Harry's Blog

I've almost reached the end of Peter F. Hamilton's The Dreaming Void, his latest epic science-fiction novel. And while it's not as good as The Reality Dysfunction or Pandora's Star - it's a pretty good read.

But one thing bugs me about Hamilton's work. His strange sexual fixations. His view of the future has people engaged in all manner of pretty weird shenanigans. Take for example the character of Mr Bovey. He has one personality but around 30 different bodies controlled by it - so you can imagine what kind of filth he can get up to when he takes the character Araminta to bed.

This kind of thing is a constant theme in Hamilton's work and does detract from it slightly. I'm no prude, I'm happy to read as much sex as an author can throw at me. But Hamilton's constant need to have young nymphette heroines is bordering on the rather sad.

I suppose we should be grateful the characters in his latest book are a little older than his usual female heroes. The exploits of Ioni Saldana and Louis Kavanagh in the Night's Dawn Trilogy were rather cringe worthy.