Author Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy consists of three epic science fiction novels: The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. A collection of short stories, A Second Chance at Eden, shares the same universe, and The Confederation Handbook documents that universe in non-fiction style.

The sprawling narrative deals with a far future where humanity struggles and wages war against past souls flooding back into the land of the living via possession (Al Capone and Fletcher Christian are among the returnees). And that's just the beginning. Hamilton's future is expansive and primarily optimistic, with huge sentient space-cities that can closely resemble a natural Eden. He extrapolates on current trends concerning the blurring of technology with biology, and environmental devastation. But Hamilton pulls no punches on humanity's darker side. Poverty, sexual exploitation and cruelty still dog our civilizations in Night's Dawn, and the coalition opposing the Possessed are faced with a particularly cruel moral conundrum; they cannot destroy them without also killing their host bodies. The conflict is eventually resolved when Joshua Calvert, Hamilton's hero, uses a powerful alien artifact called the Sleeping God to remove the Possessed from their host bodies and send them through a wormhole to the end of the universe.

Humanity in the 27th Century

In the Night's Dawn trilogy, humankind, although now united under an organization known as the Confederation, has been broken up into two major divisions, Adamists and Edenists.

Adamist Culture

Adamists are the larger of the two groups, thinking of themselves as the normal humans. They are a vast group of people of various cultures and backgrounds. Realistically, the Adamist group encompasses any non-Edenist humans. Adamists are known for their belief in religion, their use of nanotechnology (which they refer to as nanonics), and their rejection of most forms of the Edenist form of biotechnology, known as bitek.

Edenist Culture

Edenists are, for the most part, a single culture. The most important aspect of any Edenist is his/her use of affinity. Affinity is an advanced form of mental communication similar to the modern-day concept of telepathy. Edenist affinity allows them to communicate with each other as well as their technology, known as bitek. Unlike Adamist culture which is divided into various political units, Edenists form a single governmental entity known as Consensus. Consensus is formed when all Edenists willingly join into a temporary collective-conciousness. This allows total direct representation of their entire population in government decisions.

Technology

In the Night's Dawn trilogy, there are several unusual technologies- One is the Neutronium Alchemist, a weapon developed by one of the more minor characters, capable of either snuffing out a star, or causing it to go Supernova. Near the end of the second book from the second part of the trilogy, appropriately named The Neutronium Alchemist, Hamilton has a long scene describing the effects of the supernova, as it's used to destroy a pair of Adamist cruisers sent by the possessed.

Characters of the trilogy

Joshua Calvert

Captain of the starship Lady Macbeth, Joshua Calvert is one of the main protagonists of the story. Captain Calvert, along with Captain Syrinx and others is one of those directly responsible for ending the posession crisis.

Liol Calvert

Ashly Hanson

Syrinx

Ione Saldana

Rubra

Dariat

Louise Kavanagh

Quin Dexter

Gerald Skibbow

Ralph Hilch

Dr. Alkad Mzu

Laton

Samual Aleksandrovich