What an epic and it's only pt1

What made the experience of listening to The Dreaming Void the most enjoyable?

Starts off with lots of individual stories to introduce characters, and there are quite na few significant characters to remember, then towards the end they start to collide together as the pace hots up. Brilliant plot and characters, plus thought provoking technology. Then it ends, AARGH where is part 2, no wifi, have to wait till I get home.

Toby Longworth's narration is one of the best, very clear, great timbre. Great range of accents that match the characters well. Unfortunately this is not carried through to pt2 & 3 as John Lee takes over. JL is quite good, but it is a bit of a shock when Oscar changes from a deep rich Afro-Caribbean accent to a fairly normal English accent.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Arraminta for taking responsibility for her life and getting on with it with a gusto. Adeard, all that power and stays reasonably uncorrupted and Mr Bovy, life as a multiple, that's different.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This is not a comedy, but there are a few laughs, not all are obvious.

Any additional comments?

Anybody else notice the couple of nods to HGTTG?

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1 person found this helpful

engaging and exciting

i found the book fantastic. its not often i listen to an audio book other than in the car but i had this on at every oppertunity. a real sci fi treat.

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A superb new chapter in the Commonwealth series

Having read these books before and now reading then in audio form they are just as enjoyable and thrilling experience as before.

The narration was mostly good and If I have any gripes it is the character voices of Paula Mayo and Oscar. For some reason the reader has contrived to make Paula sound like a demented darlek. If he had understood the character he would never have given her that voice. I found the experience so jarring I have given him two stars for his performance.

Great moments: Arrons action scenes and the Hawking D Sink. The seamless immersion of 1000 years plus of tech from the first books. And of course the Water walker scene

Great and wonderful work from Peter Hamilton
There really should be a Netflix series on this!

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Best part of the trilogy

This trilogy gets off to a solid start, though if I had known how it was going to deteriorate I wouldn't have bothered. It has some excellent ideas and is at times fascinating to listen to, but later on it degenerates into a teenage quality romp and by the third book I stopped believing in the overall plot. To make it worse the excellent Toby Longworth is replaced by the horrible messianic voice of John Lee.

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I love being back in this universe!

After reading the Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) I was itching to get back to the universe and characters I'd gotten to know so well! So, whilst The Dreaming Void is the first book in a different series set a good 1000+ years later, it was great to see some of the same characters still play a part.

Once again the writing is phenomenal, and as with the end of Pandora's Star, you are left in the middle of the action waiting for the next book.

There are only two negatives in my opinion:
1. The book is narrated by somebody different (although I believe the rest of the series continues with the original narrator from the Commonwealth Saga). The narration overall is good, but the voices he chooses for some of the original characters are so different and quite frankly sound pretty stupid. It's very off-putting and did ruin my enjoyment a little.
2. With the story being set over 1000 years later, there is of course advancements in technology and society has evolved and changed. Hamiltons writing is very detailed, and I just found that there were so many new futuristic concepts to keep up with that weren't all explained until further into the book, that I found it hard to stick with and get my head around at first.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend reading or listening to this book, especially if you were a fan of the Commonwealth Saga. Hats off to Hamilton once again!

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Most annoying author ever but a good yarn.

Having listened to the first trilogy I decided to start on the next trilogy because whilst it was overlong it was a good yarn. This story starts a long time in the future and most of the story is taken up by setting the scene, explaining new technologies and sex, a lot of sex and then some more sex! The author is incredibly annoying. Why? Because he does just enough to keep you interested and then occasionally he will wallop you with a great bit of writing. It’s like an addiction, you get a hit and then you crave more and just when you are about to give up... BAM!
Enjoyed the performance, some of the accents are a little dodgy but full marks for effort. I have a feeling the next set of books will keep me on a devourment phase (see book) and it will really take off.

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Great Rollicking Sci-fi Story!

I really enjoyed this tale, which features many subplots. There's a satisfying variety to the different strands running through the work. When the story finished, there was only one thing on my mind. Must buy the next book!

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Great book but not concluded

I really enjoyed this book. Well written and space opera at its best. Be warned the story doesn't conclude in this book. Twenty one hours in and your left at a cliff hanger. Now audible needs the next one!!

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Loved the book. For me disappointing narration

After listening to (and loving) Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained I was looking forward to the story continuing.

I haven't been disappointed at all by the story but I was very disappointed by Toby Longworth's narration. That's actually slightly unfair, I enjoyed his narration of the story but not of the characters. It doesn't help that the I'd just spent nearly 80 hours listening to John Lee voice many of the same characters however I found Longworth's style to be more fitting to fantasy rather than Sci Fi. I found his portrayal of the male characters to either make them seem overly camp, overly dumb or overly grandiose. The female characters were ok but not to my tastes.

I was very pleased to see that Lee returns to voice the following two books. I do not regret buying this book however I would have definitely preferred the same narrator throughout the whole series.

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So far so good

This book is good with an engaging story. Trademark complexity, multiple characters with fully detailed back stories make up this interesting listen. Good character acting by Longworth, some highly suspect accents don't detract from the listen, if anything they add to the experience. Don't buy if you are not prepared to buy the whole series though. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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