I've never met Robert B. Parker, but I have met Peter F. Hamilton. Hamilton's a hero of mine, as he wrote the mammoth Night's Dawn trilogy. (The first novel in the trilogy is one of my all-time favorite books, The Reality Dysfunction). The trilogy was published in the United States as six hefty paperbacks.
The pages are filled with well-rounded characters, richly developed societies, spectacular space battles, and all of it backed up by incredibly speculative science. The saga easily holds its own against recent Marvel galactic events such as Infinity and The Black Vortex. It was a pleasure to meet the author of such an accomplished literary masterwork, and I was able to do so in Brighton, at the 2013 World Science Fiction Convention.
It takes a strong, forceful author to envision, write, complete, and push through publication such a mammoth story. But Peter F Hamilton did it. For me, the Night's Dawn trilogy is right up there with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, or Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, or Frank Herbert's Dune saga. I'm so glad I met him.
Now, for the hard part. To emulate him.
Dragon Dave
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