Or the ‘Slow Painful Death of Reality’…
There’s a brilliant tale somewhere in ‘The City at the End of Time’, it’s a book full of pregnant thoughts and weighty expectations but in the end I admit I was left just as unfulfilled as I did when launching into this difficult piece of prose. By splitting his story between so many characters the author, Greg Bear, risked spreading his story too thin but in fact it’s perhaps the characters themselves that let the grander tale down.
This is it, this is the grand finale to one of the longest trilogies I’ve ever embarked on, a grand space opera that aims to both epic in scale and incredibly personal at the same time. It’s a laudable aim and this book probably comes closest to achieving Peter F. Hamilton’s goal. The scale of this adventure increases once again, branching out into other constellations and star systems and even other universes but at the same time focus shifts from these cosmic matters and onto the individual choices and actions of our protagonists.
‘The Neutronium Alchemist’ demonstrates many things; drama, action, wit, intelligence but most of all it boasts staying power. I read and enjoyed ‘The Reality Dysfunction’ although I commented on how bloated it felt; incorporating many plot threads that went nowhere or weren’t developed upon. It’s a description I stand by, the first book in this trilogy could have been a much tighter more condense read, however those extra chapters weren’t just fat. Slowly but surely Peter F. Hamilton has been placing all the pieces on the board for an enormous free for all which ‘The Neutronium Alchemist’ boasts freely.
Be warned: ‘The Reality Dysfunction’ is a long book. Over 1225 pages, and even then it provides only the first chapter of a truly epic story that spans multiple solar systems, species and planes of existence. If I had to sum up Peter Hamilton’s achievements here in one word I would simply use ‘epic’.
Sadly the Longest Journey, released over a decade ago in 1999, is an old game now. The Developer Funcom has moved on to larger action adventure titles and large MMORPGs but in many ways ‘The Longest Journey’ is still as relevant now as it was when released. Sure it looks dated, with Playstation 1 level graphics, and despite a talented vocal group the dialogue is stilted compared with some of the more dramatic modern games released today, but there’s no denying this is an adventure with a heart and soul eager to be unleashed.