The Dreaming Void by Peter F Hamilton: Audio CD & MMPB releases

The Dreaming Void was one of my favourite books from last year and it has now had the release of the mass market paperback and audio CD. Both are now in shops, although it's the audio CD that gets the big thumbs up from me...

Audio CD

The audio CD is the first of Peter's books to be released in this format (at least in the UK). It's also the first time I've listened to an audio book properly, although I have heard some sections of other in the past. Toby Longworth does an incredible job with the reading, pitching it just right to keep it interesting and giving the characters all individual voices and personalities. It really is a great way to enjoy The Dreaming Void on the move - in fact it's a great way to enjoy it anywhere.

Some of the really good points about listening to the book rather than reading it have to be the characters. The voices, emotion and personality put into each of them, no matter how short a part, is really enjoyable. This isn't something I usually do myself, at least not consciously, and it adds a completely new dimension to the story. I am thoroughly impressed with what I hear and would gladly get any other audio books released with Toby Longworth doing the reading.

The only negative I have about the audio book doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the recording, it's the packaging that comes with it. It's not designed to be carried around as the quality of the box won't stand up to much if it's put in a bag and carried around. If the case was more secure this wouldn't be a problem, although I imagine most people nowadays simply load them onto whichever mp3 player they use, which disregards the whole problem.

It would also be good to have some sort of track listing, something along the lines of Chapter 1 runs from disc A track X to disc B track Y. It would help quite a lot if you wanted to go to a specific chapter or section without having a lot of guess work on your hands.

It would also be good to have the option of buying a CD player compatible one or simply an MP3 CD. That would cut down the bulk enormously, and as many CD players these days play MP3's it would offer a viable alternative to the 20 CD's on offer.

I mentioned earlier that the voices are enjoyable and Toby does a great job. This is all true, although some of the pronunciations are not what I thought. This is simply my opinion and the way I imagine they are said. I still wonder to myself if they are Peter's pronunciations or if they are Toby's interpretations of the words though.

This comes highly recommended, even for those that have read the book. Listening is another experience and is so much more enjoyable than I first thought it would be. I find myself laughing at the parts I should be laughing at and taking some things in that I didn't realise I missed while reading it. If they're looking to do Peter's back catalogue and getting Toby to do them I would be the first in line.

Buy from: Pan Macmillan, Play.com or Amazon.co.uk.


MMPB

May 2nd saw the release of The Dreaming Void in mass market paperback, 9 months after the release of the hardback. I won't comment on the story, the full review for that is here, but more about the paperback compared to the hardback. One of the changes to the layout is that of the blurb on the back. This time it's slightly different, not as in-depth, but still giving enough to the potential reader.

For a seven hundred and fifty page paperback, this feels nice in the hand - more so than the hardback which is just too heavy to read for prolonged periods. The text is also nicely spaced and not squeezed in. When novels are so large it gets increasingly difficult for publishers to print them without compromising the quality too much, but thankfully the quality in this hasn't been reduced by much, if any.

If you've yet to read The Dreaming Void, then this would be an ideal purchase, regardless of where you'll want to read it.

Buy from: Pan Macmillan, Play.com or Amazon.co.uk.