Reviews

The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton

andreacpowers's review against another edition

3.0

Zombies in space! This is ridiculous but I'm still reading. One more to go.

warriorlotdk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

journeyb4destination's review against another edition

5.0

First off, this series is truly a space opera. If you look at the reviews from people who didn't like this book, they all complain about this fact. There are tons of characters, settings, and plot lines. It's a lot to keep track of. You either enjoying reading science fiction this deep or you don't. Personally, I love it.

This book is the second in the series, and, as such, was much easier to get into than the first just because you understand Hamilton's world and terminology now. Naturally, some plot lines you'll enjoy more than others, but I never felt like the book was slow or that the overarching story wasn't moving forward. The end of the book added some very nice twists and turns and surprising elements. I can't wait to see what the outcome is in book 3.

jankyalias's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Just a truly great sci-fi epic.

cassie_b's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

mcr314's review against another edition

4.0

A good middle book, wraps up a good middle part of the past-history of this civilization, and provides some deeper motivation to all of the characters.

qjbrown96's review against another edition

4.0

This one took me a while to get through. The first half was incredible. You get horror, sci-fi, and historical fiction all in one while exploring more of the characters besides Joshua. There are a couple historical figures in this book that are a blast to read.

The second half is when it takes a bit of a turn for me. It becomes serious hardcore sci-fi which is not a topic that I understand very well. I still don’t really understand the ending but oh well, this book still rocks and I’m sure I’ll understand everything better on a reread as I will most certainly read this again one day.

malenfant's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

infinitebatmans's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

In the plot department I would say I preferred the first book, even if only fractionally. However this book had maybe 1/3 the gross male fantasy sexual content, which is still way too much, but gets in the way far less than it did in the first book. That said, because of this novel I will never be able to clean my mind of the thought of

ghost Al Capone’s Lightning “wang“

and for that it is truly cursed.

noranne's review against another edition

3.0

This book is SO LONG. Way longer than it needs to be. I enjoy the wide range of characters, but several of them we follow periodically throughout the book just to "check in" even though very little is happening. Also, for the most part, I did not enjoy the villain POVs. Their only function seems to be 1) to engender disgust and 2) reveal trouble for the protagonists before it happens. This is an effective technique for building tension, but it felt really overdone here.

Anyway, all that said, I do still find the overall story interesting and the galaxy-building is well done. Just wish I didn't have to wade through so much for the compelling stuff.