The Temporal Void

I disagree with the other reviewers on here that are criticising the narrator, after 30 minutes he finds his feet and then proceeds to deliver hour after hour of very good storytelling. He doesn't attempt to be a voice-actor like the reader of the previous book did and I think that's why he's getting some grief but after the initial thirty minutes he definitely picks up in quality and delivers a good performance. The story itself is obviously very fascinating and I need a story of this length to make my commute bearable. I'd recommend it.

Superb sequel to what is turning out to be one of the best space operas I've read. It's long but engaging with no slack or padding. John Lee's narration is great and up to the same quality as his narration of the Alastair Reynolds books. He isn't Toby Longworth but still very capable.

Now the wait until 'The Evolutionary Void' comes out!

John Lee has actually narrated the first book in the series, though not available here. Fantastic book and narration, cannot wait for part 3

This book matches the quality and pace of the first, focusing mainly on the story of Edeard the Waterwalker, with much briefer spells outside the Void than in the first book.

It is a very enjoyable listen and please do not be put off by criticism of the narration. John Lee is excellent, and although admittedly not quite up to the same standard as Toby Longworth, the suggestion that his sterling efforts 'spoil' the listening experience are, I believe, unfounded.

I look forward to the third installment - The Evolutionary Void, scheduled for release in September 2010, although when the audio edition will become available online is anyone?s guess!

Just finished listening to The Temporal Void, I too was very disappointed with the choice of narrator, not a patch on Toby Longworth in The Dreaming Void the first part of what I hope will be a trilogy. Hamilton's style is truly engaging, the juxtaposition of science over a thousand years in the future, and a the interleaving saga of a world where telekinesis replaces advanced technology; giving the flavour of a 'magic saga' such as Trudi Canavan conjures up in her Black Magician trilogy.

The book is pretty awesome, Peter Hamilton on top form, however if you have listened to Toby Longworth read the Dreaming Void I would not recommend the Temporal Void. It has somewhat ruined it for me. He only does three voices, he miss pronounces names and brings no life to the book. I would have given only one Star but Peter Hamilton is amazing, and luckily the text is phenomenal so it only takes a little will power to get over the awful Narration of John Lee.

I was a big fan of Judas Unchained & Pandora's Star but if I heard another 30 page description of a new world/city that killed the speed of the book or the words "enzyme bonded concrete" I was going to throw myself under the train.



I expected more of the same with this sequel but I was pleasantly surprised. The pace of the book is great, the descriptions are brief, and hardly any signs of enzyme bonded concrete. The story is really engrossing and I found myself enjoying the dreams more than the reality.



You can read this standalone but I would recommend reading Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained first, as there is very little explanation about certain elements of history/technology that was explained at length in the first books and many of the original characters re-appear in this sequel with some in-jokes you would miss.

I loved Pandora's star. I still rate it amongst the best book's I've ever read, but I didn't like Judas Unchained. It didn't engage me much. I was a bit concerned the same things would happen here. I loved the Dreaming Void, and the characters and progression they (and The Commonwealth) had made in the intervening centuries. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint.

The narrator of this book is John Lee, a favourite of mine - albeit from non-fiction books - and he comes in for some unfair criticism in other reviews. Although he gets off to a slightly shaky start, it quickly gets much better, and I actually preferred his style to the one adopted by Toby Longworth, who tried to give voices to every character in The Dreaming Void and ended up with some rather dubious accents. The only criticism I have is the inconsistent pronunciation of names. One of the central characters and a key location are named differently in the books, which I found irritating.

Think Robert Jordan's Wheel of time meets Iain M Banks culture sci fi. The scope of the story is phenomenal. There are many plots cleverly interwoven and the author brings them together brilliantly at the correct times throughout this epic. The characters all have depth and meaning even the "villians" of the piece. With Hamilton you get incredible action pieces but also lots of space opera stuff aswell as plots and characters are developed. As in previous works religion and spirituality feature heavily. Truly awesome but may take a few hours to get into. Well worth a purchase

Like it's predecessor this is an excellent book. The narration left me horrified at first. The new narrator had chosen different voices to do the characters with - it took quite a while to get used to it but it was OK in the end. Nothing to do with the skill of the narrator, just the change to characters (when did *he* turn Scottish???) who had become like friends.
I hope they keep him for the final book 'The Evolutionary Void' so I don't have to go through the trauma again.
:-)