Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton

Ever had an unreality moment? I have – last week when my office phone’s display told me that Peter Hamilton was calling. Unsurprisingly, it was not *the* Peter (F.) Hamilton, but strangely the Rutland-born author’s namesake had not even heard of him. I will be sending a copy of this review to “our” Mr. Hamilton so that he can have his horizons suitably broadened.

In the twenty-fourth century, fiscal realities ...
...system. The high transport costs involved in interstellar travel rule out export from the brave new worlds of all but the most profitable (and lightweight) goods; colonies must establish their manufacturing bases quickly or face ruin by the cost of imports from Earth. Unsurprisingly, new colonies are no longer being founded; instead the major corporations are snapping up the financial ruins and sending in the bailiffs on Asset Realisation missions.
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Ever had an unreality moment? I have – last week when my office phone’s display told me that Peter Hamilton was calling. Unsurprisingly, it was not *the* Peter (F.) Hamilton, but strangely the Rutland-born author’s namesake had not even heard of him. I will be sending a copy of this review to “our” Mr. Hamilton so that he can have his horizons suitably broadened.

In the twenty-fourth century, fiscal realities are grinding down Man’s drive to expand beyond the Sol system. The high transport costs involved in interstellar travel rule out export from the brave new worlds of all but the most profitable (and lightweight) goods; colonies must establish their manufacturing bases quickly or face ruin by the cost of imports from Earth. Unsurprisingly, new colonies are no longer being founded; instead the major corporations are snapping up the financial ruins and sending in the bailiffs on Asset Realisation missions.

Lawrence Newton is a sergeant in the Strategic Security Division of Zantiu-Braun, the largest and most active of the modern-day pirates. “Fallen Dragon” follows the current mission to the planet of Thallspring twenty-three light years distant from Earth, interweaving the viewpoint of the man with events beginning from twenty years previously when Newton was a sullen teenager on Amethi, dangerously close to dropping out of life. It is not his first visit to the colony though, and he plans to do more than just drop in on some old haunts…

Denise Ebourn is an agent in Thallspring’s resistance movement and works by day as an unconventional, but highly popular, nursery school teacher. Her tales of the Ring Empire are lapped up by her charges, even if the headmistress would prefer her to read from the classics such as Tolkein or Pratchett. Without doubt, she is highly organised – the fact that Z-B’s mission commander is rattled is evidence of that – so what exactly is it that worries her so deeply?

“Fallen Dragon” will please Hamilton’s existing fans and win him new admirers. The book has the solid feel of another thousand-pager but in fact is “only” 634 pages. While it is not as complex as the “Night’s Dawn” trilogy (and some may breathe a sigh of relief at that), it does have more narrative ambition than the Greg Mandel series. Like all of his work though, it is utterly gripping and completely plausible. The technology is as impressive as ever; take Z-B’s advanced exoskeleton known as Skin, the ubiquity of Artificial Sentience, new ideas on FTL (faster-than-light) travel and of course, the incredible work on Santa Chico. Santa Chico? If I told you that the colonists of that particular world originated from Silicon Valley, and asked you to let your imagination run riot, I wonder if you’d come up with the same vision that Hamilton has? There’s only one way to find out… 

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