Kevin's Watch

Apologies if this already has its thread, but I looked over the last few pages and couldn't find it, at which point laziness won.

I just finished my second re-read of this trilogy. As a whole, I love it, love the characters, love the epic narrative, love the themes, the races, the technology....but that ending. I don't quite know what to make of it. I mean, I know what happened. I can't decide if I like it or not. I had a very similar thing with the Dark Tower. My eventual conclusion was that the ending, if somewhat disappointing, was appropriate to the story. But then I hear King's writing a new one Any Night's Dawn fans out there, wanna help me decide what to think of the last hundred pages?

Are these the Russian books they made into movies, or is this another trilogy? If it's the Russian I loved the first two movies and am dying for the last to come out...

You're thinking of Night Watch. This one is the space opera trilogy by Peter F Hamilton.

I enjoyed the first book after the early parts where I felt it dragged a bit, and most of the rest was fairly good. I think he lost control of his story a little too much as it went on, though.

Yeah, that's one of my paradoxical opinions about the ending. He lost control of the narrative, all the story threads began to unravel, the problems were too big to face...so he brought in a deus ex machina.

My other paradoxical opinion is that we kinda knew all along that we'd need outside intervention. The whole point was that humanity was too young a race to have their "coming of age" thrust upon them and deal with it the right way. So the ending was really the only possible one that woould have made sense with the author's themes.

I hate the ending. I hate the deus ex.

Spoiler

I hate the flippin' ghost of Al Capone...I mean really.

Otherwise, I loved the series. The void hawks are awesome. WF recommended another series by him as being better, and set in the same universe, but I'd have to fnd the post...think it was when I was rereading book one in the "What sci-fi/fantasy are you reading" thread.

--A

I loved the serie and really appreciated the ending, yes, it was Deus Ex machina, but the title already gave that away. Anyway, since when has Deus Ex machina been a pejorative term?

When it demeans the story, or provides an easy way out for writers who don't have another solution. Not necessarily the case here, but Card's Xenocide is a perfect example.

The deus ex here I can live with. But not

Spoiler

the ghost of Al Capone!

--A

mcnpauls wrote:I loved the serie and really appreciated the ending, yes, it was Deus Ex machina, but the title already gave that away. Anyway, since when has Deus Ex machina been a pejorative term?

Because the main character essentially just tells a god-like entitity to fix the problem. At no point during the books do we get a solution, or hints. It's all up to the entity, and not the hero in any way. It's an easy way out, and I think, a 'cop-out'.

Avatar, I have to agree with your spoilered comment. I hated that character too. In fact, there was not one interesting character in the series.

Now Hamilton's Commonwealth saga was great. Loved the alien menace.

That's a shame, cuz that series is on my list!

Nah, still read it.

Lore, you ever read the Saga of Seven Suns books? Think they might be the sort of thing you like.

--A

Avatar wrote:I hate the ending. I hate the deus ex.

Spoiler

I hate the flippin' ghost of Al Capone...I mean really.

Otherwise, I loved the series. The void hawks are awesome. WF recommended another series by him as being better, and set in the same universe, but I'd have to fnd the post...think it was when I was rereading book one in the "What sci-fi/fantasy are you reading" thread.

--A

I'm not sure if there's another series, but I think there's a collection of short stories in that universe.

I agree, that character was needless to say the least. I did love the hippie dude. Some of the "returned" characters were the most interesting in the whole series. And I share your love of the voidhawks, in fact anything Edenist (it's the socialist in me )

Has anyone read his "void" series? Dreaming Void etc?

Avatar wrote:Nah, still read it.

Lore, you ever read the Saga of Seven Suns books? Think they might be the sort of thing you like.

--A

Phew! BTW, that's the Kevin J Andersen books, right?

Yes, but don't be put off...they're definitely worth it...have read the first 5 so far. If you like involved and complicated stories of epic scope, this is a good one.

--A

Avatar wrote:Nah, still read it.

Lore, you ever read the Saga of Seven Suns books? Think they might be the sort of thing you like.

--A

On your recommendation I will.

Try the first one and see what you think. Reminded me a little of your book in some ways.

--A

Cambo wrote:
Has anyone read his "void" series? Dreaming Void etc?

Listening to it at the moment, at about a third of the first book. It's typical Hamilton so far, lots of world-building, exposition, introduction of characters. Not boring though, there's enough action, intrigue and mystery to keep it all interesting.
There's lots of links and references to the previous Commonwealth books, even some recurring characters.

Listening to this book is actually better for me than reading - I tend to lose focus and skim through pages with extensive descriptions, but now the narration just continues steadily and there's no escape, as it were