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The Reality Dysfunction

Night's Dawn Trilogy, Book 1

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The Reality Dysfunction

Written by: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
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In AD 2600, the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems, and throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp.

But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet, a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all our fears. An extinct race that inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it the Reality Dysfunction. It is the nightmare that has prowled beside us since the beginning of history.

©1996 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2016 Tantor Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Hard Science Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Interstellar Solar System
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What the critics say

"Elements of space opera, Straubesque horror and adrenaline-laced action make this a demanding, rewarding read." ( Publishers Weekly)
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I'm listening to this story, recalling the first time I experienced it decades ago when I read the book. It's every but as good a story as I recalled, but the story production needs tweaking.

This outfit doesn't do any pause, transition sounds or even a change in inflection of the narrator between scene/story changes. If you're not paying close attention, you could completely miss storyline POV jumps, which can be very disorienting. This really should be addressed for future releases.

Story is good, but production needs work

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This is a space zombie story, I'm not going to bother with the sequel. When did space zombies become a thing? Not interesting to me at all.

Twice as long as it needs to be.

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Keep in mind when starting this book that you will have to keep listening through the whole trilogy. Each new book doesn’t waste time catching people up that jumped in part way, so you’re best off listening to all three in a row.

If you like more hard sci fi, like long books, and like multiple plot lines... this is for you.

If you want a light read that has a story line that wraps itself up in the first book... this isn’t for you.

#Audible1

Long

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Very fun start to a massive space opera. Life and death, space and habitats, cultures and religions.

The hitch was the voice actor reading doing funny accents for the black characters, Scottish accents for English descendents etc.

Great story, racist voice actor

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The story itself is absolutely phenomenal, lots of complex, really well told stories that end up winding into each other at some points, and you can really feel for the characters.
On the other hand, the performance by John Lee is average at best, and sometimes makes it hard to follow. There's no breaks where there should be, and I've found myself rewinding multiple times because I didn't realize that the story head switched from one story arc to another. Overall, I will still listen to the last 2 books narrated by him.

Fantastic story, average performance

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