Special Guest Post: Peter F Hamilton

Thanks to Mark for letting me do a small guest news spot to round up the year and letting you know where things stand. For those of you on the forums, I’m giving some answers to a few threads but no real spoilers about Evolutionary Void.

Right now I’m about a fifth of the way through writing Evolutionary Void. While what I’m actually doing this week is signing the sheets for the Subterranean Press hardback edition of Reality Dysfunction, which should be out sometime soon next year. This will be the first time it’s been published in hardback since the original Macmillan edition back in 1996, there were something like 2300 printed, and I’m pretty sure I’ve signed just about all of them over the years. It still surprises me how many turn up whenever I do a tour. If the book sells well then they hope to bring out the remaining two from the Night’s Dawn trilogy as well. I’m taking my time signing these pages, trying to keep my signature a bit more constant. Several people commented on how ‘frazzled’ it’s been looking lately. Compared to ten years ago I must confess it has shrunk as I now write it quicker and quicker, however, the P at the front is definitely still the same.

I see from this site and others that the Tantor audio books are out. Good news, though I don’t know what they sound like myself, because (ahem) I haven’t signed the contracts yet. I’m assured that the paperwork is in the post.

Big thank you to everyone who turned up to the one signing I did this year in Oakham, especially the couple who drove all the way up from Weston-Super- Mare that very morning just to see me. Very flattering. Crazy, but flattering.

Now as to speculation on who the Lady is, well she’s definitely not Mellanie, or any other contenders so-far mentioned on the thread. She is however the key to how and why humans got into the Void the first time, and like Aaron, she was a character in the Commonwealth Saga. For the record, Rah wasn’t in any earlier work.

Good work on the Swarm and the deterrent fleet, but then I have been scattering clues about.

As for The Delivery Man, I’m afraid his origins are rather mundane, actually very mundane, he is my brother in law. I put him in as an act of kindness, this being the only way he can get out of the house now he has four daughters, all aged under ten. It’s also why none of you will ever be referencing him in the too much loving thread, else we’ll all wind up in therapy.

And finally, Edeard’s age, yes he is young, but... Makkathran months are forty days long, which makes the years there about 480 days long. So not that young after all.

Oh, and the Anomine are going to be in Evolutionary, too.

Hope that’s given you something interesting to digest over the holiday. Thanks for all the interest, I do appreciate it.


Season’s greetings

Peter F. Hamilton

Commonwealth Saga Audio Books

Thanks to Martin on the forums for pointing this one out, I must admit it slipped my mind! It appears that Judas Unchained is now available as an audio book from Tantor Media. They've also done Pandora's Star, but you'll have to get that through some marketplace sellers as Amazon don't have it directly yet. Check out Tantor's pages: Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained.

If you want to buy them try and have a look on Amazon.co.uk here - there are a few different versions, the cheapest will be the MP3 format (only 4 CD's). I'll be tracking them down at some point in the future - perhaps even an xmas present to myself!

Tantor are also showing new covers on their website, check them out below:

Competition Winners

Sorry about the delay in getting these up, it's been a busy day yesterday (wife's birthday!) so I didn't get the chance to put these up. Without further ado the winners of the competition for two signed Dreaming Void audio CD sets are:

• Fergal Breen, Dublin, Ireland
• Kieran East, Ely, UK

Congratulations to both - I'll be getting them in the post by the end of the week and I hope you enjoy them when they arrive!

Amazon Best SF&F Books 2008

Some great news from Amazon.co.uk - The Temporal Void tops their list of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2008. A well deserved top spot and big congratulations to Peter!

Competition: The Dreaming Void Audio CD

The Dreaming Void is Peter F Hamilton's opening volume in his Void Trilogy, set in his Commonwealth universe and taking place roughly 1200 years after the conclusion to Judas Unchained. Thanks to the kind folks at Pan Macmillan I have two copies, signed by Peter, of the unabridged audio CD release read by Toby Longworth.

So, what do you have to do to win a copy? Easy, all you need to do is send an email, including your full mailing address, to mark@theunisphere.com (remove the [nospam]) with the header as 'DREAMING'. It's open to everyone, so get your entries in!

The closing date will be Sunday, November 16th and I'll randomly select the winners on the 17th. Only one entry per person, so any duplicates will be deleted. Good luck to everyone!

In the meantime, check out my review for The Dreaming Void here, and another for the Audio CD here.

Subterranean Press: The Reality Dysfunction

Some great news - it looks like Subterranean Press will be doing a limited edition hardcover of Peter F Hamilton's landmark space opera, The Reality Dysfunction! No more news as yet, but keep your eyes on here because I'll have more information as and when I get it :)

Temporal Void Limited Edition

A knock on the door this morning put a smile on my face:



I'll have a guess that Waterstones stores should have them in stock this week - happy shopping :)

Temporal Void Limited Edition (Waterstones)

A quick update on this. I've been checking the Waterstones website and it appears that they have pushed back release of it to 7/11/08. Not sure how accurate or true that is, but that's what it says :(

Anyone spotted one in the wild yet?

Competition from Pan Macmillan

Just came across this one now, but for all you out there that like collectable books (much like me), Pan Macmillan have a competition to win one of five signed copies of The Temporal Void proof (UK residents only).

Give it a go, you may get lucky :)

Temporal Void eBook

Great news from Peter - Pan Macmillan are publishing the ebook version of The Temporal Void later this month - 23rd October to be exact! If my memory is right you can get it direct from Pan Macmillan without DRM, which means you won't be as limited with what you can read it on as you would be buying from other places (like Waterstones.com where you'll be stuck with a DRM version).

Excellent stuff!