The Reality Dysfunction

I really enjoyed this(these) book(s), not because of the topic of the series (The Dead Have Returned!), but because of the handling of technology. It is probably some of the most realistic and probabilistic hi-tech I have ever read.

Mr. Hamilton manages to integrate his tech into the story without it being obvious and without it being an aside to the reader to explain. There is no "Blah blah (then a description)", the description of the tech occurs naturally with the storyline and action. (did that make any sense?)

He covers all annoyances I've found in Space Opera stories, such as:

• Orbital bombardment of a planet
  Long rods composed of a dense metal that are just flung down from orbit at around Mach 50. Nice damage, no radiation.
• Ship to ship combat
  Mostly computerized drones traveling at high speeds (Mach 24) that the entire combat takes place within a 3ms timeframe. All course adjustments and counter-adjustments have to be within that window. Sweet. Combat Wasp quality is based on programming.
• Ship defenses
  Basically particles thrown out in a shell at (again) high speeds (1% C).
• Nanotech
  Head based subprocessors. Very nicely done. Made a lot of sense.

Needless to say, I could go on. But it's an excellent book, even if you just consider the tech inside.

First installment in Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. Opens up with, let's see: sentient starships, telepathic humans, a galaxy-wide civilization, 2 alien races, oh yes, I forgot to mention the sentient starships actually mate and make little starships.
This book offers more sense of wonder than you can shake a stick at. It sets up the story for the following two volumes, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God and introduces the reader to some of the main characters, especially the wonderful Joshua "Lagrange" Calvert.
If you enjoy science fiction, I cannot urge you enough to run, not walk, to the nearest purveyor of books, and READ IT.

I am currently reading the entire Night's Dawn trilogy (actually 6 books, each in 2 parts) and I agree with the sentiments of all the other posters. The books are a lot of fun, and the technology is really very innovative and interesting. Two things about the series have annoyed me a bit however.

First, there is a gratuitous amount of sex. I'm by no means a prude and I don't mind sex scenes in novels, but in the first two books of the series it is non-stop, and in my mind detracts from the continuity of the story.

Second, these books are not a trilogy. They are one, very long (3700 page) novel. The individual books do not represent any sort of isolated story, if they ended a chapter earlier, or later, it wouldn't make any difference. You basically have to read the whole series. It reminds me a lot of a cliff hanger television show.