The Reality Dysfunction

Night's Dawn Trilogy, Book 1

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 41 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Critic reviews

"Elements of space opera, Straubesque horror and adrenaline-laced action make this a demanding, rewarding read." ( Publishers Weekly)

Slow first half then gets good

It's a usual Peter F Hamilton piece. LOTS of little details and back story that tend to get a little dry between action. But the last quarter was good. I preferred the dreaming void to this one though.

Good but needs work

Any additional comments?

There wasn't enough data provided that you could easily track what was going on, I personally don't like to listen to a book continually wondering what's going on and expecting an answer that never shows up. I like his themes and worlds and other books very much, but this one is often confusing and jumped from scene to scene person to person, with no warning. Probably easier to read and see it change on the page, but I rarely read books.

Epic storytelling

Peter is a true master at building worlds, stories and especisly suspense. His sense of timing seems tailor made for my intuition and deductive reasoning making plot twists dawn in my mind just before they actualy come to pass. This first part of the trillogy is every bit as good as the void trillogy featiring well thought out biotec and surprising spiritualism as as opposed to the magic and high fantasy of the void storyline. Lookong forward to the next two installments.

Intensely vivid and elaborate descriptions of events and actions make for an immersive read. John Lee’s droning nartation style comploments this aspect of the writing extremely well. Though I must say John's narration is at its best when the story is at it's apex and his lack of nuance in intonation is less suitable for introdicing caracters and story arcs. His voice is very pleasant to me and falling asleep listening to the rolling thunder of his overpronounced valves is pleasant.

Great, Long, Read.

Several times I had to put this book down, but not for very long. The story is very interesting yet with the detailed, sometimes too much so, style of writing it’s often a lot of description and very little substance. If you can push through all that it’s a great story and worth the time.

Great audio, long story

John Lee does an excellent job reading. The story is very long and takes time to get exciting but very original and creative!

An English Teacher's best student

I likes the story for the most part BUT the writing/dialogue is soooo verbose and overly done/descriptive to a major fault. I dont need to hear rain described as god's joyful tears serenely descending through the thick green canopy of the deciduous forest during the yellow and pink skylight of autumn's twilight. Its simply toooooo much!!!!!i kind of want to rate it worse.

Simply outstanding!

This is true fantasy and science fiction for the adult adventurer!

I haven't read a storyline like it and narration was superb rounding the complete package,

A fascinating mess

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, with reservations.

Its an odd mess of ideas. Book 1 starts like an Arthur Clarke novel, and turns into a Steven King novel 2/3 of the way through. Book 2 turns into Jose Farmer's "riverworld", and thats as far as I've gotten so far...

All in all it plays much like Jazz. A jumble of discordant ideas that don't really fit together but inspire some fascination in their tension.

Was The Reality Dysfunction worth the listening time?

I commute long houirs. So any long book is worth its time if it can keeop me engaged, which this did.

Highly Entertaining

Highly entertaining . . . . . . . . . . . . - ' " :

So much potential that gets bogged down by details

I struggled to finish this book. Way too many details that kept interfering with the pacing. It also ends in an odd spot. I know it is book 1 but I really don't care enough about what happens to slog through book 2.

The performance was good. The editing needed work. There weren't long enough pauses between the different sections or jumps in points of view. You are 5 sentences into the next section before you realize you aren't in the last point of view. It can be confusing if you aren't paying attention to every detail.