The Reality Dysfunction (2012)

"That can't possibly be correct" - Terrance Smith

The planet Lalonde is in the first stage of colonisation and as such is backward, corrupt, and to a large extent lawless. Just the sort of world you would choose to send "Ivet", involuntary transportees, to in large numbers. The Ivets are basically small time criminals from various parts of the Human Confederation who are indentured to basic slavery in order to pay for their at most petty crimes. Amongst the newly arrived Ivet population is Quinn Dexter, a member of the Light Brother sect (devil worshippers), who immediately rises to an unofficial leadership role in his group.

Unfortunately for the Confederation a Ly-cilph, an alien entity, is investigating Lalonde and the human civilisation there. Dexter and the Ly-cilph collide with the alien creating a bridge to I guess purgatory allowing the souls trapped there to escape into our reality. All the souls need are bodies to survive in, and they need to torture the people they come into contact with to allow the souls to take up residency. It's not long before a plague of possession starts to roll through the backwoods of Lalonde and escape off planet to the more civilised parts of the Confederation. Can the various Governments act in time to curb the greatest threat yet discovered to their existence or will the possessed overrun the entire Confederation?

Okay my intro is pretty brief for a soaring space opera that has multiple character viewpoints, more subplots than you could hope to blast a rocket at, and an almost overwhelming vision of a complex human future. But hey I just work here folks, to adequately cover the plot of this bad boy would require 10k words, and then fans would accuse me of missing stuff. In short Hamilton's tome is simply too vast and imaginative to put down in a couple of paragraphs, there's so much happening to so many different characters that you almost need a diary to keep track; do I look like Cliff's notes to you people? That Hamilton dude sure has an imagination and I was enthralled throughout the narrative as he let rip with some astounding ideas and concepts, if approaching this book then get ready to invest a lot of time, thought, and a fair degree of sweat to the reading process. This is not a novel to take lightly, but for sure it will pay you back for the time spent in Country.

Guess I should also mention that besides the clear Sci-Fi territory that Hamilton is lurking in he also adds a fair degree of horror to the narrative. The dead are returning and they are doing so by possessing the bodies of the living, though they do need to apply a degree of torture to be invited in. Excellent premise for mine which set up a fair degree of debate in the Sminds bunker. Bear with me here folks, the debate centered around whether or not Hamilton had slyly dropped a zombie novel on us. Now a lot of people, who generally claim "infected" movies aren't zombie movies when clearly they are, would argue black and blue that Raimi's Evil Dead is a zombie movie, which clearly it isn't. By their logic The Reality Dysfunction would have to be a zombie movie else they torpedo their own Raimi wonder lust. For mine the novel, along with Raimi's movie, is more in the possession end of town with naught to do with zombies, but others disagree, form your own opinion. In the wash up Hamilton has gone a little bit horror wrapped up in Sci-Fi sheep's clothing, nailing an entirely original concept in the process.

Anyways for those interested Hamilton writes in an easy to read narrative style that rocks between long descriptive passages and breakneck action descriptions. His characters are well realised, though there's generally a lack of development, various individuals arrive fully formed with very little in the way of actions and motives being brought into question by them. Besides Quinn Dexter however there's no out and out antagonist, if for the moment we forget the possessing spirits, most players on Hamilton's stage have both good and bad attributes including Hamilton's nominal hero the rather dashing space ship captain Joshua Calvert who is not above breaking Confederation law if it means a lucrative haulage contract.

Where Hamilton does score well is with his soaring imagination that just about encompasses any historic stage of human development along with futuristic utopias. We have man/ape hybrids on the attack, staged knights and pikemen going into battle with enhanced combat troops, and pastoral English society circa 1920s. Added to that is the separation of the human race into two distinct groupings; Adamist, humans clinging to that old style society albeit with enhanced abilities via 'neural nanonics' and other implants to enhance their senses, and Edenists who have an affinity gene which allows them to join a collective conscious and communication with their sentient habitats and space ships (Voidhawks). Adamists live planet side, or on asteroid settlements, while Edenists inhabit huge "bitek" constructions that are in orbit around gas giant planets. The bitek habitats are self-aware and store the personalities of deceased Edenists as separate intelligences until those intelligences merge with the global consciousness. Add on in communist societies, aqua cultures, and any derivative in between and you have a vast framework of societies that Hamilton paints with an astute brush. Must admit I was rocking out to this aspect of the novel like a wild night up the Cross.

Hamilton equally has his characterisation working like a banshee during a plague, taking into account the lack of development. Both male and female characters are well represented, each viewpoint - and there are a truck load - comes with added benefit of reflecting their individual society. So an Edenist is going to have a completely different view to an enhanced combat soldier, Hamilton is aware of that and presents some pretty astonishing characters for your pleasure. Added spice is the Author is not averse to giving the reader a brief history of each society that the character originates from, so you have a framework for their motivations and actions. While there is a huge cast in the novel, and some players have yet to be adequately explained, Hamilton imbibes each with their own personality. Hamilton is adept at both female and male characters, so there are viewpoints the ladies can latch onto.

In terms of gore Hamilton downplays that aspect even as The Reality Dysfunction produces an extraordinary number of casualties. For the most part possession happens off the page, and equally the couple of instants of exorcism don't involve spinning heads or indeed pea soup, darn was hoping for some fireworks there. Hamilton doesn't dwell on the deaths in his novel and presents them in that sort of space opera high speed collateral damage mode, in simple terms they aren't the focus of the novel as they would be in a core horror outing.

Sex is rocking along, dig in there ladies, though we ain't taking Fifty Shades of Grey here. Hamilton sexists it up when it helps his narrative otherwise he is going the long way home and doesn't dwell on it. I should add there's a tad of romance going down in the novel which once again should help the author connect with his female readership.

I did mention this novel is the first in an absolutely huge trilogy right? If not, then don't be disappointed that most if not all sub plots are left hanging. It does help to also explain why some characters are mentioned, given a bit of exposure, and then disappear off stage for the rest of the novel. Be warned Night's Dawn Trilogy requires an absolutely huge commitment; you have one huge amount of reading to get through.

The Reality Dysfunction was shot my way as a challenge, could I get through the absolutely huge narrative and could I defined whether or not the "returned" were zombies. Okay clearly I got through the read, and bloody well enjoyed every single moment of it though the proviso here is some characters are more interesting than others. Think I've adequately explained we are not talking zombies here, though some Romero diehards are going to be hoisted on their own petards over definitions. So challenge meet and knocked over. In closing I'm going to recommend this one to horror fans and Sci-Fi fans, the book is absolutely amazing but does require a lot of spare time to get through. Hamilton is clearly talented, fingers crossed he dedicates himself to a pure horror novel sometime in the future. And no you won't be showing any dysfunction when the reality of undertaking this novel hits home.