Free A Second Chance At Eden Ebooks To Download
Acclaimed best-selling author Peter F. Hamilton has taken the science fiction world by storm with his stunning, grand-scale epic: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. Now, with this collection of six stories and a short novel, Hamilton spans more than five centuries in the future history of bitek, affinity genes, Edenists, Adamists, xenocs, the Saldanas, and the starship Lady Macbeth. This outstanding anthology includes "Escape Route", which has been chosen for Gardner Dozois' prestigious collection The Year's Best Science Fiction.
Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 14 hours and 48 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Audible.com Release Date: February 9, 2016
Language: English
ASIN: B01B8LFKM2
Best Sellers Rank: #12 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Science Fiction > Anthologies & Short Stories #68 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Anthologies #790 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera
Just what the Night's Dawn trilogy needed: A set of short stories in chronological order that lay out the future history of his universe up until Volume I begins. For those intending to read the Night's Dawn books, I would actually recommend reading this first, as it introduces each of the major technologies and political entities prevalent in the trilogy one by one, while at the same time exploring their darker side and giving you some historical insight for the events of the trilogy. And don't worry: the major thread of Night's Dawn is a completely new storyline so this volume will ruin nothing.Hamilton is a brillant, versatile, sexy writer who knows how to control information and how to throw action and intrigue together in the right mixture.
After reading Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God) I found myself WANTING to learn more about the universe that he had so wonderfully created.I found this little book full of short stories set in the same universe as that series and was totally impressed. There are hints to the stories in A 2nd Chance at Eden in The Naked God (When Calvert tells Ione that his dad had once traveled through time and she didn't believe him, for example.)There is also a VERY valuable and fascinating story of Edenism which paints its esteemed leader in a much different light than most would think after reading the entire Night's Dawn series.So, check it out, and enjoy!
You know, I'll leave the reviewing of the stories themselves contained in this book to others, but just want to add that in the ebook version the punctuation is awful. Seriously.It seems as though the OCR software the publisher used to convert this book over to Kindle format didn't pick up very much punctuation. The number of periods missed in the first short story alone boggles the mind. It's depressing to see a publisher care so little about their customers (and their authors!) that they would foist something this horrible onto them. Soon though, publishers will join the buggy-whip manufacturers in the dead-pool of obsolete jobs and after attempting to read this book on the Kindle, that can't happen too soon.Beware the ebook version! It will make you cringe.
I'm so pleased that I came across this book. Quite by accident, I've been introduced to Peter F. Hamilton's work, and if the rest of his material is this good, I guarantee I'll be reading it all. I disagree entirely with the reviewers who claim that a reader has to know Hamilton's six volume trilogy (!) Night's Dawn to get maximum pleasure out of the stories--in the foreward Hamilton says that some of these stories predate the concept of the trilogy, and one of them (Candy Buds) even gave rise to it. I certainly had no trouble knowing where I was, thanks to the time lines provided by Hamilton, and each of the stories seemed admirably self-contained in terms of the necessary plot points.To the stories themselves--there's an excellent mix here, some mostly snapshots, others quite long and detailed. Some deal with an individual at a time of personal crisis (Deathday, which owes much to Ray Bradbury's Mars is Heaven), others concern paradigm shifts for the entire Human civilization (A Second Chance at Eden, a truly beautifully written and plotted story). Hamilton is at the gentler side of hard sci-fi. While his stories all contain technology far beyond our current grasp, there's no necessity for a Ph.D. to understand it. He's much less demanding than Greg Bear in his most substantial works. Indeed, the technology is mostly there for the context, and the stories are primarily about human motivations rather than fun sci-fi toys. For the most part this isn't escapest space opera at all, but a keen examination of man's condition. And like the best literature, it's so well written that the reader is mostly unaware that this is the case--the sole exception being New Days Old Times, which is a bit more obvious in its message. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this collection, and I look forward to the delivery of my copy of the first volume of Night's Dawn, which I ordered even before finishing this book!
Having read and loved the Night's Dawn Trilogy (as well as Fallen Dragon and the Mandell trilogy) it was only natural that I wanted to read Hamilton's collection of short story 'prequels' set in the confederation universe; the same universe that sets the backdrop for the NDT.A handful of short stories that spans about 500 or so years of history leading up to the Night's Dawn Trilogy, this book paints and interesting picture of the years leading up to the sci fi epic. We get to see the growing pains of colonized worlds, the actual birth of Edenism (and an interesting look into the founder of it...who isn't exactly everything we were lead to beleive he was during the telling of the NDT)...not to mention, perhaps the coolest aspect was reading about Lady Mac original owner and pilot, Joshua's father, Marcus Calvert one one of his missions that was only hinted at by Joshua in the Reality Dysfunction..There really isn't a bad story in the bunch and I found myself tearing through it quickly. I think the highlights were A Second Chance at Eden, The Lives And Loves Of Tiarella Rosa, and Escape Route. Those were my favorites.It's interesting that while the backdrop is sci fi, these stories aren't just about science fiction. There's some horror elements, fantasy elements, adventure elements. Just overall great stuff.My only issue however is that the editing or transfer or whatever you want to call it in the kindle edition is pretty awful. Usually when speaking via affinity the passages are in bold type. This is missing more than half the time in the story A Second Chance at Eden. Also, the stories are rife with missing periods. Sometimes it makes it hard to follow who is speaking to whom.In any event, that didn't take away from the great writing and fantastic story telling. A must for any Peter F Hamilton fan.
A Second Chance at Eden Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977 My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life The Second Chance Dog: A Love Story Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower Second Chance at Love Romance: Marianna's Second Chance (Valley Springs Series Book 1): (A Clean Romance Historical Amish Mail Order Bride) (New Adult Short Stories) Second Chance Ranch: An Inspirational Western Romance (Three Rivers Ranch Romance Book 1) 100 Bullets Vol. 2: Split Second Chance A Second Chance (Amish Romance Secrets Book 5) Men and Women Are From Eden: A Study Guide to John Paul II's Theology of the Body The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament The Mythology of Eden Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook: Hannah Swensen's Recipes from the Cookie Jar Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution A Taste of Eden: (More) Torah for the Shabbat Table Reflections of Eden: My Years With the Orangutans of Borneo
