# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - August 2020 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941 "2020-07-31T21:00:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941/81 "2020-09-02T14:23:08Z")
Here we go for September: [Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - Sept. 2020 edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-sept-2020-edition/919607) ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941/82 "2020-09-06T19:49:03Z")
FWIW, I’m a huge fan of those two Peter F Hamilton novels - probably my second favorite sci-if story ever - with the winner being Hamilton’s Void Trilogy. Which is my favorite book ( I take the liberty of counting double headers and trilogies as one book when I’m making my lists) ever, of any genre. Pandora’s Star/Judas Unchained would probably come in somewhere between 3 and 6, depending on my mood on the day I made the list. He doesn’t get too caught up in the science, he handwaves most of the details away. Which would probably be a detriment if I was a hardcore sci-fi person but I like it that the story doesn’t get bogged down with technical details. The fact that interplanetary travel is so easy in that Universe certainly helps the pacing and I think that’s the reason he used that tech in those novels. I mostly like him because his characters are well-developed and …different, especially the females. It’s hard to find space operas with female main characters that aren’t starship captains or politicians. I find all his characters interesting and I love the details that flesh out the secondary and tertiary characters. Which is probably one of the reasons the books are so long, but I always hated to see them end. I’m actually not a huge sci-if fan, I tend more towards suspense novels. For me sci-fi is one of those “when it’s good it’s very very good and when it’s bad it’s horrid” things. I probably only like about 10% of the sci-fi novels I pick up and it comprises a small portion of my reading - but over half of my top 10 favorite books are sci-fi - even when I count the trilogies as one. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941/83 "2020-09-07T03:49:30Z")
I really enjoyed Hamilton’s _Night’s Dawn_ trilogy - interesting premise, well-rounded characters and terrific worldbuilding - but thought he stumbled badly with the plot at the end. Almost ruined it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941/84 "2020-09-18T02:11:41Z")
Oh, I agree 100%. I loved most of the Nights Dawn trilogy but I’m not even sure I made it through to the end - I think I stopped 30 pages or so short, telling myself I’d pick it up later and I never did. It’s been a long time. The other issue I had with it - and one I’ve had with other Hamilton novels - was the graphic horror, which intensified as the book progressed. I imagine a lot of people were OK with it but it’s not my thing - plus gory massacres are all a lot alike and it got tedious. His characters and world-building were really strong, as strong as the Confederation novels. I’ve been sort of lukewarm on everything he’s written since the last Void novel (Evolutionary Void, I think). But that one was a hard act to follow. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941/85 "2020-09-18T02:13:47Z")
Yes, it was a remarkably violent trilogy in parts. Not _too_ over the top, I thought, but it certainly wasn’t Fifties sf. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2020-edition/916941.md?page=4)