• click here to return to the homepage •
Home > Categories > Books > Sci-Fi > Fallen Dragon review
As a child, Lawrence Newton wanted nothing more than to fly starships and explore the galaxy. But, on the colony world of Amethi in the twenty-fourth century, Lawrence is living in the wrong era, for the age of human starflight is drawing to a close. So, like many another teenage rebel, he runs away.
Twenty years later, he's the sergeant of a washed out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion of another world. The giant corporations owning the remaining starships cynically call such campaigns 'asset realisation'. In practice it's simple piracy.
While he's being shot at and firebombed by disturbingly effective resistance forces, Lawrence hears stories of the Temple of the Fallen Dragon - the holy place of a sect which worships a mythical creature supposed to have fallen from the sky millenia before the first humans arrived. It's priests are said to guard a hoard of treasure large enough to buy lifelong happiness - which information prompts Lawrence to mount a small private-enterprise operation of his own...
In Fallen Dragon, Peter F Hamilton once again brings to bear the universe-encompassing imagination, dazzling technological invention and sheer story-telling mastery that has made his previous novels into international bestsellers.
A Fury of Aces 1 - Burnt Ice
Write - a 30-day guide to creative writing
Kaiseki: The Exquisite Cuisine of Kyoto's Kikunoi Restaurant
The Decisive Moment
I Can Make You Happy
Captain America - The Movie Storybook
Second World War - Stories for Boys
Wolves of the Beyond - Spirit Wolf
A Necklace of Souls
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs the Naughty Nightcrawlers from Neptune (#8)
The Great Kiwi 1 2 3 Book
Spotty the Zebra
Zephyr Follows The StarsProduct reviews...
Review by: tucker (Karl)
Dated: 19th of October, 2003
This book is a real twister... the blurb on the back cover is NOT mentioned in the story at all (Lawrence hearing rumours of a Temple... not true! He SAW IT on a previous mission!) so I guess whoever wrote the blurb took a bit of 'artistic licence' in that respect. The book is slow to start, jumps all over the place (so it's difficult to tell which passages refer to his first mission to Thallspring, and which to his second mission, and generally doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense until about 75% of the way through the book. At 800+ pages, that's a long way to read before it all starts to tie together. I can see many semi-buffs giving up before the good bits start!
BUT... when the story DOES start to fall into place and all the characters have their secrets revealed, the book makes a stunning and not entirely predictable ending. Sometimes fairy tales ARE real.
Overall, a good book for the price - there's certainly plenty of body to it. If you have read any other of Peter's books (and I highly recommend them, a lot easier to get to grips with, especially his Night's Dawn trilogy and companion books) you will find this book very easy to immerse yourself in... re-readability is low because of the drawn-out nature of it... it's another Long Cold Night Alone type book.
I had a number of embarassing situations where I got so lost in the book (in the final chapters) where people had to nudge me to see if I was OK. Don't order takeaways and sit there reading this book if you are near the end... the staff don't like having to yell at you from 3 feet away to break through to you. :)
Random listing from 'Books'...
The dazzling sequel to Odinn's Child and Swornbroter - here is the triumphant conclusion to this epic Viking adventure.
Constantinople, 1035: Thorgils has become a member of the Varagian lifeguard and witnesses the glories of the richest city on earth but also the murderous ways of the imperial family. Under the leader of warrior chief Harald Sigurdsson, he is set up as the unwitting bait in a deadly abush to destroy Arab pirates ... more...
All trademarks, images and copyrights on this site are owned by their respective companies.
KIWIreviews is an independent entity, part of the Knock Out News Group. This is a free public forum presenting user opinions on selected products, and as such the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of kiwireviews.nz and are protected under New Zealand law by the "Honest Opinion" clause of the Defamation Act of 1992. KIWIreviews accepts no liability for statements made on this site, on the premise that they have been submitted as the true and honest opinions of the individual posters. In most cases, prices and dates stated are approximate and should be considered as only guidelines.
"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."
Benjamin Disraeli
