I’m reading the book now but the author’s obsession with teenage girls and lame ass sex writing is killing it for me. Does it remain this bad throughout the book? It’s even worse than I remember Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained being.
Can anyone recommend some other similar books for me without this issue, maybe a bit more off the beaten track? I’m familiar with Alastair Reynolds, Ian M Banks, the Expanse series, etc.
Posted Mar 13, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC
Hear hear, unfortunately it's a recurring theme with this author imo.
Yeah, PF Hamilton is one of my favorite authors, but I'm not about to defend him on this.
Not all of his books are that bad though. Fallen Dragon had a really interesting sexual relationship based on the personality of the characters, not on their age or attractiveness. I don't remember any sex in Salvation but I've only read it once.
You should also post on r/suggestmeabook, OP! I've been thinking about asking for more space opera recs too.
I remember Fallen Dragon being quite bad on that front. YMMV I guess.
@OP, how about; We are legion (we are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor, or Time's eye - Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter, or Children of time - Adrian Tchaikovsky?
I have children of time on ebook and it’s pretty good so far!
It's worst in RD, the latter two of the trilogy have a lot less but what's there is still pretty bad haha
Martha Wells’ “Murderbot Diaries”, or Becky Chambers’ “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”.
yeah all his books have skeezy teen sex stuff, its pretty irredeemable tbh.
when you say similar do you mean specifically Cinematic New Space Opera? thats definitely the genre the author group you mention. along those lines you could check out Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time; Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire; Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice; Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness in The Sky; and possibly also Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit.
All of those are big, shiny, modern, action-packed galaxy-building space operas that you can read without having to be consciously aware of a pale sweaty old man typing teen sex at the keyboard behind the page.
You recommend a couple new ones I’m not familiar with there; I’ll give them a shot!
confirming these recommendations. Fire upon the deep/deepness in the sky are particularly good; I'll throw in Vinge's "Marooned in Realtime", which is much shorter but still fantastic.
Those are two of my favorites!
The Night Dawn's Trilogy is great. I can't believe people nope out on great reads for reasons like this. So sensitive.
I have read the whole trilogy and it was some of my first SF, the story is excellent but the sex is awfully written and serves no real purpose.
Agreed. I read the whole trilogy last year and I honestly felt sick reading some of the sex stuff, he sounds so creepy when he describes anything to do with Jezebel or the daughter who gets possessed. Or, now that I think about it, the joshua/Ione/young daughter of the booze merchant.
It's a shame because the world building is outstanding and the overall story and ending were absolutely incredible. It's worth pushing past the sex stuff.
The sex with the possessed characters makes some sense as it conveys the full horror of what they are like. It was the sex scenes with Joshua which got to me!
It’s just bad writing.
The whole book or just the sex?
For me it was more the >!ghost of Al Capone showing up!<
even holding ones nose they are mid at best, the worst of hamiltons writing. and the sex writing is so cringe people routinely make posts about how they cant make it through. thats a pretty terrible definition of “great read”.
I like Hamilton a lot, but the way he writes women is so bad there are point where it is hard to want to keep reading. Especially in the Night's Dawn - it feels like every single female character's arc is about getting pregnant with Joshua's baby
It's a weird fetish, I'll grant that.
Nobody mention Bio of a Space Tyrant
I honestly had to put it down too. Pure cringe fest
Apparently his later writing improves somewhat but I’m hesitant to give him another chance.
You might try the Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons.
Re-reading the series atm. First book is full of it, but there is much less in the second book.
it's only sex. i think it's fun to read.
Sex is fun, his writing about it is not.
Others may chime in with recommendations, but no, Reality Dysfunction and the rest of the series do not get better. Worse, arguably. If you can’t stomach it now, save yourself the pain and read the wiki entries, because you’ll end up hate reading most of it, then being totally let down by the ending. My 2c.
This is the info I was looking for, thank you.
OMG I'd forgotten how monumentally bad the ending was. Even worse than Battlestar Galactica.