Why does Peter F. Hamilton?

[ChrisC]

Why does Peter F. Hamilton write such hefty books. I'm reading Judas Unchained at the moment, while it's not bad, I think a lot of it could be left out. I mean in Pandora's Star, the best bit was the attack by the Primes. This was the last quarter of an over 1000 page book. The only reason I'm continuing with Judas Unchained the conclusion to Pandora's Star is to find out how the Commonwealth get out of this mess.

Also I bought three books from a second hand book shop. The Nights Dawn trilogy. The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God, again what's with this hefty size all the books are over 1000 pages.

I do enjoy Peter F. Hamilton but is there really a need for such oversized books?

I read A Second Chance at Eden which is a collection of short stories which was excellent. So I know he can write decent sized stories really well.

[Deep Black]

Hmmm, you're right. There is probably no real reason for the 1000+ lengths.

I'was at a convension where someone asked him a similar question, his answer was that it wasn't so much planned as just the way it turns out. His style is to be overly discriptive about things that don't really matter to ther plot.

I've only read The Reality Dysfunction so far (though I do have The Neutronium Alchemist, Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained on the shelves). I really enjoyed it &, as a slow reader, I'd have to to make it through over 1000 pages.

From others comments, the rest of the Nights Dawn pretty much keeps up the standard. & Whilst most seem to rate Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained tends to get worse reviews. That said the following Void trilogy is getting more positive comments again...

[RedKing]

See the Unabridged version of "The Stand" to see why sometimes a good editor is a necessary evil to a good writer.

[edash]

I think Hamilton's US publishers had the right idea. Each volume of the Night's Dawn trilogy was released as two paperbacks, still the same overall length though.

[Deep Black]

According to Wikipedia:

"Even by the standards of the first two books, The Naked God is an extremely large volume. It was only possible to publish the UK paperback in one volume by moderately decreasing the font size compared to the previous novels."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_God

[BeckyH]

I gave up on Hamilton because I found it was too much chaff and too little gold. I felt I was slogging away for too much of the time I spent reading it.
Most anything can be improved by whacking off the first 10% of the word count right after finishing the first draft.

[Old Vig]

It's not just Hamilton. When I was younger books seemed to be around 300 pages, and that's about the right number for me. Another thing that's changed is the number of books in a series, it's risen from trilogies (dune, foundation, gormenghast etc.) into endless volumes (and I'm counting the Culture here). I'd love to see IMB put the Culture to bed and give us something new in 300 pages or less :)

[Deep Black]

Apparently the main reason for long books & a looong series of books, is that's what the publishers tell the authors to do.

Apparently it's very hard (esprcailly for new writers) to get published, if there isn't a wealth of follow up stuff in the pipe-line too.

Publishers research says that is what we, the public, want.

Personally I love books between 200-400 pages in length. & whilst I like a decent series I'm quite happy with stand alone works too

[rac]

Apparently it's very hard (esprcailly for new writers) to get published, if there isn't a wealth of follow up stuff in the pipe-line too.

Yup- it's much easier to get a publisher interested in a book if you tell them it's the first part of a trilogy or something.