The Reading Void

One thing I don't like about reading a good novel is that once you've finished reading it, it's so hard to find the next one to read. I become so absorbed with the world the author has created in my imagination, that it is so difficult to part with it. I want more. But there is no more. I've read [almost] every book from the author, and there is simply no more. It takes effort to open a new book; to forget the familiar worlds and start anew. Such is the effect after I've read The Evolutionary Void, the third and last book of the Void Trilogy. Too many praise have already been said about the book that I feel inept. As such I have nothing more to add. Don't believe me? Try reading the reader comments. It is simply a grand space opera, a masterpiece of world-building and story-telling in the traditional Hamilton style.

The worse part is I knew this was coming. Every time I read a Peter F. Hamilton novel, I am met with this frustration at the end. It is a good frustration, but a frustration nonetheless. I would scour the bookstores for the next best thing, and nothing will satisfy. Sad and quite unfair for the next book I read, I assure you.

I need another cake, and I want it to be like the one I just finished. Please?

I wanted to start the Heechee Saga, but I can't find my copy of Gateway. (Damn, where did I put it!) I wanted to try Neal Asher's Polity novels or Iain Bank's Culture series, but I don't have any of the books yet. For now, I return to a work of another distinguished (but unfortunately not as consistently good) scifi writer - Dan Simmons, with his collection of short stories, Worlds Enough and Time.

Kudos to Mr. Hamilton for another well-written novel! I'm sure it will be a bestseller and a classic. I look forward to his next works. I'm hoping there will be a short story collection about the Commonwealth, much like The Confederation Handbook and A Second Chance at Eden for the Night's Dawn trilogy.

^_^)