Commonwealth Saga

The Commonwealth Saga. A sci fi series by Peter F. Hamilton, it covers so many ideas that I'd stay up wondering about. I got engrossed in the sci fi future it created.

I'm currently reading the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton, and would highly recommend it.

Peter F. Hamilton, "Commonwealth Saga" and "Void Trilogy". Among the best Sci-Fi I've ever read.

I started reading sci-fi(mostly hard-sf) after I read the commonwealth saga, 'Pandora's star' and 'Judas unchained'. It was just really entertaining and unlike anything I've read. Also really recommend 'Snow crash'. Also adding a couple fantasy recommendations: Lies of Locke lamora, and any basically any novel by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn: the final empire, Warbreaker, The way of kings etc.)

I've just finished Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga and it's definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. The first three Dune novels are particularly good. Dune has a tendency to get more philosophical in the later volumes (plans within plans within plans). If I had to choose an all time favorite I would probably go with Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red/Green/Blue Mars). An extremely well researched view of how Mars colonization and terraforming might proceed in a realistic way. He also has a trilogy on the possible/likely consequences of runaway global warming (Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting) but RGB Mars is definitely better. Edit: "The content of Green Mars and the cover artwork for Red Mars are included on the Phoenix DVD, carried onboard Phoenix, a NASA lander that successfully touched down on Mars in May 2008. The First Interplanetary Library is intended to be a sort of time capsule for future Mars explorers and colonists." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy#On_Phoenix_spacecr... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy#On_Phoenix_spacecraft)

I've read Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga - the latter is much better but still suffers a lot, in my view, from poor characterization - something that Banks can be very good at (his bad guys can occasionally come from central casting though). Banks is in a different class from Hamilton - in general I think the quality of his work has dropped off a bit but some of his earlier writing is exceptional: Use of Weapons is particularly strong.

Have you read Peter Hamilton? Specifically, the Commonwealth Saga. Banks is good, but I find his universes are to be sketchy and sometimes fairly shallow and not well-thought through (e.g. the one in the Algebraist). Hamilton is as creative as Banks, when it comes to the concepts, but he really delivers on the depth and complexity of the story lines and the actual execution. If you haven't read him, do it. If you have, I'd be curious to hear how you compare him to Banks.