The Sword and Laser discussion

So I'm really looking forward to the conclusion of Peter F. Hamilton's void trilogy which comes out next tue. Its probably a little too much to ask for that to be the next group book, but once i finish Before They Are Hanged i plan to grab it. im trying to decide if i should read the other two again first, but i probably cant wait to see if the two universes meet and how that will unravel

+1, but I could live without any more of the 'fantasy' side of the story. I actually read the 1st 2 void books before the prequel, pandora's star/judas unchained, because the beginning seemed more exciting.

How did u like the idea of returning to the pandora universe a few hundred years later and the inclusion of some methuseluh characters from the first series like Paula Myo/Ozzie. I hear what your saying on the fantasy side, not what he's best at, but i really like the idea of magical energy exertion having a cost in terms of physics, in fact i should put that in the magic system thread too. I forget, have the primes shone up yet?

Like I said I read the void books first, so I have no idea. :)

oic thought u read em, check em out great interstellar war and a really cool alien intelligence

I did read them after the fact. I might have liked them more in the second series. Btw, Ozzy is black. Someone made a scene from Pandora's Star on youtube and didn't realize it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6OOn...

lol i love attention to details. One i just noticed was in one the David Farland books, a charcter has wings that are described over and over again as red, crimson, vermilllion, whatever, so the artist does the cover and they are green... do you remember if the primes from the first series are in this one too?

Is that the motiles and immotiles? Not that much. Speaking of covers, it always annoys me that the Shrike has 2 arms instead of 4 on some of the Hyperion books.

It's out!

Halbot42 wrote: "lol i love attention to details. One i just noticed was in one the David Farland books, a charcter has wings that are described over and over again as red, crimson, vermilllion, whatever, so the a..."

I heard Michael Whelan once talk about doing book covers. He said that now he can usually read the whole book (or at least the draft) or work with the author directly. But most artists, especially those just starting out may only get one chapter, one page or even just a short synopsis to base the art on.

i understand that, i guess i just wish someone in the chain was committed enough to notice the error before they make it to publication. Also, you'd think a synopsis of a scene including winged characters would describe the wings in some detail.
On another note, yay, its out, need to go to Barnes tomorrow and pick it up, read the first couple pages online and am hooked already. Now i gotta make room betweeen Last Argument of Kings, The Prefect, The Atrocity Archives, Best Served Cold.
O yeah, Michael Whelan is a genius isnt he, his Dark Tower work for King is wonderful

I just started The Dreaming Void- does it "come together" at some point? Right now I am trying to figure out what is happening and what they're talking about without resorting to reading a synopsis or something.

You mean the scifi part and the 'fantasy' part? Not til the 3rd book. :)

Tamahome wrote: "You mean the scifi part and the 'fantasy' part? Not til the 3rd book. :)"

If you meant meee, I mean just the whole "what's happening?" thing. Ethan? Inigo? dreams? Huh? I am not normally that slow on the uptake.

Edeard's world comes in much later, but yes the other characters do come together. I just remember some great action scenes with 'The Agent' and Araminta getting a boyfriend with a lot of extra hands. :)

ha, well if your clearest memory isn't remaining confused and bewlidered, then I'll persist. Thanks :-)

Got book 3, found i couldnt remember too many details so im starting whole series over, so far moving much faster than i remember, 2100 pages to go whooo hooo....

Normally ye olde fantasye worlds aren't my thing but once I got to the first chapter set in Edeard's world I became a lot more engaged. I'm quite liking it now.

Ok, I'm still reading this- and I'm starting to follow it and enjoy it (about 70% of the way through). It occurred to me today that maybe I have a lot of confusion about things that the book just takes as "givens" because I haven't read any of the other books apparently set in this universe? Is that so or not, what do you think? There is a lot of reference to past history and with people living for thousands of years, it seems like the backstory may be in those other books.

It's actually the 3rd part of a trilogy, and a sequel to 2 other books. :)

duh, I'm reading the 'Dreaming Void', sorry. I did go to the start of the trilogy :-). It's still kind of assuming a lot of prior knowledge. Perhaps.

I actually read Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained after Dreaming Void/Temporal Void, same as you. Pandora's Star starts a little slow, but technically they come first.

ok cool! As long as I'm no more mystified than I ought to be at this stage. ;-)

Pandora/Judas come first, they introduce Hamilton's third universe, where mulitple planets are connected by trains that run through wormholes. There is an evil alien presence in the human universe called the Starflyer and a small dedicated resistance that fights it. The Starflyer is actaully an individual of a species called Primes which usually consist of a central organism called immotile that is a central brain and controls several to thousands of clones of it that move and build and fight. These were encased in a huge force field that encompassed the two star systems the Primes lived in, built by some unkown third party of aliens that wanted to keep the primes confined. The Starflyer caused Humanity to breach the force field which released the Primes and interstellar warfare and wackiness ensues. The Void series is in the same universe a few thousand years later and adds the fantasy elements as well. One of the coolest series in scifi, im about done rereading Void 1 so i can fully appreciate the third.

The chapter that introduces the alien MorningLightMountain in Pandora's Star is really chilling.

I wondered if all that Starflyer "stuff" was from the previous series or if it was going to become clear later on. Thanks.

More from the previous series.

There are some elements to the motiles in the second series, and I expect (read: hope) the third book to delve deeper into that. I haven't started it yet, as I'm finishing off another series first. Can't wait to pick it up though.