Clare L. Deming

I listened to the audiobook version of The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton. I had formerly listened to a lot more audiobooks because my commute was long, but with a job change, I didn’t have to drive nearly as much, so my audiobook listening sort of fell by the wayside. I’m making a focused effort to get back to listening, even when I don’t have huge chunks of time for it now.

I had read the author’s earlier series: Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained (also as audiobooks), and really liked the tale of the Starflyer War. I hadn’t realized that the Void Trilogy was set in the future of the same world.

While The Dreaming Void takes place 1,500 years after the Starflyer War, it isn’t apparent right at the outset. This book jumps forward in time and features different characters (at least at the beginning). The main idea in this book is that there is a mysterious Void which is both a danger and a mystery to civilization. Inigo is a researcher who studies the Void, but in the process begins to dream about people within this alternate universe. His dreams are broadcast across the galaxy, and he develops an almost religious following.

Humans within the Void have telepathic and telekinetic powers, and Inigo’s followers  (The Living Dream movement) have planned a pilgrimage to enter the Void. However, no one knows how to enter the Void, as anyone who has tried, has died in the process. In fact, some attempts to interact with the Void have triggered a devourment phase in which the Void spreads and destroys whatever it touches.

At the outset of the main story, Inigo has hidden himself away from civilization and the pilgrimage awaits the direction of a prophesied and unknown Second Dreamer who will lead his followers safely into the paradise of the Void.

The book follows several main point-of-view characters, and it took me a little while to sort them all out. As the story develops, some characters from the author’s earlier series reappear, having been re-lifed into new bodies.

One of my favorite story threads in this book follows Eddiard, a young man living within the Void, and one of the subjects of Inigo’s dreams. He explores his surprisingly strong telepathic/telekinetic powers, only to have tragedy destroy his home. He is a sympathetic character who still manages to make some poor choices, and his exploration of the world within the Void helps the reader explore it as well.

I have to say that I liked the initial premise in Pandora’s Star better and it made for an easier read at the beginning, compared to these books. Once I realized that Eddiard lived within the Void, I started to understand why the members of Living Dream were launching a pilgrimage, better tying the story together.

It was also a bit difficult to keep the different political agendas straight, but actually one main character doesn’t even know who he works for. His memory has been wiped to allow him to do his job better, and I assume that I’ll discover who is behind his actions later.

I think that it would have helped to have read this right after the Starflyer War books. I would have remembered more of the prior relationships between the characters if the earlier novels were more fresh in my mind. Otherwise, I enjoyed this book and have already started the next one in the series.