Reviewers exhaust superlatives when it comes to the science fiction of
Peter F. Hamilton. His complex and engaging novels, which span thousands
of years-and light-years-are as intellectually stimulating as they are
emotionally fulfilling. Now, with The Dreaming Void, the first volume
in a trilogy set in the same far-future as his acclaimed Commonwealth
saga, Hamilton has created another ambitious and gripping space epic.
The year is 3589, fifteen hundred years after Commonwealth forces barely
staved off human extinction in a war against the alien Prime. Now an
even greater danger has surfaced: a threat to the existence of the
universe itself.
At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained
microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot
be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming
everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has
existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most
technologically advanced of the galaxy's sentient races, the Raiel, do
not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.
But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of
human beings who live within it. Inigo's dreams reveal a world in which
thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void,
Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement
wired into most humans, Inigo's dreams are shared by hundreds of
millions-and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its
prophet. But then he vanishes.
Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown
Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into
the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void,
the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated
devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds.
And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second
Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its
progress-while within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze,
for the first time, outward. . . .
