The novel “The Dreaming Void” by Peter F. Hamilton is the first volume of the Void trilogy, set in the same universe as Hamilton’s previous novels “Pandora’s Star” and “Judas Unchained” but more than a millennium later. It’s not absolutely necessary to read those novels but there are many references to the events written in them and some characters are back in the Void trilogy as in that future people are potentially immortal so reading them is certainly an advantage.

“The Dreaming Void” starts at the end of the XXXVI century when the attention to the Void, a universe at the centre of the galaxy contained in a space-time separated from ours, reaches among humans an unprecedented level. A religious-like group wants to enter the Void at any costs even if all the previous attempts made by various species failed. Yet someone in the past seems to have done the deed because a few centuries earlier an astrophysic called Inigo started receiving in his dreams telepathic contacts from the people living in the Void and he shared them with humanity thanks to a neural technology they have. Later he started the religious-like movement that wants to enter the Void.

At a certain point Inigo disappeared but his group discovered that there’s someone else who established a telepathic contact with the people living in the Void and finding this person is for the movement a key to start a pilgrimage with the goal of bringing the faithful into the Void.

The Raiel, a very ancient species that’s been studying the Void for more than a million years but without succeding in discovering its exact nature or how to enter it, reckon that such a pilgrimage will cause the Void to expand starting to devour the stars in the galactic core and who knows where it will stop.

Humanity and other sentient species are divided about the possibility to let the pilgrims to go on with their attempt to enter the Void and some species are ready to use force to avoid it. The various human factions want to find both Inigo and the other person who has contacts with the Void to use them in their pilgrimage or hoping that they can convince the pilgrims to give it up.

Peter F. Hamilton writes the new kind of space opera, much more sophisticated than in John W. Campbell or E.E. “Doc” Smith time. Like in classic space opera Hamilton develops the technological side of his stories including technologies of all kinds. Biological technologies allow a potential immortality and various forms of transhumanism. Physics related technologies allow various kinds of propulsion to have interstellar trips. Electronics / informatics technologies allow the creation of artificial intelligence and nanomachines.

There are writers who explore one of two technologies or at least focus on a certain science field in a novel where future technologies are important, instead Hamilton depicts the possible developments of all science fields focusing on a certain one when a part of the plot requires it. In “The Dreaming Void” the writer also shows the technologies developed from the period his previous novels were set in.

In Hamilton’s novels there’s also a great attention for the plots, generally very complex with many characters whose stories start apparently disconnected then slowyly converging. That’s one of the reasons why Hamilton often writes mini-cicles of two or three novels so readers already knows that when they buy the first volume they’re getting only the first part of a bigger story that’s going to end only at the end of the last volume.

In “The Dreaming Void” there are chapters set in our universe alterating with chapters set in the Void that tell Inigo’s dreams creating a sort of novel within the novel. For my taste this part is a bit too close to fantasy but it’s a matter of taste.

“The Dreaming Void” is basically a big set up to start the various subplots showing the connections among the various characters. There’s also some action but we’re far from a classic space opera full of space battles. This is a novel I recommend to people who appreciate this kind of stories very long and sophisticated being aware that later you’ll have to buy the other two volumes of the trilogy.