The Neutronium Alchemist: Conflict, is the second part of the second novel of Peter F. Hamilton's space opera epic that ranges not only across interstellar space but across the boundary between life and death. (The series begins with The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence and Expansion). This book mainly revolves around Dr. Alkad Mzu, creator of a doomsday weapon so powerful it scares even the citizens of this high-tech and heavily beweaponed future. Mzu is on a decades-long quest to take vengeance against the people who destroyed her home planet, and she wields alarming cunning and ruthlessness in the pursuit. But what gives even her pause is the war against the souls of the dead who have returned from a hellish Beyond to possess the living. Both sides want her: the dead want the weapon, the living want to keep the weapon out of the dead's hands. Unfortunately for them, that means they must find and take Mzu alive, while all the dead need to do is kill her, bringing her into their realm.
Rarely has science fiction produced a series as rich, satisfying, and big as this one. In addition to the action, Hamilton continues to beguile us with the greater mystery of the returned dead--new clues are discovered, only to create new enigmas. --Brooks Peck
Neutronium Alchemist: Part 2 Conflict FROM THE PUBLISHER
The souls of those long dead are entering the universe at an alarming rate. Stealing the bodies of the living, they are grouping together into powerful consortiums led by leaders from history. An increasingly desperate Confederation Navy is struggling to stem the tide as the race for the universe's most powerful weapon begins. But if the dead can return to life, who will be the ultimate victors?
FROM THE CRITICS
Locus
This series is taking on one of SF's (and maybe all of literature's) primal jobs: the creation of a world with scale and complexity of the real world.
VOYA - Marsha Valance
Hamilton's two volumes provide a painful example of the traditional space opera. Together, this 1,162-page work features undead souls "possessing" the bodies of the living, an escaped scientist with a superweapon (the neutronium alchemist) bent on revenge for her planet's genocide, and mechanically augmented pragmatists allying with genetically engineered philosophers to save the Confederation--and the universe. If better written, the entire work would call to mind the star-smashing world-building of another Hamilton (Edmund, who delighted readers in SF's golden age). Instead, readers encounter cardboard characters--including an arrogant sentient habitant in conflict with his possessed, revengeful grandson; two naive young noblewomen rescued by the spirit of Fletcher Christian possessing another's body; a sensation-seeking rock star who allies with the spirit of Al Capone (possessing another body) to conquer the universe; and many others--all of whose dialogue could be lifted from a 1930s pulp magazine or a Harlequin novel. The breakneck pace and frequent scene changes could appeal to young military SF fans, but since the writing and plot are on the level of a 1930s Flash Gordon serial, there are many other authors whose purchase would be preferable in these days of limited budgets--for example, Lois M. Bujold, Gordon Dickson, David Drake, or S. M. Stirling. Note: This review was written and published to address two titles: The Neotronium Alchemist Part 1: Consolidation and Part 2: Conflict. VOYA Codes: 2Q 2P S (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).
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