The Reality Dysfunction

The Reality Dysfunction is a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton; the first book in his The Night's Dawn Trilogy. It is followed by The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. The paperback version was broken into two parts, Emergence, and Expansion.

Background

The first of the Night's Dawn trilogy, The Reality Dysfunction is set in the same universe as many of Hamilton's other books and stories.

The book is set in the 27th century. Humanity has split into two distinct and culturally opposed strands, Adamists who employ purely mechanical and electronic technology and Edenists who employ biotechnology wherever possible.

The Reality Dysfuntion is notable for its length - approximately 1000 pages - and great complexity. Although the basic story involves many supernatural elements, these are all described in scientific or scientific-sounding terms, and much of the technology depicted is based in real scientific principles. The book is also notable for the frequent descriptions of sex and violence, which are more graphic than is usual in a science fiction novel.

The Story

The novel deals with many intertwined storylines. It is primarily the story of Joshua Calvert, a mildly psychic scavenger who lives on Tranquility, a biotech habitat. Tranquility was built to provide a platform for investigating the "Ruin Ring", a planetary ring system which is composed of the remnants of a large number of alien habitats mysteriously destroyed long ago. After making a spectacular find in the ring Calvert raises enough money refit his father's derilict spacecraft and become an independant trader.

Another strand focuses on Lalonde, a relatively new colony world. The colonists employ convict workers - known as Ivets - for manual labour. One of the Ivets is Quinn Dexter?, a sadistic member of a Satanist group on Earth who was deported to Lalonde. Quinn sets up a Satanic cult amongst the Ivets, hoping to take over one of Lalonde's settlements and steal enough money to buy a return trip to Earth.

The Lalonde colony is under observation by a Ly-Cilph, a non-corporeal alien entity. During a ritual sacrifice which Quinn conducts, the Ly-Cilph discovers some form of psychic energy leaving the victim through a gateway to another dimension. On exploring this portal the Ly-Cilph finds the other dimension filled with the "souls" of dead Humans. It becomes trapped, keeping the gateway open and allowing the souls to escape back to our own world. The end result of this is that Quinn becomes posessed by the soul of a long-dead person. He is able to draw on various supernatural abilities to manipulate matter and energy, and can allow further souls to return and posess others - who can then do the same to others, and so on.

The rest of the book deals with the gradual spread of the posessed through several planets whilst the Humans battle to find a defence against them. It is realised that the habitats which form the Ruin Ring were deliberately destroyed by their inhabitants because the same posession phenomenon was spreading through their own people, and they could find no way to prevent it.

Other plot strands include the adventures of Syrinx, the Edenist captain of a biologic spacecraft; the travels of Louise and her sister, survivors of an invasion of their planet by the posessed who are trying to meet up with Joshua; and the adventures of a group of mercenaries trying to investigate the situation on Lalonde.