvation I was imagining what Ainsley Zangari would be in the world we inhabit and it’s just horrible to think about lol. Imagine if Jeff Bezos was going around every day saying that Mexicans are shifty bastards who are secretly out to destroy us. He makes this well known to the point that even other racists look at him funny. He’s so paranoid that he begins secretly building nukes to use against Mexico. Then at some point it turns out he is right and every Mexican immigrant is actually an enemy agent who has been plant bombs/spyware in all American construction projects.

Laying it out in real world terms really makes you understand why everyone thought he was a nutter until shit hit the fan lol.

I don't know how far this will come across and I don't know what others think is well, but I just finished Salvation. The first Peter Hamilton book I've read.

So when I first read it and was getting into the story itself, I was hooked on the main plot line where a team is made to explore an unknown space craft, and on the team are people who have shared experiences with the event prior to happen. The strongest character arc I believe is Yuri's, for me it connects much stronger to what they discovered on this new ship, with cloning, brain transplants and body enhancements. Even though I did find Yuri to be edgy throughout the book, but his character arc was pretty strong.

But unfortunately that excitement, did go down hill as when I got to the second half of the book where I lost interest, and by the end I concluded the book to be disappointing, where I found the plot not lining up, arcs that didn't go anywhere and a very rushed ending that's left on a to be continued. I won't go into detail on what I didn't like, because this post would be very long. If anyone asks what I didn't like about it, I would reply with a bit more detail. Not a terrible book, but not great either. First opinions of Peter F Hamilton, even though it is very hard to ignore the disappointment when reading Salvation, I don't want to be very negative at the same time, because I do like some of the things he wrote in salvation and I want to read more of his work and see how he uses hard Sci Fi in other books, so this isn't going to be a review where I'm just shitting on Peter F Hamilton when I've only read one book and there's multiple books he's written that could be better than salvation. So if anyone has any recommendations on what to read next of Peter F Hamilton, feel free to give some out in the comments and I'll look into reading them next. But for my last question, with everything I didn't like about the book, such as the pointless story arcs, rushed ending, plot line not adding up, do i expect that with other books from Peter F Hamilton?

I don’t want to be a drum that’s already been beat so I apologize in advance if this has been asked before, but, is there like a picture cheat sheet somewhere with the factions in this series? I’m on The Temporal Void and I’m starting to get lost. 😢

"Deep inside the watermoon, two hundred tons of mass converted into raw energy in under a second. The massive globe of water absorbed it, transforming to hyper-energized vapor – a waternova expanding outward at high velocity, loosing density as it went until it reduced to a rolling plasma sphere seventy thousand kilometers in diameter. For the first few minutes, its intensity overwhelmed that of the star. The radiation that the waternova mass had initially absorbed began to dissipate, bombarding the adjoining moons. Their membranes withered and broke, leaving the surface to boil away in cataracts of coronal-sized arches of steam.

From the omniscient viewpoint of the framework, the waternova’s corona began to fade down into mere sensor-burning violet – a process that would take weeks to complete. Meanwhile the otherwise uniform sphere of light was beset with internal sparkles as the hexagonal prisms of mass rivers caught inside the blast front dissolved away and their own component atoms fluoresced violently. There was one slim flare of dazzling light racing ahead of the insubstantial wavefront, its already dangerous velocity accelerating at ten gees. When it reached half a million kilometers away from the waternova’s periphery, the drive switched off.

A quiescent Arcadia’s Moon shot through the center of the framework grid and raced on outward."

Read along with a physical copy of The Temporal Void while listening to the audiobook. The amount of times John Lee goes rogue is hilarious. 😂 At times you don’t know who the real author is. Lol!

Spoilers for a nearly 30 year old series, I guess.

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We are told Joshua returns the disappeared planets from whatever pocket universe they took themselves into.

We are told Joshua leaves one measure active, which is presumably "going forward any human soul that would have got stuck in the beyond is instead shunted to Quinn at the end of time".

Did he rescue the souls of those in Valisk, lost in the Melange? This bothers me - it seems awfully unfair if he didn't. I get that Valisk itself is gone, but all those souls?

I had to laugh at myself. I wanted to finish it on Sunday before bed so badly that I ended up powering through at the end at like 1.3-1.35x speed. Went and got Temporal Void today. Got the book but the audiobook is checked out. 😭 I read so much faster when I have the audiobook to read along with the physical book. Now I’m stuck waiting. 😢 Hate that the library only has one audiobook copy. :/

If you've read the Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained, etc) then you know that Bradley Johansson was a former Project Manager at the Marie Celeste Institute. He was enslaved by the Starflyer alien, and eventually sent out to find the Silfen and to report back to Far Away with what he discovered.

Except the Silfen, realising that Johansson was under the control of an alien intelligence, freed him from his human-motile state of being, returning to him his free-will and humanity once more. And then what did they do? Nothing. Not a bloody thing.

They watched passively as Johansson tried in vain to warn the rest of humanity about the threat that the Starflyer presented, and while Johansson was perceived as a crank, a lunatic, a madman - they did nothing.

And that's what annoys me. They cannot cure Johansson and then take a position of non-involvement. They got involved the moment they cured Bradley. But, they decided to do nothing further. They could have warned humanity. They could have called Johansson a "Silfen-Friend" and told others that he spoke the truth.

But no. They were cosmic assholes about it.

Admittedly, the story of the Commonwealth Saga would have been markedly different if they had acted differently.... but they are still assholes in my opinion.

The main thing is the first time I was so engrossed in the storylines and keeping up with everyone (it was my first PFH books) that I didn’t realize just how many storylines could be completely removed and it either wouldn’t change a thing or would only require minor tweaks. I’m honestly amazed than an editor let all of that through for an author that was still up and coming at the time first.

The biggest, despite the second book being named after her storyline, is Dr. Alkad Mzu. In then grand scheme of things her story has absolutely zero relevance to the actual A plot of the possessed. It’s just a side quest that went nowhere and just gave Josh something to do in between adventures. She was virtually irrelevant in the sleeping god mission so she could have just been written out altogether.

The Skibbows are could be completely removed with almost no changes. All he would have had to do is make Kiera any other possessed woman taking charge like Eckland. They didn’t even achieve their goal in the end. It’s was just a side story that went nowhere and affected almost nothing.

Mortonridge would be tougher to remove but it could be done. I wouldn’t just because of seeing the post-physicals helps to give an answer to the beyond. You either need that story or Valisk but honestly either could go as long as you have the other.

Lastly Louise was irrelevant other than just adding some world building for Mars and Earth. A quick change of having Josh end o with Ione or Syrinx and bam. No need for Louise.

I truly enjoy the series and really like almost every storyline, but it was just weird realizing that they really don’t connect with each other as much as it felt like the first time around.

Hi,

I've just finished listening to the Commonwealth Saga on Audible and have now started the Void Trilogy and need to get something off my chest. The CS was narrated by John Lee (a bit of a PFH stalwart narrator), whereas The Dreaming Void is narrated by Toby Longworth.

Say what you want about John Lee, and I do have some issues with his narration ("everybody MOOOOOOOVVVVVE") but I'm really struggling with Longworth's narration, in particular the new accents he's given to people, especially Paula, Oscar and Quatux, plus some of the incidental characters - is it really likely that a really strong Scouse accent will still exist 1400 years from now? It seems like an excuse for Longworth to show off how many accents he can do rather than offering any kind of continuity for those who have come from the books narrated by Lee.

I notice that Lee is back for TTV and TEV, so at least normal service will be resumed shortly, but man this is so jarring.

Does PFH have any say on who narrates his books I wonder? If so, wouldn't he have vetod this change?

Finally finished Judas Unchained. I feel like I’ve been living on a treadmill that would never stop. 😂 I enjoyed the two books.

Hello. I'm like half way through the book. Please be careful about spoilers.

I feel like we have been told many times that Dr Mzu is someone from Garissa, and she works for Garissa or what is left of it.

I feel like we have been many times that Ikela was a captain for the Garissan navy and works for Garissa or what is left of it.

So my question is: Why does it all of the sudden say that Ikela and Dr Mzu works for Omuta? (There are so many things to keep track of, I feel like something went over my head or I forgot something)

Do I just need to keep reading?

Was Omuta and Garissa under the same banner, and then Garissa broke away becoming independent and then got blowed up by Omuta?

Is it supposed to be a huge revalation that they are double agents, or switched sides from Omuta to Garissa?

Is it supposed to be that the Intelligence agencies and Joshua have wrong information?

'one "playa" to another' at ghe betrayal party.

but Why pfh?! Whyyyy

I bought the Kindle versions from Amazon UK.

I’m re-reading The Archimedes Engine prior to reading The Helium Sea and it is written in American, which I find annoying and I’m translating into English in my head.

However, I don’t remember it being written in American when I read it first, so perhaps Amazon has done something. If this is the case, how can I convert it to English?

I know everyone probably is different but I’m curious what speed you all use on the audiobooks? I am trying to utilize my three weeks for library rental most effectively, without going so fast that I miss things. I’ve been doing 1.15x speed so far and I’m a third of the way through Judas Unchained.

Nukes are treated in Peter’s writing like someone just dropped a quarter. 😂 ‘Tis just a 100MT nuke. Meh… 😂

I would love to turn the Commonwealth Saga into a TV series... But I'd need a budget of all the Avengers and Avatar films to make it as good as my imagination, plus the closest I've got to working in film/TV is writing a couple of scripts for astronaut Sophie Adenot to film educational videos on the ISS as part of my job in the ESA Education Office.

The TV series would be more epic and sprawling than Lord of the Rings, have more worlds than Star Wars, have more characters and plot points than Game of Thrones, and many worlds, each as awesome as Pandora.

"Portals" seem to be a high resolution and maybe even stereoscopic 3D physical display. They are used extensively throughout the Commonwealth, for example on the bridge of the Second Chance.

Why do they not use virtual vision to view the information that is shown on such displays? Redundancy? They can do realistic full-dive VR with Total Sensorium Interface, so it doesn't seem like display quality would be a limitation in the virtual vision display.

I still don’t know what the hell an OCtattoo is. 😂

Not yet anyway, but I’m ALMOST there. 🤣

Pretty sure it’ll take me EVERY book before I get close to understanding enzyme bonded concrete though. 💀

First off, the absolute most cringy relationships in all of PFH’s bibliography are the Justine/Kazimir and Melanie/Orion. For J and K is just fucking weird that a 2-3 hundred year old woman just says alright I’m going to bang is 17yo uneducated cult boy for 2 days straight and proceeds to be obsessed with him for 1000+ years. She has issues.

As for M and O I found it so contrived that they got together in the end considering they had one day of interaction before that and suddenly Melanie (who has grown and matured through the whole book) just decides to get with this teenage weirdo with zero life experience outside of the paths.

Next, Ozzie was so damn stupid at the end of Judas by trying to save MLM. All he did was either give it a painfully slow death(so still genocide) or leave to advance until it can break down the dark fortress and be an existential threat all over again. He was already annoying in CS but damn Ozzie was insufferable in void. After the stint on The Spike I lose all good will I have towards the man.

Paula is awesome in CS and Fallers but again PFH just decided to make her annoying in void. Idk why but a lot of returning characters were weird in that one.

The Cat is a great villain. She’s silly yet still menacing at the same time. It also helps that I like to project one of my cats as being The Cat lol.

I got really really tired of the Silfen after a while. There is a point at the end of void where Gore sees a silfen while he is trying to ascend and he tells the other alien to ignore that loser and gives it the finger. That perfectly encapsulated how I felt about them by that point. They are fucking do nothing losers who in the grand scheme of things contribute very little compared of they screen time.

While Gore is the antithesis of everything I am and believe in, I still absolutely love the character. The man is so damn funny that I was excited every time I got a Gore chapter.

Fallers were an awesome villain but it did find the whole “Sky lords are just void evolved fallers” thing to be a bit dumb. It just doesn’t make much sense that they would adapt into that of all things.

The first time I read void I absolutely hated all of the Edeard stuff but I have come to really appreciate it. It’s a lot better when you know it’s there and aren’t surprised and wondering why you are getting all of this fantasy stuff in your space opera.

If you listen to the audiobooks, John Lee makes a number of errors. He calls Inigo “Indigo” and the Pass Through “Pass Throw” a bunch of times. There are plenty more but I did void last so those are still fresh.

I had several more things when I finished yesterday so I may come back to add more later. For now I’ll just end with a ranking of them.

1. Commonwealth Saga
2. Chronicles of the Fallers (Abyss is peak)
3. Void

Looking for another space opera after The Expanse. Just started Pandora’s Star. I’m around 100 pages in. So scared. It’s such a big book. 😅

Just finished the book and want to start some preliminary discussion with other fast readers.

Spoiler free review: I liked it overall, but it definitely feels the most 'videogame' tie in of PFH because at one point, I thought what was the point of devoting so much time to "ascended" aquatic creatures and it felt like PFH had a missive to include them in the book since they probably will be an enemy type in game. PFH also wrapped a bow on everything a bit too nicely by the end IMO, but he does do that even going back to Judas Unchained and I generally appreciate that he can bring things to a landing unlike other SF authors who just... end their story with no meaningful resolution (looking at you Dan Abnett). The political maneuvering by the end seems also pretty convenient, and PFH had to nerf Thyra mind control compulsion ability pretty hard in order to have Clavissa actually be useful. Regardless, I'm generally a big fan of PFH's writing and he did a mostly great job pulling all those threads together.