New Space Opera Trilogy Might Be Worth the Trek
Posted on: Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 09:00 CDT
Space operas return to bookshelves as Peter F. Hamilton takes readers into "The Dreaming Void" (Del Rey; $27), the first book of a new trilogy (though it looks back to "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained").
There is nothing much older in the universe than the Void. Neither is there anything more all-consuming. Inigo is receiving dreams from people within the Void, and the visions look like paradise. Furthermore, whatever dreams Inigo intercepts are shared with millions of humans on this side of the Void; all are wired together by a neural net called the gaiafield.
Through this common experience a new religion is born. Then Inigo vanishes within the Void, and a Second Dreamer takes his place, sending forth images that rally believers to undertake a pilgrimage to the other side.
Hamilton knows how to take us on an adventure: He creates races, conflicts and novel terminology. But made-up jargon doesn't cover up the basics of a trek across a desert, for instance. Scenes from "Star Wars" come to mind, and the pilgrimage is reminiscent of a "Star Trek" trope. So the transplanting to galactic locales is transparent.
For all that, "The Dreaming Void" is a decent entertainment. It's up to the reader to decide to spend time with another trilogy.
CLARKE MEETS AUEL?
Eons ago, it was Geerna's time to become a woman, to go to the Awakening Place and await Womanhood. And she was assumed into the light.
She was taken to "Elom" (Tor; $25.95), a planet that writer (and former Alabama legislator) William H. Drinkard places near the center of the galaxy. Generations later, the People on Elom still live by Geerna's covenant with the goddess Shetow. But Shetow once found an Earth race unworthy of existence. Now it is time for this race to prove itself.
Most of this novel reads like the seed of an Arthur C. Clarke idea: an infinitely superior race guiding a primitive one, with a lot of Jean Auel thrown in. The sci-fi denouement follows formula, but Drinkard's debut is thought-provoking.
SPACE CAPSULES
"The New Weird," edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (Tachyon; $14.95): When I reviewed China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station," I called that brutal horror story steampunk for its surreal Victorian setting. Turns out that novel made accessible the "New Weird," a blended genre celebrated in this anthology by authors M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, Mieville and more.
"Keeper of Dreams," by Orson Scott Card (Tor; $27.95): The author of "Ender's Game" fame enjoys writing short stories, and it shows in this 22-tale collection, with commentaries that show his thought processes.
Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)
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