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The Neutronium Alchemist: Part I - Consolidation (Neutronium Alchemist) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher: Aspect
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 31700
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 608
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0446605174
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780446605175
ASIN: 0446605174
Publication Date: April 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: spine is creased
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Amazon.com Review
Peter Hamilton's space opera saga, which began with the Reality Dysfunction, Part 1: Emergence and Part 2: Expansion, continues in The Neutronium Alchemist, another two-volume novel. Now the battle lines are clearly drawn, and more than half a dozen plot lines are charging ahead as humanity's galaxy-spanning culture faces a terrifying revelation: souls of the dead are returning from the beyond to possess the living. The living, though competent and brave in the best science fiction tradition, must contend with history's greatest generals and leaders, as well as some unexpected champions. Al Capone, it seems, makes an excellent interstellar emperor. How do you fight an enemy whose every soldier is also a hostage and who, if killed, will simply return to possess someone else? The dilemmas are not just technical, but moral, as people face the first real proof of life after death. This conflict is far broader, though, than a simple apocalyptic battle of good versus evil. Among the possessors are some good souls who fight the risen dead even though it's against their best interest. Conversely, plenty of the living see siding with the dead as an opportunity to further their own interests. Action, wonders, and mystery continue to characterize this high-quality series. --Brooks Peck
Product Description
Humanity is in incredible peril. The minds of those long dead are taking over the bodies of the living, in increasingly alarming numbers. Joshua Calvert is desperately trying to recover a "doomsday weapon", an instrument that might blast the dead back into oblivion--but in the wrong hands, it could mean the end of the human race.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
Action heats up as both sides begin to consolidate their assets November 17, 2007
K. Sozaeva (Athens, GA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Book 2A or 3 (depending on how you want to count the books) begins on the pastoral planet of Norfolk and ends on an asteroid in the Dorados called Ayacucho. I felt this extreme contrast shows how the people of the Confederation's innocence has been stripped away by the discovery of the possessed, life after death in a seemingly endless purgatory - so many ideals stripped down to the bare bones, leaving none of the lovely illusions used to blanket their fears of death.
Several plot lines run through this book: Alkad Mzu finds her way to the Dorados to get the Alchemist ready for her revenge on Omuta. Louise and Genevieve Kavanaugh - with the help of a possessed by the name of Christian Fletcher (yes, THAT Christian Fletcher of the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty) - escape from Norfolk and travel to Mars. Joseph succeeds in bringing Elwes, the children and Kelly Tirrell back to Tranquility and receives a heroes welcome - and more responsibility. Rubra (a habitat personality now - he used to be human but transferred his memories into the matrix and took over when he died) fights against the possessed taking over his habitat, who are using his descendant Dariat to try to gain control of the habitat. Kiera, possessing Marie Skibbow, is the leader in the habitat and decides that they need more people in the habitat, so designs an advertisement, which they send all over the galaxy - it becomes a big hit with the teens, becoming a fad called Deadnight. Al Capone takes over the whole New California system. And more . . .
It is never easy to keep track of all that is going on in a Hamilton book, as he tends to populate them with a lot of people (all with amazing back stories which he manages to work in without overly much exposition) and a lot of intersecting plot lines. This series is further complicated by its overall length. However, the more I read it the more I am engaged by it - the depth of the notion is quite fascinating and I am interested to see where he takes this idea of life after death, death and where the dead go - is there only one level of the beyond? Etc. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a very detailed, intricately plotted sci-fi/space opera with a thought-provoking plot. Just be sure to read it all in order!
 Could not get through it January 10, 2007
Diane Johnson (Mooresville, IN United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a huge fan of hard science fiction, but this book I put down a quarter of the way through and can't make myself pick it up again. If you like pain, gore, and unpleasant images, you may love it. I did not.
Great story, great characters, fun read January 4, 2007
David Dickie (Acton, MA USA)
A weird combination of sci-fi, philosophy, and mysticism... but it works!
 Peter F Hamilton and I Part Ways - Forever August 18, 2006
C. Willms (Saint Paul, MN United States)
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
I was willing to put up with this endless series and its hundreds of characters and the possession by the dead angle because I thought the future depicted in this epic was interesting and rather inspiring. That is until the author decided it was time to throw out the obligatory jab at the country of my birth... Early on in this incoherent continuation of The Reality Dysfunction he writes something to the effect of "He was actually born in the United States of America, a fact that no one wanted to admit then or ever for the matter"
What would possess Hamilton to write such garbage? Was it necessary to the telling of the story? Honestly, I put the book down and will not be finishing it or any other Hamilton work - ever. I don't need that. There are plenty of fine sci-fi authors out there. I'm sorry, it just absolutely turned me off. Call me over sensitive and reactionary, but I couldn't get past it, what's next, is Father Horst going to start buggering the little children in this book - I mean he is Catholic isn't he? We all know the only thing worst than being an American is being Catholic, oh wait, I forgot about Microsoft... And Coca-Cola.
Consolidate This! August 10, 2006
Joe Sherry (Minnesota)
Peter F. Hamilton's hard science fiction trilogy has taken a turn towards the fantastic. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of interstellar travel, amazing scientific advancement that has permitted technology that a 21st Century reader might very well consider magic, but so much is based on science and genetics and technology. Except for one little thing that has come to dominate the series: Possession. On the planet of Lalonde we were first introduced to the concept that some men and women were being "possessed" by some other intelligence, some other human intelligence. Now that we are beginning The Nuetronium Alchemist we have learned who exactly the Possessors are and some of what they want. The entities doing the possessing were human once upon a time. These are the souls of the dead. All of the souls of every human who has lived and died are in some sort of a void, as it has been explained so far, and something has happened that they can take over the bodies of living humans and there are far more dead than there are living people...even in a vastly expanded universe of trillions (or more). The Possessed have taken over two planets, have footholds on several more, and there is currently no known way to stop a group of them.
This is what we know when we begin The Neutronium Alchemist: Consolidation. Consolidation is the paperback first half of The Neutronium Alchemist with Conflict being the second half of the original hardcover publication. The primary focus of this novel (or half-novel as it truly is) is on the Possessed as they consolidate their hold on several planets and the danger they pose to the Universe. Of special note is a Possessed leader taking control on the planet of New California: Al Capone. That's right, the 1920's Crime Lord is one of the returned souls and he wastes no time in setting up a new Empire. His is a special charisma and leadership that is rare and powerful. We also are given perspectives on Louise Kavanagh, the young woman whom Joshua Calvert had a liason with on Norfolk and we see her planet being lost to the Possessed. We also see the responses of the Living and how they hope to combat the Possessed and how they can understand just what is truly happening. In a thick novel with an ever expanding scope of story we are given references back to events that happened a thousand pages ago and some things begin to make more sense. Reasons behind events and behind the scenes events come clear.
A negative to bring up is that the story is so large that some characters and viewpoints do not show up for hundreds of pages at a time. So, readers expecting Joshua Calvert or some of the voidhawks from the first book to jump off the page will have to wait several hundred pages before they show up here. Now, I fully expect they will have more to do in Conflict but it is worth noting. A major plus is that Hamilton has set up a story that is very broad and very interesting. I have no idea where Hamilton is taking this story, but I have fully signed up to go on the ride. He does heavily lace the novel with the "hard" science fiction technologies and terminology, but it does not overwhelm the story. Consolidation is still not as exciting and eye opening as The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence, but this is a story I want to read.
-Joe Sherry
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