Pandora's Star (The Commonwealth Saga Book 1)

I read a lot of science fiction and I'd have to say this was one of the most thought provoking books I've read in a long time. As the 1st book in a series it sets the stage for an epic space battle. The author's writing style can ramble on a bit (these books are long) however, the concepts presented are fascinating...I have not been so mesmerized by "the bad guy" since The Borg. As for the character development, there are so many characters that it's hard to connect to any one in particular, so if you are looking for a hero you may not exactly find one...however, if you are looking for mind expanding/bending concepts this is your book series. Not my typical pick (I'm a character junkie) however, I really enjoyed these books and highly recommend them for intellectual purposes. You may find yourself thinking about them for years after reading...I know I did!

1,000 pages, whew! The next book, "Judas Unchained," also 1,000 pages, takes up right where this one leaves off. Advise you to read them back to back to better keep up with the numerous plots. Hamilton is good with dialogue but this book would have been better off around 500-700 pages. He spends way too much time describing scenes/worlds/etc. for me. He's good at it and not too technical, but I just get bored reading descriptions and find myself saying c'mon already. Sometimes up to 4-5 pages of describing or setting up scenes. He has his cast of characters listed in the front of the second book, 3 freakin' pages worth. Another reason to read the books back to back so as to keep up with this crew. Good detective/mystery aspect in the book, but not really enough military SF/battle sequences, if you're into that. First 500 pages are easily better than the last 500. I think he decided to write another book about half way through this one and just spread the story out. Again, too many characters for me BUT I do enjoy his writing when his characters are interacting. Just needs to be less descriptive and have more dialogue for his characters. Dan Simmons did a better job, in my opinion, with his Hyperion series of books. Good SF writers are hard to find. Seems like I read 4 SF books to find 1 I like. Hamilton IS good, when he wants to be, and can spin a yarn. As a British writer I think he's much better than A. Reynolds. Recommended, IF you can stay interested long enough thru 2,000 pages, in order to finish the second book as well.

Nothing seems to delay my book reviews more than the holidays. Well, maybe one thing delays them more and that is extremely long books. Pandora's Star at 992 pages or over 37 hours is massive and truth too be told way longer than it needed to be.

There are some excellent parts of this SciFi novel including the first contact with an alien race in their home world and the aliens subsequent response. However, the author takes the plot on too many tangents that never conclude in a satisfactory way.

I know this is the first book in a series but after investing so much time in completing it I expected something that brought the various pieces together or at least explained why certain minor plot lines were included at all.

With better focus and pacing this could have been an excellent book. It really left me disappointed with the conclusion so I give it two of five stars. Less really can be more and detailed descriptions of non-important characters and situations actually distract from the potential story.

I generally don't write reviews for the books I read, mostly because I find that others articulate my joys or frustrations better than I can. In the case of this particular book however... I also have nothing new to add.

But I must side the with those who say this book is overwritten. I felt like I had to put in a lot of work at times just to turn the page. That 15 to 20 page narrative early in the story on how to hang glide on an alien planet was about 15-20 pages too long.

But that diversion wasn't the only sin Peter committed. In all, I felt that this book was literally twice as long as it needed to be. Entire subplots were unncessary and nearly made me give up on the novel. And that's a shame because this could have been a truly great one. It just required someone to tell Mr. Hamilton that when we read about a large mansion, we don't really need to know about how the original builder had financed the thing, or how the original builder made his fortune, or about how the architects were influenced by the great architects of a bygone era. I don't need to know any of that stuff, especially when the mansion has been described in painstaking detail for several pages earlier in the book anyway.

This is the first book of his that I have read. I was surprised when I realized that he had written so many other published works. He has an eye for detail, no doubt about that. But the gentleman can't seem to properly pace a book to save his life.

After all that complaining, I still liked the book. It caters to my tastes. After almost putting the thing away after the first 400 pages of going nowhere it hit a stride of sorts and I felt that there was at least some momentum beginning to build - albeit in a 3 steps forward, 2 steps back sort of way.

Once I convinced myself that a society that has created wormhole technology and FTL spaceships (something I wouldn't expect to be possible for tens of thousands of years, if ever) must still use diesel powered vehicles for getting about planetside (Something we could bypass in a few decades) somehow makes sense, I slowly found myself buying in and enjoying the book more and more.

By the end, I finished and reluctantly purchased Judas Unchained. I'll give it a go and pray for Mr. Hamilton to have mercy with me.

Oh yes, one short diversion I did enjoy - a reference to a collector coming upon a first edition of the novel Raft. If it is the same Raft that was written by Stephen Baxter than call me giddy. I would recommend some of Stephen Baxter's older books over this one. Timelike Infinity, Ring, or his Manifold Trilogy. Those are all superior to Pandora's Star.

And while I'm recommeding alternatives, anything by Alastair Reynolds.

Too many subplots and character developments for my taste. Author must be paid by word. Another warning to my taste is this is one part of a saga. Some subplots didn't end properly for my interest. The way an alien species was portrayed as being able to move between worlds wasn't SF but fantasy.

I am in AWE of Peter F. Hamilton !!! This guy can write up a HUGE Epic in the blink of an eye !!! His attention to detail is Astonishing yet needed in books of this Scope... He has Created Two painstakingly Amazing Universes with his writing and I just LOVE both of them. The Commonwealth Universe is what he is writing here, and I cannot say enough about his Love for Universe building, he just blows me away !!! I don't like taking apart books like most Reviewers do, so I will just say this... If you Love Character and Whole Universe developments and a cast of Hard Sci-Fi Characters that are REAL, you will LOVE his books!!! Dig In, they are a Feast waiting to be devoured by Only the hungriest of Sci-Fi Fans !! Bon Apatite !!! Delicious stuff !!!

Some of the concepts, technology, locations and themes are really cool in this book, but its just not tied together well. The author spends pages describing planets and characters we'll never see again, or will revisit hundreds of pages later. You never get a chance to settle in with any one character to relate to, leaving you with a cast of 2nd and 3rd tier characters with mixed, confused motivations. I often found myself looking ahead a few pages, only to see that we were STILL describing something as basic as a road and a mountain.
The core narrative, once you pry it out, is pretty interesting, but I was surprised at how little detail was given about things I thought were important, like say....A Sentient Super Intelligence planet that humans created that has access to all human systems, and to which humans regularly upload their minds to?? The SI is totally glazed over in this book, you barely get any details about it at all until over halfway through. And the High Angel, again it takes halfway through before we get any detail about it, but Hamilton's characters talk about it like its something we should know already. I realize that keeping the reader in the dark about some things, to allow it to reveal itself through the narrative is just a story telling technique, but its very frustrating when you get a 3 page write up about what a cafe' looks like, and a line or two about a super machine intelligence.
I powered through because I thought maybe something really cool would happen at the end which would compel me to read the next one, but was thoroughly disappointed. I feel like you could have cut Ozzie's entire journey and summed it up in a few paragraphs about the different worlds he visited. I'm sure his trip will pay off in the end, but in the meantime, its boring, slow and has no discernible impact on the main plot. It's just an excuse to give another overly verbose description of a new alien world. In fact, all the plot points seem like excuses to further detail scenes and places in the books world. Overall, It feels almost like Hamilton was most interested in setting up his Commonwealth world for future novels, than to doing justice to this particular story.

_Pandora's Star_ by Peter F. Hamilton, the first part of his Commonwealth duology, is another excellent work from the master of the sprawling space opera epic. Hamilton is really good at what he does; he gives the reader an incredibly engrossing tale told on epic scale with dozens of well-drawn, interesting characters having thrilling adventures, introducing the reader to truly alien worlds and creatures, titanic struggles between good and evil, and lots of high tech gadgets, weapons, and starships.

Where to start...Hamilton introduced the reader in the cover blurbs and in the first chapter two of the most important concepts in Commonwealth, so I will go ahead and reveal these non-spoilerish bits. First of all, the setting is the year 2380 and humanity has spread out among the stars, living in what is termed the Intersolar Commonwealth, a region of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter and containing six hundred inhabited worlds. These various worlds are connected by a series of wormholes that work as transport tunnels between three different regions of space (Phase One, which contains Earth and the first settled worlds, Phase Two, the next region settled, and Phase Three, the most recently settled frontier worlds, farther out from Earth than Phase Two worlds). Starships do not fly between these worlds via the wormholes but rather trains are used, all manner of trains, from cheap to run and maintain steam engine trains on remote frontier worlds to monstrous fusion-powered incredibly advanced machines. All of these trains are owned and operated by Compression Space Transport or CST, the biggest company to ever exist. CST connects all of these worlds, making the Commonwealth possible, allowing people and goods to travel hundreds of light years in minutes and also with their exploration division find new worlds to colonize.

The second most important concept in the Commonwealth universe is that people are nearly immortal; sure, they grow old and can die from disease, accident, murder, war, or if allowed to, old age, but thanks to advances in technology can get a second chance, or a third chance, or fifty-third chance for that matter. Nearly everyone (there are a few cultural exceptions) gets fitted with memory cells in their head that store all of their memories. People periodically update these memories to safe storage outside of their body (a good thing to do if one has a dangerous profession) because these memories can be downloaded into a new body. When a person reaches the end of what they consider their youth or their natural lifespan (depending on personal preference and how much money they have) they can regenerate a new body; a new body is cloned, their memories downloaded, and about six months or so later they are alive and well again but physically in their late teens. If someone suffers "bodyloss" - they are murdered, killed, or otherwise vanish and are presumed dead - once the authorities agree that person is indeed dead someone can be "relifed." Needless to say this changes the culture quite a bit and while not creating a truly alien civilization by any means I did enjoy Hamilton's exploration of this concept.

The Commonwealth is a very peaceful, stable civilization, with a thriving economy, mostly happy people that focus on families, friends, their jobs, entertainment, and celebrity gossip. The Commonwealth is continuing to expand, showing no signs of slowing down. There is only one group that is not happy, a vigilante organization known as the Guardians of Selfhood. Led by one Bradley Johansson, they are based on a fascinating remote Phase Three world known as Far Away, a world that contains one of the few examples of alien technology ever found, a mysterious giant ship that landed long ago and was apparently abandoned. The Guardians believe it was piloted by a malevolent entity known as the Starflyer, an alien whose goal is to secretly manipulate the Commonwealth at its highest levels and eventually to destroy it. Very few believe the Guardians, regarding them as distant eccentrics at best, dangerous terrorists at worst.

They are pursued across space and time by Chief Investigator Paula Myo, one of the most celebrated detectives in Commonwealth history; indeed her investigation of the Guardians and their chief arms merchant and agent Adam Elvin remains her only unsolved case in over a century on the job.

At the same time, astronomer Dudley Bose discovers something extraordinary; over one thousand light-years away a star vanishes. It does not become a black hole or go supernova, it simply disappears in seconds. What happened? Is this an example of a vastly powerful alien race? Why would they encapsulate as it turns out two stars? Was it protection from something or to keep something imprisoned, something very dangerous? Though not a starship-using civilization, the Commonwealth decides to construct and launch a starship called the _Second Chance_, led by Captain Wilson Kime, an ex-NASA pilot, to go investigate.

Other plotlines include the saga of one of the members of the Guardians on Far Away by the name of Kazimir McFoster; Nigel Sheldon, one of the original discoverers of the wormhole technology and the day-to-day head of CST, one of the most powerful men in the Commonwealth; Ozzie Fernandez Isaac, the other discoverer of wormhole technology, who goes on the biggest walkabout of all time trying to find the enigmatic aliens known as the Silfen to see what they know about the Dyson Pair (as the stars come to be known); Mark Vernon and his family, a fairly typical Commonwealth family, always caught in the middle it seems; Justine Burnelli, a member of one of the powerful dynasties that dominate Commonwealth politics; and Melanie Rescorai (the latter two went from being fairly lightweight people to true heroines during the course of the saga). Though I have to admit it was not clear at all initially how the other plot lines tied together, I will assure any future reader that they indeed do and do so in surprising and thrilling ways.

I like the writer. Hamilton does some really great science fiction. And, I like the reader. John Lee provides some really good performances. In particular, I liked his performances of the Ken Follett "World Without End" and "Pillars of the Earth" audiobooks.

However, try as I might, I was simply unable to Listen to John Lee reading science fiction. Fantasy? Sure. Historical fiction set in the middle ages? Sure. His cadence and pronunciation lend themselves to those genres, at least for me. They most certainly did not work for me with science fiction. It turned out to be such a significant distraction that I (very regretfully) had to return the book for a credit. I guess I'll just have to read these the old fashioned way.

The Commonwealth has expanded through the galaxy via a network of planet-anchored wormholes. It's a golden age of man where rejuvenation treatments allow near-immortality, the next planet is just a train ride away, and alien contacts have been friendly. When an astronomer makes a startling discovery about two distant stars, a wormhole driven spacecraft is designed and built in order to investigate the mystery. The intrepid explorers unlock a terrible menace that could tear apart the Commonwealth. As the outside threat looms, a cult called the Guardians of Selfhood fights within the Commonwealth because they believe a sinister, hidden alien has taken over the government.

Pandora's Star definitely contains interesting ideas and careful, complex world building. Hamilton doesn't just trot out cool technologies, but also explores how they might affect society. He takes us on a sprawling journey to dozens of worlds using a large cast of characters. At first, the book feels more like a leisurely travelogue through Hamilton's new universe instead of a novel. Rambling around these planets, ideas, and technologies is a lot of fun, but it can also get a bit tiresome if you can't feel the plot going anywhere. However, Pandora's Star grows more compelling as the multiple plot threads start to merge and the action picks up. Hopefully the pace won't slow down again in the sequel.

I really enjoyed exploring Hamilton's new universe - he has some fascinating concepts and he excels at building up an intricate society and then smashing it apart. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this space opera, but the first book would have benefited from better pacing.

Couldn't put it down. The only negative is that it might be hard to follow if you don't like a large cast of characters, but I do. With about 60 pages left I knew there had to be a sequel. That was actually good news to me because I love the story. Can't wait to get the next book!

Hamilton's creativity is evident in this book. I read a lot of sci-fi, but still ran across many new ideas in this story. That's always a plus for me.

A few things drove me crazy about this book. First, and simplest, was the number of characters. If I re-read this book in the future, I'm going to have to keep a crib sheet of the characters as my bookmarker.

I found a few spelling errors which a computer program wouldn't catch (like using the word "unbreeched" instead of "unbreached"), but considering the average number of spelling errors these days, even in newspapers, it wasn't too bad.

The other bad thing was the grammar. He consistently begins sentences with conjunctions, and they are phrases, NOT complete sentences. Here are a couple examples: "But that was when it got seriously cold." "Or at least he thought it was." "However, she did angle them so the trajectory bent slightly." "But there was only the rain." The worst ones are when he starts sentences with the word "although", when it is obvious that he should have used a comma at the end of the previous sentence instead of a period. He does that every 3-10 pages, within the narrative.

In summary, not a bad book if you can school yourself to ignore that atrocious sentence structure. I can't believe Del Rey let it get printed like that. I'm starting the second book now, and I feel like using a highlighter and shipping it back to Del Rey or maybe Hamilton for revision.

Within this book and its sequel is a truly excellent sci-fi story. It is however quite a bit longer than it ought to be.

This book starts out with a massive chunk of world/character building that nearly lost me. I like a deep and well established story universe. I want characters to have a substance and a history. What I don't want is for the bulk of this to be piled on at the very beginning before I know or care why any of it matters. The first portion of the book is introduction after introduction of different characters and settings in excruciating detail. Most authors do this gradually, and it works best because you've started to develop a sense of why these things and characters matters. Given in one huge upfront dose, its hard to slog through.

Were the remainder of the story concisely executed I would probably still give this 5 stars because the story itself is excellent. However nearly every time we are moved to a new chapter the scene is set yet again in painstaking detail. One character is known for always wearing the same outfit and having the same hairstyle, this is still explained every time. A character who is physically attractive, we are reminded of her attractiveness each time she enters the story. Concrete is "enzyme-bonded concrete" every. single. time. I'm aware its the future, so what do those extra words add? Does something so mundane as concrete deserve mention let alone flourish? It's completely unnecessary.

There is some payoff in the details, nuances do have value. Overall I would absolutely recommend this book to someone who enjoys sci-fi. I would however not fault anyone for skimming a few pages or a paragraph that describes the material of an exterior wall of a character's house.

One of the best series I have ever read. Rich in character, culture and intensity, forming an incredibly long and rewarding saga when you pair with the later books that take place years later. Hamilton is probably the best sci fi author out there currently working and one of the best overall authors.

While each an every book by Hamilton is a masterpiece, the Commonwealth Saga (this is vol.1.) is the most epic in every sense: imagination, well researched technical detail (the "sci" in sci-fi), the extrapolation into the future on both technical and social side, the extraordinary amount of little detail that make the universe alive and tangible. It's also very strictly classical sci-fi using the future, the technological marvels, aliens and all the bells and whistles as a tool to provide a critical outlook on the present and warn about possible consequences, show an extrapolation of present practices in the novel settings created by the future. It is modern in the sense that it is using an incredible amount of actual science to model its universe, sticks to the scientific method with extreme rigor in the case of any future technology used and while doing so it is still an incredible ride of the imagination verging on a fantasy. It is Hamilton's speciality to include full-on fantasy settings integrated into a very realistic universe and provide a very well thought out explanations to how it works reinforcing the observation that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (in a fantasy we never told _how_ magic is really just science).

While the length of his books tend to be on the side of War and Peace, they are so action packed, thought provoking and multi-layered, so a single volume feels like 4 or 5 different, smaller books in one (especially at the beginning, in this case almost the entire book, when it is not yet apparent how will they converge). Also, each one ends with a cliffhanger (pun intended) of epic proportions, so you can simply forget to read any Hamilton books separately.

Personally, I read both books in about four days which is as close to a reading binge as it gets. With a library full of science fiction from half a century of writers I can confidently say that Hamilton is the king of epic science fiction surpassing anybody else I've ever read, including the classics.

Have I mentioned lately that Peter Hamilton is one of the best currently working science fiction authors? If you have not heard that, take it from me-- his work is simply spectacular.

Pandora's Star may not be for everyone, regardless how good of a writer Hamilton is. Clocking in at 1144 pages, it is a daunting book. It gets even worse when you open it up and see the itsy bitsy typefont that was used in the print run. And, yes, the point that several other reviews have made is true. This book has several significant cliff-hangers at the end. The readers are going to have to pick up Judas Unchained to see what happens.

But even with all that, the pages literally flew by. The various disparate characters and settings were extremely well-written. The background of his future world is rich and fully developed. I actually laughed out loud in the first 20 pages of the book, not very usual in High Space Opera. I was particularly enthralled by the threads involving Ozzie and the High Angel.

If you have not read Hamilton before, and you know that you do not have the patience for really long stories, you may want to consider checking out the Greg Mandel series first. Beginning with Mindstar Rising, the Mandel books are much shorter and more classic genre entries. However, if you like intelligent science fiction, you should not let the size of the book put you off. It is a compulsively good read. It went by much faster than I either wanted or expected. I cannot wait to read Judas Unchained. I may even spring for the hard cover edition.

"Pandora's Star" is an amazing, sweeping - almost epic - version of the space opera that so many of us know and love. Covering a critical juncture in the history of the Commonwealth (taking place approximately 400 years in the future), which is a grouping of star systems linked by wormholes, "Pandora's Star" is intricately plotted, giving us a rich array of characters, all of whom are fleshed out and complete. Two stars, some distance from the farthest outpost, were somehow covered by a barrier hundreds - if not thousands - of years ago. When an astronomer discovers that the barriers went up almost instantaneously and close to the same time, the Commonwealth decides to build the first starship in hundreds of years to go out and take a look. While examining the barrier, it suddenly goes down, exposing a strongly technological - and very aggressive - society of a hive-mind type creature that calls themselves Prime. The Prime immediately set out creating their own wormholes, so they can eradicate the humans and take over their worlds. But is this the only enemy? A cult group calling itself the Guardians of Selfhood have been claiming for decades that another alien, whom they call the Starflyer, is set to destroy the Commonwealth and they believe that the Starflyer is itself responsible for releasing the Prime. For what reason?

This is the very bare-bones of the ideas covered in this book. Every character that is introduced, no matter how minor, is fleshed out and real. Nigel and Ozzie, who created the wormholes - Paula Myo, who is obsessed with shutting down the Guardians - Mark Vernon, who lives on a distant world in a settlement dedicated to a clean, fairly simple life after dropping out of the fast lane . . . these are just a few of the many characters that Hamilton brings to glowing life.

This book receives a strong recommend from me for anyone who likes sci fi in general; space opera in particular; or just a book with a gripping plot and strong characters. Terrific!!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book. I haven't read much science fiction and have read several duds (some of which are supposedly sci-fi classics and must reads) so Science Fiction over all doesn't have a very good track record with me in terms of a "good read". When it comes to horror and fantasy I know what I like and my instincts for such books has done me well in that I have read very few duds over the years in those genre's. However that instinct did pay off in this regards. Pandora's Star ended up being a pretty good book.
Setting. (5 Stars)
Out of all the books I have read in my life, I would say that the Intersolar Commonwealth setting for Pandor's Star has got to be one of my favorites. Hamilton goes into great detail about the life and culture of the Commonwealth and a lot of the issues going on in this setting somewhat mirror our own. It is roughly set 400 years from the current time and humankind has spread out to the stars having colonized six hundred worlds. Humanity has accomplished this by the use of wormholes that allow for instantaneous travel from one planet to another. At the time the book starts they are beginning what they call "Phase Three" expansion.
Another aspect of the setting I like is the rejuvenation and re-life of people. When people get to a certain age they can rejuvenate themselves and thus extend their life. Some characters have been around for over three hundred years. Death isn't even permanent for people. They are able to store their memories and if they die somehow, those memories are downloaded into a clone, essentially giving that person a new life. Several characters have died in the course of this book and have come back thanks to this. One character in particular has three versions of himself running around at one point.
One of the other things I really like about the setting is that the aliens encountered are actually aliens, not reskinned humans that we find in a lot of science fiction. There is an exception to this still and that there are humanoid aliens, such as the Silfen (I call them, as well as characters in the book, space elves) but even then their attitude and behavior is very alien to us. The aliens such as the Prime, Raiel, and Tochee(Character name not his race) are all very much alien. This gives the setting a bit more "authentic" feel than your typical sci-fi setting.
Characters (5 Stars)
One of the drawbacks to this book are the amount of characters Hamilton throws at you. Like with any book with multiple characters you like some more than others. The ones that you like tend to have fewer pages and scenes while the ones that were "meh" seem to drag on forever. Overall, I did like the characters presented, but felt that there could be a few less to tell the overall story.
One character stands out above the others for me, only because of its uniqueness. That is Tochee. He is a true alien in the sense when it comes to humans in that he has a way of communicating that isn't very obvious and most people felt he was just a very "smart animal". But another character figured out how to communicate with him and has become a major character in that regard.
Another character I found interesting was MorningLightMountain. The Prime. Hamilton wrote part of the story from its point of view giving an indepth look into the Primes and what they are and the motivation behind it. All I am going to ass about MLM is that its the main antagonist of the setting, but yet you get an very good understanding of why its doing what its doing.
Story.(4 stars)
The story was well paced, but there were a few moments when it got bogged down in the minutia of the setting details and plotting. The overall story is about a conflict brewing between the Commonwealth and the Prime, with a third alien in the background manipulating events for its own reasons. The story jumped between space exploration, detective story, and the hero's journey styles of storytelling. All three are mixed in to tell a larger narrative. I won't go into the details of the story here, But the conflict with the Prime is just part of a larger plot dealing with the manipulations of the third alien called the Starflyer.
Overall.
I enjoyed this book overall. It kept my interested and when I slogged through the boring parts I was rewarded with some excitement and action which kept me going through the end. It held steady at 5 stars for most of the book for me but at one point towards the end, it went down to 4, then back up to five in the last fifty or so pages. I found it to be a good read and I recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction. It may not be for everyone, but that is the case for any book. Now onto the next book, Judas Unchained to see what happens next.

Pandora's Star is the first book in a two part saga and a 6 book epic series. This is the first book in the series which will introduce the characters who will be in the next 4 (Misspent Youth is unrelated and only serves as an introduction to the system of immortality in the series).

Lots of other reviews have done well describing the plot and frustrations they felt after reading only this first part, so I am not going to get into that. What I will say is that after you get through the (admittedly vast) character building scenes in pandora's star and judas unchained, the series opens up into one of the most ambitious and incredible series ever with the Void Trilogy. All five books should be viewed as a continuous story with two halves, and pandoras star is the "first half" of the first half of the story, if that makes sense. The series as a whole is my favorite of all time, just be prepared to slog through some parts of Pandora's Star.

Sometimes, it's nice to read a story with some real meat to it, a sprawling epic that runs at least 800 pages. It makes the 300-400 page books seem like mere appetizers, delicious but not all that filling. These epics, however, are the main course. Of course, the portion size only makes a difference if its worth consuming: in the case of Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star, the author has served up a winner.

At nearly a thousand pages, Pandora's Star would be substantial enough, but actually, it is only half of a story that concludes with Judas Unchained. After a brief prologue, the story begins in the late 24th Century, when mankind has, through wormhole technology, spread out among the stars. The Intersolar Commonwealth is a prosperous community of worlds, where people can live practically forever through rejuvenation processes; even death is not really scary, as individuals download their memories and reinstall them into clones. While not a complete utopia, the Commonwealth is in many ways an ideal society.

Against this backdrop, astronomer Dudley Bose makes an incredible discovery when he observes a star disappear. It is quickly evident that the star system in question has actually been contained in a giant force field of some sort. Wilson Kime, the four hundred year old former astronaut who is one of the last individuals alive to be in a "regular" space flight (a Mars mission that ended in an unexpected manner) is tapped to pilot the first true faster-than-light ship in an effort to find out more about this missing star. This mission, however, takes an unexpected turn when the force field disappears shortly after they arrive.

Thus, the Dyson Alpha system is really the Pandora's Star of the title: like the mythical box, once opened, all sorts of bad things begin, none of which are really resolved in this novel (which is, as said previously, not really a standalone book but really just part one of a 2000 page saga).

There are lots of plot lines woven together in this story. It's hard to really define a central character, but the main protagonists (among the dozens of characters) include Kime, whose piloting work is only the first task he will undertake for the Commonwealth; there is Ozzie Isaac, who is seeking his own answers to some cosmic riddles and will go on a quest that will take him to some strange and hostile planets; and there is Paula Myo, a top-notch detective whose investigations into a political/terrorist movement will lead her to suspect some grand conspiracies.

This is grand space opera, taking place on many worlds with many characters and such science fiction staples as space travel and weird alien races. It is to Hamilton's credit that he can make this all work well (so far) without the story ever dragging. I am giving this the full five stars, but in a way, it is conditional; a bad conclusion in the next book will diminish this one as well. But for what it is, Act One of a two-act story, Pandora's Star is a success and should be enjoyed by any science fiction fan willing to give it the time (and given the number of multi-volume stories out there, there should be no lack of such fans).

Peter F. Hamilton has written his usual lengthy, well-thought-out book of a complex future society which comes into sudden crisis. This is the first book of a two-part series.
In a prologue, Hamilton gives us a great telling of the first Mars landing-which becomes a dream revenge against NASA and its culture. One might think the whole book was written to justify this scene.
But jump ahead a few centuries. Mankind has spread to hundreds of planets, linked by trains which pass through wormholes connecting worlds. With this technology, spaceships are not needed and almost unknown. Prosperity is widespread if not universal, expansion continues at a gradual pace, and the few alien species found so far range from friendly to indifferent.
When two distant stars are discovered to be each surrounded by a sphere, the discovery provokes only mild interest. But when an obscure astronomer learns that the envelopment took place in less than a second, interest turns to alarm, and the first major space expedition in centuries is sent to learn more. But space exploration proves to be a two-way street . . .
Much like the Night's Dawn trilogy, this book has many point-of-view characters, allowing us to follow multiple storylines in this complex book. Hamilton shows his usual talent for getting mankind into a serious fix. Still to be seen is if he can get the species out of it in a convincing manner (something he was not completely successful with in "The Naked God" and "Fallen Dragon.") With artificial intelligence playing a major part in the latter portion of the book, we may be headed for a true deus ex machina solution. And when one of our point of view characters, in search of alien knowledge, picks up a teenage hitchhiker along the way, every literary convention there is tells us that the kid has to play a major part in the outcome . . .
On a negative note: Hamilton, a Brit, should really watch his tendency to have his characters speak British English and exhibit British culture, without any explanation (he did the same thing in Night's Dawn). When an American-born character uses a term like "non-starter" (p. 188) and eats oatcakes (p. 189), it is rather jarring.
A good first part. Let's see where he goes with the second one.

The thing I like the most about Peter Hamilton's writing is his vision of what they future may well bring, and truth be known, it might not be that far away.

Yet again we have been treated to a massive tome of work with Pandora's Star weighing in at over 1,140 pages. And it's only book one! I love a massive book as it really allows me to get into the characters, the storyline and the entire universe that the author creates. Sure there are some sub-plots in this first book which have me wondering just where Peter is going with them, but I have no doubt it will come together in the next book, especially if it's of similar size to this one.

While Pandora's Star is undoubtedly a book of science fiction, and some very interesting future concepts are used, I wouldn't call the writing "high" science fiction. By that I mean it's very readable and I'm not left with my head spinning around concepts I can never hope to understand. This is not to say the book is dumbed down, not at all, I just don't feel like I require an advanced quantum physics degree to enjoy it.

Hands up who wants an e-butler? I know I want one.

Beautiful worlds, beautiful and sexy characters, a menacing alien race and another possible supernatural angle. Oh yeah, give me more of that classic Peter Hamilton imagination that had me enthralled with the Night's Dawn Trilogy.

I enjoyed this book immensely - but I do recommend you purchase the sequel, otherwise you will really be left hanging at a crucial plot point. The scope of this book is amazing - wildly complicated plot centering on the discovery of hostile aliens intent on destroying the Commonwealth, and Investigator Myo's search for an undercover/terrorist group who believe that leaders of the Commonwealth have been compromised by yet another alien - The Starflyer. All the threads of the story slowly draw together, and Hamilton moves deftly between the various characters,( including an elf like race the Silfin, the human created artificial intelligence SI, and many very long lived human characters) as the plot twists and turns. Overall, Hamilton has created an astonishingly inventive universe and this book is well worth reading.

Plenty of other reviews provide plot synopsis, etc. Here are aspects that I didn't see as much of:

1. Overall Believability of Setting:
Hamilton's slick style pulled me right in, and a richly detailed "movie" began playing in my mind's eye almost immediately. I have read very few authors who do this so well -- Julian May is one of the few who comes to mind.

2. Future Tech:
This work bristles with technology; some mundane, some wicked cool, and some worthy of making you stop and ponder. Very fun.

3. Characters:
Yes, there are loads of them, and a mind-boggling number of story threads. Personally, I don't like having to stop reading, to refer to a Dramatis Personae. Uncomfortable at first, I soon realized that though I may not immediately recognize a character thread chapters later, there were always enough "breadcrumbs" in the new thread for my brain to find the link back.

With so many to juggle, Hamilton has to set-up characters quickly, and make them stick. I think he does this very well, with excellent hooks: quirks, interesting points-of-view, a feeling for a loved one, the impact of interaction with technology, etc.

4. Humor: Ask yourself, when was the last time you read Sci-Fi that actually made you laugh out loud? Give up? Read this :-)

5. Entertainment Value: A Bargain Bonanza. This book, plus its sequel, Judas Unchained, are two thousand pages of amazingly great entertainment (would make a great series on the Sci-Fi Channel!)

(3.5 stars, really)

Enjoyable but not-quite-first-rate space opera, Pandora's Star is as much about the politics and foibles of an imagined future human society as it is about exploring the galaxy and alien mysteries. To his credit, Hamilton does a fine job of managing the many threads of his sprawling plot and his large cast of characters, gradually steering them across a dozen worlds to a heart-racing confrontation in the book's final quarter. I also found his conception of a hostile alien species to be quite enjoyable in its almost anthropological detail. That said, Hamilton is a bit of a wooden writer, filling pages and pages with exposition. Many of his characters and sci-fi creations are a little formulaic, and I have a hard time taking too seriously any novel that posits massive advances in technology four hundred years into our future, but envisions a society that's still pretty recognizable to present-day readers. (Think of the differences between the 1600s and now -- the world of 2400 ought to be a stranger one.)

But, Hamilton obviously put some heart into the story, and there's enough interesting stuff going on that it held my attention. Not quite as imaginative or evocative as the best space opera out there (see Dan Simmon's Hyperion), but if you like your science fiction epic and densely-plotted, you might enjoy this book.

"Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton, has been deservedly compared to Asimov's "Foundation" and Herbert's "Dune." Some of the more astute reviewers also mention Nivens' and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye," and Simmons' complex "Hyperion."

In Hamilton's vision of the late 24th century, hundreds of worlds within hundreds of light years from the Earth have been peopled (collectively known as the "Commonwealth"), not by way of space ships, but through man-made stable wormholes, originally conceived and built in the late 21st century by Ozzie Isaac and Sheldon Nigel, two of the book's main characters. Virtually all of the one hundred billion human beings are connected by instantaneous communication -- the Cybersphere, basically a futuristic internet, which is built in the brain along with other electronic enhancements.

The other great human advancement concerns mortality; specifically, every 20 years or so, those humans who can afford it get "rejuvenated" and restored to an earlier age. If one dies in some accident -- no problem -- most have available a dormant clone who is quickly aged by artificial means to adulthood, and who then receives all of the memories from a built in "memory cell," which has recorded all of the original person's life experiences. With this technological "advancement," Hamilton asks some very complicated ethical questions about aging, and what it really means to be an individual person.

As the story unfolds with an enormous cast of characters (the book would really benefit from a reference guide, ala "Lord of the Rings," so that one doesn't need to refer to earlier chapters as a reminder of whose who) a second-rate astronomer, Dudley Bose, observes (or, perhaps, is made to observe) the sudden disappearance of two stars, Dyson Alpha and Dyson Beta. This completely baffling phenomenon also interests the two extremely advanced aliens that humans have come into contact with: the secretive "High Angel" (think of the aliens in Clarke's "Childhood's End") and the childlike, enigmatic, elf-like "Silfen" (who remind me of several advanced but child-like aliens in the "Star Trek" series). Also interested in this phenomenon is the "SI," a massive computer program that has become self-aware (sound familiar?). It quickly becomes evident that all three of these entities have their own hidden agendas.

Another major character is Paula Myo, a famous criminologist known throughout the Commonwealth, who, for over a hundred years, has been hunting down Bradley Johannson, the leader of a quasi-terrorist group which are convinced that various important leaders are being controlled by an alien known as the "Starflyer," considered to be a mere myth by the vast majority.

While Hamilton attempts (I believe successfully) to juggle a number of plots at once, the main one involves the exploration of the Dyson pair by humans on a starship with faster than light travel. Basically, a huge force field around these stars is discovered, which suddenly disengages when the starship approaches, resulting in the release of aliens known as "Primes." These absolutely terrifying aliens can best be described as a combination of the "Borg," George R.R.Martin's "Sandkings," and the creature that a bunch of humans turn into in Dean Koontz' "Midnight." Another words, they ain't pretty and they're coming for us. We are first introduced to the inner world of the Primes in Chapter 18, a chapter so intense, that the book was literally shaking in my hands.

The second main story concerns Ozzie's (remember him? He's one of the guys who first developed the wormhole hundreds of year earlier) adventure on the "Silfen Paths" which takes him, and other companions, on a journey through a number of harsh worlds. The Silfens, although obviously incredibly advanced, still enjoy something so primitive as hunting "ice-whales," which might described as a combination of a whale and T-Rex in a bad mood.

As pointed out already by several reviewers, alot in "Pandora's Star" has previously been covered by other sci-fi writers. Also, some of the science is clearly questionable. For myself, I can accept the notion of stable wormholes quicker than the idea that humans could not only readily populate so many other planets, but could also eat the native food and breathe the native air. But these quibbles do not diminish Hamilton's monumental accomplishment here. Of course there are slow parts of the book; after all, my edition is 988 pages long, and as I already mentioned, Hamilton's modus operandi seems to be to have a number of story lines. Simply put, "Pandora's Star" is incredible, as good as any space opera I have ever read.

It's unfortunate that some readers were unaware that this book is only Volume One (to be followed up by "Judas Unleashed," which will be available in January 2006). Perhaps the publishers should have been more forthcoming, but to blame Hamilton is rather unfair. I can't wait until the sequel, and may even spring for the hard-cover version, which is quite a rarity for me.

Unlike the Reality Disfunction trilogy and Falling Dragon, which were very fluid, sometimes I felt like I could do without so much description. Hamilton overdid it.

I also found many similarities between some characters of the trilogy and this book. I won't go in detail to avoid spoiling it for you, but some were old ideas with a new twist.

That being said, I enjoyed the book and could not wait to get the sequel (same thing happened with the trilogy). If you have enjoyed previous Hamilton books, you will enjoy this one too. If not, I'd suggest reading Falling Dragon first, then the Trilogy, and then this one. Take into account that "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained" are one book. There is no conclusion at the end of "Pandora's Star".

I absolutely love Hamilton's prose. He's like the George Martin of Space Opera, but like George Martin, I think sometime he casts too broad a net. That said, I love reading his work.

The incredibly rich tapestry he weaves is magical. His projection of what society might be like with virtual immortality (re-life) is fascinating. He also creates some well drawn and engaging characters (Paula Mayo is my fav!). I especially enjoy the fascinating technology he develops and incorporates.

This is my first of Hamilton's books, and I can't wait to read them all!

So you've read Night's Dawn and Fallen Dragon and looking for more...

You won't be disappointed. The world painted in Pandora's Star is very realistic and what I love about Hamilton - coherent.

The only things I found disappoiting are The Narrative (never bothered me before) and failing to take into account today's social dynamics.

I happen to agree with S. Robinson regarding Chineese and Japanese space ambitions (Mars trilogy). But there's no mention of either nation in the inter-stellar society... Combined with commonwealth government based on US model... it's a possibility, but not the one I'd bet on. And as we see the saga unrolling - not a pleasant one either.

So, read it and wait till October for conclusion in Judas Unchained.

Pandora's Star (2004) is the first novel in the Commonwealth Saga duology. Sometime in the near future, after many delays, America sent the first expedition to Mars, only to find an Englishman waiting for them outside the interface to the world's first artificial wormhole. Compressed Space Transport, the company built to exploit the new technology, became the basis for the Commonwealth, which by 2380 AD has expanded to roughly four hundred lightyears in diameter.

The Commonwealth has found various sentient species among the stars and has both diplomatic and commercial relationships with two starfaring species. The Silfen look like elves, talk in riddles, and supposedly have non-mechanistic pathways among the stars. The High Angel is an artificial sentient controlling a monstrous spaceship, probably with FTL capabilities, that has outriders containing cities full of various alien species apparently collected along the way.

In this novel, Dudley Bose discovers that Dyson Alpha, one of a pair of stars surrounded by Dyson spheres, was enclosed in less than a second. Former speculations about the pair assumed a material enclosure, but only a force field could have been erected in that elapsed time. Since the stars are far outside the reach of the current CST network, the Commonwealth decides to build a spaceship with its own wormhole generator to go out and investigate the anomaly.

The Guardians of Selfhood are a militant group that are waging a war against the Starflyer, an alien that they believe traveled in the vacant arkship found on the planet Far Away. Bradley Johansson, the founder of the Guardians, has stated that the Starflyer controls the minds of the personnel of the Research Institute that is examining the arkship and that the alien has long since moved into human space to influence the public through its dupes and slaves. The Guardians broadcast a shotgun message claiming that the Starflyer is behind the move to travel to Dyson Alpha. They start working against the project and eventually try to destroy it.

Paula Myo is a Chief Inspector at the Serious Crimes Directorate. She has been hunting Bradley Johansson for one and a half centuries. It is her only unsolved case. She is dispatched to investigate the attack on the spaceship and catches many small fry, but not Bradley Johansson.

This story is reminiscent of The Mote in God's Eye. Curious humans follow an anomaly to discover a very expansionist, aggressive society isolated from the rest of the galaxy, but soon find themselves with a tiger by the tail. Moreover, crewmembers are trapped by the natives. However, this novel builds upon and surpasses the Niven & Pournelle opus in the threat level and strangeness of the aliens. Moreover, it depicts the breakout of the alien Primes into human space.

The story is written in the same multi-threaded format as the Night's Dawn Trilogy. The various characters, and their threads, sometimes are confusing. The story also builds slowly to a climax, although the ending in this volume has all the action that anyone could want. The concluding volume, Judas Unchained, should be out in 2005.

Highly recommended for Hamilton and Niven/Pournelle fans as well as anyone else who enjoys tales of strange and powerful aliens threatening human civilization.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I'm assuming by now the reader will have some idea of the plot from other reviews...

Hamilton seems to have two aptitudes in great supply: production of text and originality of thought. Alas, the intersection of the two doesn't always produce the neatest or most concise SF.

Call me fussy, but don't editors have an obligation to pare down text when the author - trying to be thorough and complete - over-produces content? I thought about this while skipping over pages and pages of profoundly unnecessary dialog.

Space Opera like this provides us sprawling and truly innovative plot arcs. So it seems wise to keep the story centered and focused - as it is, like a mudslide this story careens and slides towards a saddeningly obvious conclusion. Both volumes of this story could have been compressed into a single 600 page book.

Science Fiction? Did someone compare this to Dune? This is more like a travelogue book (of planets, most all of which are earthlike) combined with an episode of NCIS. I usually look forward to reading each evening, but that wasn't the case with this book. I kept reading and reading. hoping it would get better only to find a cliff hanger ending that would require you to start the next book in this "saga" just to finish the scene in which the first book ended. This is no Dune,

Great book, great series! The void series is even better. The reviews compare Peter to Asimov and even Tolstoy. I would say a more modern comparison is Robert Jordan, though he wrote fantasy. Hamilton just sets the world in detail like Jordan did, to me. I hope you read and enjoy the books!

I rated this book five stars because I read it when it came out several years ago, not realizing that the second book had not been completed. I've been haunting bookstores ever since waiting for "Judas Unchained". The book has kept me on the edge of my seat for years.

Now that Judas Unchained is out, I read the last 200 pages of Pandora's Star to catch up on the plot. I'm glad I did. There was no way I would have remembered all the characters, plot twists, conspiracies, and world details if I hadn't done that.

Hamilton is a great hard science fiction writer. What if we could travel between planets by wormhole as easily as we travel between cities? What if we could live forever through constant rejuvination? What if we could be melded with our computers and the internet into world of complete wet-wired communication?

Hamilton takes on all these questions at once and builds the Commonwealth. An unforgettable universe of human expansion and individuality. Then he creates the perfect enemy to threaten this world.

The result is a book whose momentum will drive you straight to Judas Unchained to see how it all resolves.

I think there really was a good book in there. But, like others, I found it difficult to slog through an overabundance of descriptive detail. Detail that was not very interesting in and of itself (which would have been redemptive) and detail that contributed little to the story. Detailed descriptions of clothing (but not so much about the people wearing it), tedious forays into geography/geology (some writers can make it interesting -- perhaps by scaling it back), too much info about the technology (I don't care who invented it, or when, etc. Too much bloat, basically.

But I still give it 4 stars. And none of them are pity stars.

The universe is nicely realised -- the characters are believable, the effects of rejuvenation on society well thought through, and the stagnating effects of longevity and instant communication are also well thought through. I have one niggle, his grammar sucks. The last sentence is an example of his style: he doesn't appear to know when to use a semicolon. The simple rule is if you could use a full stop, a semicolon could also apply. Another thing: his science is rather vague. He talks about "arrays" when we would use "computers" today, but there is no explanation of the difference (other than that people making big money out of computers suddenly went bust). Another example: the physics of wormhole interfaces is left to the imagination a little more than I like. In the earliest example, one side of the wormhole is in California, the other on Mars. Without something like an airlock on the originating side, the higher air pressure in California would have generated suction something like that when an aircraft window blows out in flight. Also, the relative velocities on both sides of the wormhole would require constant adjustment of the coordinates to create an illusion of a stationary portal. In the Mars example, Earth and Mars have different speeds of rotation and are in different orbits around the sun (also at different speeds). Keeping the wormhole "stationary" is a nontrivial problem. Both of these issues are hinted at later in the story (the relative speed one becomes critical at one point), but I prefer the scientific basis of SF to be established early, not allowed to drift with the plot.

Another aspect I find a bit unbelievable (but a pretty common flaw in this kind of fiction) is how so many of the critical characters manage to meet each other in a universe with hundreds of human worlds.

The book is structured around episodes, so you need a reasonable memory (aided by the dramatis personae at the front of the book) to keep track. This is a useful literary artifice to keep the story moving at a rapid pace, yet build up substantial personalities and background over a lengthy tome.

Another thing I like about the book is the way it's structured as a detective story. The overall puzzle to be solved stretches over 2 volumes, but there are sub-puzzles which are resolved faster.

I found this a pleasant summer read; I'm hoping the sequel will be out as promised in time for my next summer break (end of year in the Southern Hemisphere).

I enjoyed this very much, but also have a couple quibbles. Like several other reviewers, I thought it could be streamlined some with some better editing. Not down to 1/3 the original size, as some suggest, but we could have done with a bit less unnecessary description/subplots.

Second, I found the whole plotline involving Ozzie and his quest in the wilds to be completely boring and a waste of time. I started skimming those sections, ended up skipping them entirely as I really didn't care. Also, Ozzie talking like a 20th century surfer dude was annoying, even if he is supposed to have originated from that time period.

I loved the Night's Dawn Trilogy (?), and this was very comparable. Lots of characters, a vast future universe, and tons of subplots. I would recommend it, but am hoping for Volume 2 to be a bit less meandering.

Secret alien plot uncovered.

This one is a bit slow to get going, following some media and political goings on, and the discovery by a garden variety astronomer of what appear to be disappearing stars. This includes the introduction of one bimbette viewpoint character, an investigator, and an underground organisation of people seen to be cooks, that literally believe in an alien conspiracy theory.

The theory is that they were put in Dyson spheres, which indicates some serious technological ability.

This spurs the building of a spaceship, and the discovery that the kook group may just not be that kooky after all, and the alien Starflyer conspiracy may just be real.

You will have to not mind somewhat slow and came-killing lonnnnnnngggg to get through this one to the more interesting end. Still good though, in the washup.

4 out of 5

Let me start this by saying I've read a LOT of sci-fi and fantasy, and I've been reading it all my life. From Asimov to Dick, I've read most of the classics and even more modern sci-fi.
This, my friends, is quite possibly the greatest sci-fi novel I have ever read.
Grand in scale, meticulous in detail, and filled with compelling, believable, and likable characters, Pandora's Star is an epic in modern sci-fi, especially in the "space opera" subset of the genre.
Though the sci-fi part of this book is fantastic (and, in Hamilton's world, well though-out and detailed), it is the characters and the links they have to each other that make it grab you and pull you in--once you pick this book up, it'll be difficult to put it down.
The story is complelling and deceptive--what you think is true isn't, and with each new peice of the puzzle a new answer will seem to show itself, only to be cast in doubt by the next clue. This is not only a masterpiece of sci-fi, it stands out with the best mystery novels as well.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in sci-fi--you won't regret it, and the price of the hardcover is well worth it.
I wait anxiously for the sequel, Judas Unchained. Too bad Pandora's Star was published only this year, we might have to wait a while.

This book could have been a box worth opening. Unfortunately, far too many of the contents consists of pointless meandering prose and unrealistic storytelling, which made me wish I'd never picked it up.

To begin with, the book does have its virtues. Hamilton has a skill with devising big ideas and devising plausible ways that they would play out in the real world. He also writes zippy action sequences that kept me pounding the "next page" key on my reader. He even develops several compelling and interesting story lines.

However, the even greater problems with Hamilton's execution robbed the book of much of its pleasure. Although action scenes are good, there aren't many of them, and Hamilton weighs down everything else with mountains of excess verbiage. Much of the dialog recounts banal exchanges of pleasantries, and adds nothing to advance plot, character, or atmosphere. Sometimes, Hamilton's descriptions create a good sense of place, but all too often they are tiresome catalogs. (A long passage detailing the types of locomotives pulling certain trains is emblematic.) And, as much as the action scenes are good, the political scenes read like transcripts from bad movies. We get a bunch of hokey lines, a throw-away description of political objectives, and move on to the next person. Finally, there are far too many characters with too little development, making it hard to remember who is who.
The final, and greatest, sin in my eyes is that this is not a complete story. The multitude of subplots simply stop on the last page, with the only resolution being . . . buy the next book, and you'll find out what happens. I have nothing against multi-volume stories, but they should either be marked (and marketed) as such, or broken into discrete parts with at least some resolution. Pandora's Star does neither. I bought it for Kindle, and the electronic version, at least, provides no indication that a second purchase is necessary. It was absolutely maddening to stay up late to finish this dog, only to find that it wasn't finished at all.

But after all of this, I'm not going to buy volume two. The problems with this book so far outweigh the entertainment that it's not worth my time or money.

This is one of those books where, when you are finished, you can say you enjoyed it and are looking forward to the sequel, but there were times when I had my doubts. There is a lot of excess and even minutia that could have been edited and the book would have been a better read w/o losing any of the story line.

There are plenty of characters to like and hate (seems like more to hate) and some that seem extraneous. Maybe they will become important in the sequel. One major disappointment was the inevitable attack, it does not come until the top of the 10th inning and then the home team strikes out. I guess this is supposed to help sell the sequel, but I found it to be too abrupt. Another issue I had was the long, drawn out trip through the Silfen pathways, what is that all about?

The bottom line is the book is enjoyable, and I await the sequel. I just hope Hamilton finds it in heart to condense things a little more.

First off, since this book along with Judas Unchained are basically one story split in half, I can't review these two separately.

The basic premise is promising. Human's have discovered a mysterious barrier surrounding two stars. And the opening of this story is good. But it is downhill from there, with the exception of a few scattered gems. But by the end of the story, I was skimming because not only is Hamilton far too verbose, the rest of the story just wasn't so interesting. While trying to not ruin the story, the end resolution is allowed by some surprise invention that really came from nowhere, and is delayed by a ethical controversy that Hamilton never really convinced me was prudent or importan (and in fact, I disagree with his conclusion).

In summary, I was incredibly disappointed with the ending, and the meandering it took to get there. But there were some very creative and storytelling gems along the way.

More B-movie sci-fi fun from Hamilton. Yes, the characters can be stereotypical and one dimensional. Yes, some of the dialogue is groan-inducing. Yes, it's sometimes longer than it has to be. So what? With freaky aliens, fleets of star ships, galactic space battles, giant robot attacks, even an autopsy on a living human written from the alien's perspective, sci-fi fans are 100% guaranteed a good time. Hamilton's imagination never dries up.
I thought the Night's Dawn Trilogy petered out after Reality Dysfunction, a novel Hamilton will be hard-pressed to top, but this one comes closer than anything else he's done. Fallen Dragon was just a teaser. Can't wait for part 2!
PS I wonder if Hamilton read Richard Morgan before he wrote this. His memorycells are a blatant theft of Morgan's cortical stacks, but we'll forgive him.

In this book Peter Hamilton creates a very interesting future universe. One in which all interplanetary travel is done through worm-wholes, instead of spaceships. This peculiarity, matched with nearly immortal people who can backup their personalities as if they were computer data creates a very different outlook on how on faces life.

This different perspective of life is well explored by the author in this book and its sequel - Judas Unchained.

Pandora's Star has a huge number of characters and though their relationship to the main plot is very frequently not obvious for quite some time, they are very easy to keep straight in your mind. The personal stories of these characters add to the richness of the universe as they give you further insight on how life would actually be under those circumstances. Sometimes the fact that the personal stories do not seem to be connected to the main plot can be a bit annoying but, in the end, all stories converge into the main plot.

With the exception of the opening -- -- a detailed, technical description of a manned mission to Mars -- I found the first third of this book disappointing. Once wormholes were introduced, the technical details largely disappeared. The characters were boring -- all of the women were stunningly beautiful, all of the men were smart and ruggedly handsome, and everyone was fabulously wealthy. The fictional technologies -- instant wormhole travel, direct neural connections to the equivalent of the internet -- have been done before by other SF authors. I barely made it through the first three hundred pages.

But then it all started to come together, the characters developed some individuality, and the relationship between the multitude of plot lines became clearer. The remainder of the book got better and better, until at the end I couldn't put it down. It really is worth slugging it out through the slow beginning. I'm now thoroughly enjoying "Judas Unchained."

As for the ending, it does indeed end with a cliff-hanger -- but the Hamilton's resolution of it in Judas Unchained is clever, and made me laugh out loud.

Bottom line -- despite a slow start, this is a fun, enjoyable book.

I thought nothing could top Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy for modern science fiction. Pandora's Star exceeds his previous series, if by just a little. The action and plot get off to a much faster start and things keep chugging along though some of the plot lines seem mostly for description of the world and not an advancement in plot. That might change in the second novel...

As well there are a ton of characters that the reader follows and for the most part they are all interesting though some are clearly doing much more plot advancement than others...each chapter could have several plot line advanced with is good as the point of view keeps changing...and maddening when the reader is left wanting more...and staying up sinfully late satisfying their appetite.

If you like smart science fiction this is a book well worth pickign up. If you are a fan of Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy either you have it already or SERIOUSLY need to get out from under that literary rock you are hiding under.

Its vast expanse of humanity-occupying-space alone earns such a high praise, not to mention its believable characters and intriguing storyline that seems to reach beyond the 24th Century setting. Being an avid sci-fi and space opera reader for nearly thirty years, I know what I love and I loved this book. It's definitely as good as others of its kind, both past and present: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, "Advent of the Corps" and others.

when i first started reading this, i thought - hamilton is reaching even father. as many seperate plot threads, lines of characters, but seemingly even farther apart than in the night's dawn books. but then we see a couple come together- and then the book is done. i should've waited until all three of the books had been published, like i had in the case of the night's dawn books. now i sit here waiting the next book, a year or two in the future. hmpf. definately reccomended for peter hamilton fans, but for those new to his work, i'd reccomend reading the long- but incredible- night's dawn series (the reality dysfunction, the neutronium alchemist, and the naked god) first.

Being a huge fan of the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy, I was naturally very happy to get my hands on this book. If you liked 'Night's Dawn', there's a chance you will find something to your liking in here - but don't expect anything approaching the quality of 'The Neutronium Alchemist'.
In this series (completed by 'Judas Unchained' next year), Hamilton seems to set out to do something similar to what he did in 'Night's Dawn': present a riveting, complex world and then take a sledgehammer to it. The universe in 'Pandora's Star' sure is awfully detailed, and parts of it (such as the trains that travel between worlds) are surely fascinating.
However, the world just doesn't click as neatly as 'Night's Dawn', and I was left with the feeling that, as detailed as this novel was, I just didn't buy into it. There's a LOT of pages in this book used to describe the world, but instead of being mesmerising, they tend to be very frustrating as the author takes the reader by the hand to guide him through yet another human colony vaguely based on Western places, such as Venice or California.
I think this is one of these books that would have benefited from having less, not more. Some parts were very carefully crafted and interesting, while other sub-plots were frustrating for being so boring and leading nowhere. In some cases (the fanfic-level chapter on the court case of a rich businessman, to quote one) was so poorly written and so unappealing that they almost convinced me to put down the book and pick up something else.
Because of the number of secondary characters in the novel, some characters become such clichés that they`re actually painful to read. Mark, the "everyday normal guy" witnessing the events of the novel in the midst of his very boring life, made me groan every time his name showed up. Mellanie, the nubian naive girl who gets mistreated by the rich man she loves blindly, was also very painful to read so stereotypical she was. It's a pity, because they ultimately bury great characters such as Nigel Sheldon or Ozzie, that show a bit more fleshing out. Oh, and to show you how poorly fleshed-out these secondary characters turned out to be, I was unable to find one woman in the novel that was not somehow beautiful and closer to a man's fantasy than an actual believeable woman.
Still; throughout all these gripes is an interesting bit of space opera waiting to unfold. The beauty of 'Night's Dawn' was to see a fully realized world fall to pieces under a new threat. 'Judas Unchained' promises to do exactly that to the world of 'Pandora's Star'. This promise has kept me going through this very long novel: that all I read so far was preparation for Peter Hamilton taking an awesome sledgehammer to his carefully constructed world. That is not to say I harbor fantasies of revenge upon this long novel, but rather that this long preparation might be worth it once Hamilton turns things upside down.
If the followup is up to par with Hamilton's previous works, then this novel might be worth slowly wading through. Here's hoping that it will be: because Pandora's Star in itself is ambitious, but so flawed that it failed to fire up my imagination and really engage me.

This must be one of the grandest sci-fi stories ever conceived. It is comparable only to Star Wars or Dune perhaps in scope.
The universe-building ability of Hamilton is fantastic. He literally spans an entire galaxy and even two galaxies and just builds and builds upon it. His writing is awesome and his imagination limitless. I think this book would warrant 10 stars, but as it is 5 will have to do.
The second installment, Judas Unchained, is likewise incredible, a fitting conclusion to the story:
Judas Unchained

Hundreds of years in the future, fusion power and wormhole technology has enabled mankind to colonize hundreds of worlds in the galaxy. Rejuvenation therapy, cloning and memory copying allow anyone with enough money to live indefinitely. Life's pretty idyllic for citizens; there's plenty of space to live in, mankind has met no hostile aliens and the Commonwealth government is fairly benign. Naturally, this utopia is threatened by forces within and without.

The first hundred-odd pages set the stage and are a bit tedious. There's plenty of characters and each one gets a certain number of pages. Unfortunately, their stories are told with the same style so it's hard to be really interested in them. Once the Commonwealth decides to explore a stellar anomaly, the characters become better defined, the plot picks up pace and the story races to multiple cliffhangers.

Hamilton's great at writing action and creating detailed universes, but his writing can be boring elsewhere. For instance, it was a chore to read the horse-trading between senators for the presidency in the Commonwealth and his characters seem to only experience intimacy by having sex (and plenty of it). Minor niggles aside, this is a very enjoyable space adventure and I look forward to the sequel.

Kam-Hung Soh, 20 November 2005.

This is the 1st book from Hamilton that I've read. Don't you just love the feeling of discovering a new author whose writing completely engages you. Only better feeling is finding out that the author has tens of thousands of pages worth of other books waiting for you.

Hamilton's ability to have so many alternate story-lines going at once is challenging to keep all under my hat. I usually read several books at once, but find I couldn't while reading Pandora's Star. Not enough room in my un-enhanced brain. This is not a complaint, however, just the opposite.

The next book in the series, Judas Unchained, is equally awesome!

Having shown us what he's capable of with the Night's Dawn series, Peter Hamilton has a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, Pandora's Star doesn't quite measure up - which isn't by any means to say that it's a bad book, and I know the 3-star rating I'm giving it might be a fraction harsh (if there was a 3.5 option, I'd give it that) - but the fact remains that it's just overlong for the actual amount of story it contains, and the characterisation is weak. Really weak. While the space opera genre isn't reknowned for its strongly-drawn personalities (David Weber being probably the most notable, and commendable, exception), there just wasn't a single character in this entire book I could relate to. The fact that there's just so many characters is a hindrance, but the main issue I have with the characterisation is that so many of the characters are so old (multiple rejuvenations and/or "re-lifes") that their perspective on the universe is just too remote for the reader to associate with - and also, dare I suggest it, maybe too remote even for Hamilton to write convicingly? The alien POV sequences are somehow more believable than many of the human sections, and in fact these parts of this book are in places quite outstanding (the MorningLightMountain backstory is, in my opinion, one of the absolute best chapters of SF I've read in a long time). Unfortunately, there's just too many stories that are just a little bit too disparate for me. Maybe Judas Unchained will fix this, I don't know - but I think this book could easily have been 30% shorter without losing anything important, and I really wanted a character or two to relate to. But maybe I'm a harsh judge.

One of the best science fiction books I ever read, with a truly credibly alien alien, super AIs, mystery, awesome technology and super-weapons, frolicking adventure, even politics and rebellion thrown in for good measure. Some reviewers didn't like the length, but I didn't want it to end.

I have read books before that were part of a series and even though they they continue in the next book, each book in the series has some type of ending. What I didn't like about this book is that I read almost 1000 pages to be left completely hanging until the sequal! Other than that... it was a great book, very well written. It could have been a little shorter. There was a lot of detail, most ot it incredibly interesting but some was completely useless and uninteresting. This is sci-fi! Why do I care what color of leather pumps Paula is wearing? Anyway that was minor. Will I read the sequal? Of course! I need to get to the conclusion. I wonder if it is just as long?

Excellent story so far... many character's stories are weaved together - really a masterpiece. I hope the sequel keeps up the same quality as this one. Only criticism I've got is the discription of "The Incessant California Sunshine", which shows up at least 3 times in the book (LA Galactic Station, Santa Monica, etc.) - anyone who has really lived near the coast in Southern California would know that we DON'T have a lot of sunshine at least 4-5 months out of the year (around Jan/Feb we get lots of RAIN, and in early summer we are always overcast - the so-called "June Gloom"). I kind of think it was pretty cool putting the LA Galactic Station at Camp Pendleton, but the buildings would be no more "bleached by the sun" than most places (indeed probably less so than most American locales).

I really hated this book. The library version I read was 780 pages long and I made it to 600 before deciding I had wasted enough of my life with it and quit. It is just interminable, confusing, badly organized, and goes on and on and on. The author will never use three words if he can make the point in eight. If edited down to about half its actual length and reorganized it would probably be quite good but, as is, there is far too much boredom mixed in with everything else to be bearable, at least for me.

FYI, I very much enjoyed the previous book I had read by this author.

Frodo gets the Ring to Mt. Doom, Gandalf lives but Gollum dies.
So does Saruman, he's killed by Wormtongue.
Aslan dies but rises again in The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe.
Darth Vader is Luke's father.
Harriet K, WHY did you write a SPOILER without a warning??
I bought this book yesterday and read it until 2am. I'm on about page 300 so not even close to half way. Now rather than heading towards the "amazing cliff hanger" described by the other reviewers you've exposed the whole mountain range!
The reviewer above who posted when he was on about page 250 shows that readers will check this page before they finish the book. Let alone buy it.
Great book, it has the same addictive quailities as the Night's Dawn trilogy.

Its vast expanse of humanity-occupying-space alone earns such a high praise, not to mention its believable characters and intriguing storyline that seems to reach beyond the 24th Century setting. Being an avid sci-fi and space opera reader for nearly thirty years, I know what I love and I loved this book. It's definitely as good as others of its kind, both past and present: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, "Advent of the Corps" and others.

Pandora's Star is a book that will be utterly forgotten and absorbed in the genre without notice. While selling well initially, we don't believe it will (or should) survive subsequent printings. Concepts of digitized consciousness, space expansion, and virtual reality are all done better by John C. Wright and other authors. In short, the book is just too horribly long and tangential to achieve any kind of necessary coherence such to inspire a large and enduring fan base. Space operas should be grandiose, magnificent affairs that offer larger-than-life scenarios. Hamilton gives us pedestrian characters, overly familiar plot points, and nothing which offers to add anything new to the genre itself.

WHY YOU SHOUD READ THIS:

There is a kind of avid reader of speculative fiction who enjoys a certain way of telling stories. He likes to get familiar with his settings, introduced to the characters, and then follow their lives and try to puzzle out where everything is going. These books are interesting to these people in the same ways that people read Dear Abby letters and other features within newspapers and magazines. These are the people who read Otherland by Tad Williams with delight and are still reading The Wheel of Time books. They are probably the same people who read Star Trek novelizations, Star Wars novelizations, Dragonlance novelizations, and wish that Star Trek TNG had gone on creating new episodes forever and ever and ever. These people like to work puzzles. These people will probably like Hamilton's work here in Pandora's Star and his follow up in Judas Unleashed.

WHY YOU SHOULD PASS:

People picking up books in speculative fiction are either looking for Literature with the Capital-L or escapist novels that are exciting thrill rides. This book fails on both sides. Too lacking in ambition to qualify as Literature these people should look to Tolkien or Chiang, Wolfe or Crowley. Those people looking for a thrill ride will find themselves grinding their teeth at every indecent plot shift and continually be "fast-forwarding" through many different chapters as they search vainly through the many plot threads looking for the ones that interest them. It is an exercise in diminishing returns. These people should look to Orson Scott Card, George RR Martin, Greg Bear, or Neal Stephenson's earlier work.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

The people that rate this book poorly almost universally have an unstated, shared feature: they don't like intricate worlds and complex plots that demand a "long" book. Somehow, they want a more simple(-minded) science fiction (?) narrative that still manages to be as entertaining as its details are intuitive/obvious. They fail to appreciate that true science fiction is inherently educational, and the richer the world and story, the more the reader must learn. Some people don't like that. I don't understand what such people are doing even bothering to opening books! If you don't want to learn or don't have the patience for an immersive experience, go read the Divergent, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or 50 Shades series. (I have read the first 3 and didn't dislike them, but they are kids stuff!)

There's a reason classic, *long* novels (like The Count of Monte Christo, Nostromo, etc) were *serialized* productions. Yes, they are long. But the richness of the stories that is only possibly within that length is part of what makes them so great.

Peter F. Hamilton's work really does rise to this level. The Count of Monte Christo teaches you about the dirty details of 19th century Europe. Sinclair's Oil! teaches you the dirty details of early 20th century business and politics. Hamilton teaches you natural implications of modern politics and evolutionary biology colliding with technology whose roots are almost completely already in place. About the only technology appearing in this world that is (so far) pure fiction is useful wormhole travel. If you allow this one literary conceit, the rest of story may as well be a historical primer crossed with DoD-like strategic contingency planning.

If you like to learn, read this series. Read this author. Honestly, probably 75% of non-fiction out there will teach you less-accurate and/or less-useful information.

Better yet, it is a highly entertatining curriculum!

I finally finished Pandora's star and It was really great. It is a total immersion ride, which takes us all across this new universe; rendered almost life like by Mr.Hamilton detailed descriptions of these numerous worlds, cultures and histories.

Even more, the characters are so well made, that I fell in love with everyone of the protagonist, the good guys and the bad guys alike -If you could qualify any of these characters as such- I could even understand the aliens' point of view!

The story builds up slowly, but steadily- I could hardly put the book down in the last couple of hundreds pages- but all the strands of the tale are most interesting and entertaining, furthermore they give an abundance of background info on the societies, culture and humans of that universe.

Once more, Mr. Hamilton has constructed a magnificent space opera, with many believable scientific contraption, entrancing characters and thrilling plot lines. I can't wait for the next installment.

This review also appears on my blog:

[...]

The first time I read any Hamilton was "The Reality Disfunction". I hated it. Never read any of the other trilogy books. However my boyfriend did and though he agreed with some of my issues surrounding the disfunction he also said the trilogy part 2 and three were better.

Naturally given my bad experience I was aprehensive about this book. My boyfriend bought it as we were on a holiday in Europe and it was one of the few English language books we could find at that time. He read it and loved it and told me to try it as it was better than the trilogy. So I did. Imagine my own surprise that I found this book near impossible to put down, gripping and one for the best SF books I have read in ages.

The story is complex, as was the disfunction. Hamilton seems to be hell bound on keeping the timeline intact in all subplots This can be highly confusing. I also think there are too many characters but apart from that it read well.

Essetially the story is about good and evil, isn't it always. But in this case the nuances between good and bad are shown. The reasoning behind things is well described and the people in the book in most cases are sympathetic but flawed, as real people are. For most of the book you are left guessing about the direction the book is going to take, though the mythical figure of starflyer is clearly a major part of the story, this major part is slowly becoming a central plot.

The chapter on Mars is hilarious. So easy to visualise and such a good concept to start off with. Some parts of the book read as a major Hollywood blockbuster, specifically when a whole panet is under attack and when there is a James Bond type scene in Venice. It is written in a fast pace and there is some overload in information, but big fun to read. Then there are the politics and the love stories. In those there are layers that only peek through but tell you a lot about the people involved.

There is much more in this book, real innovative fantasy ("Silfen paths") woven into a fabric of hard SF. You are constantly put on the wrong foot as to where the story is going and I love that. The story is never clear cut, even reading the last page out of curiosity will tell you nothing about where the book is going. The next book ("Judas Unchained") is possibly even better.

Wow! This is one of the best sci-fi books I've read in a long time.

Pandora's Star is a complex, perhaps epic, tale about the evolution of the Commonwealth (note the capital "C"), as it affects a wide variety of characters. With the invention of wormhole generators, humanity found an effective way to colonize the stars. With proper terraforming and zoning, they created designer worlds, such as a world devoted to X-games type sports, industrial worlds, etc. Naturally, as humanity expanded onto new worlds, new political factions evolved, and sentient alien lifeforms are discovered.

The central storyline revolves around a pair of stars that suddenly disappear. Of course, this happened thousands of years ago since light takes time to make it through the galaxy (points to the author for remembering this). Humans decide to launch an exploratory mission to discover what happened to the stars, and unintentionally loose a hostile and powerful lifeform bent on genocide of humans (hence the title of the book I would assume). Adding to the mix of interesting concepts is rejuvenation, allowing anyone with enough money to rejuvenate their body to whatever age they chose, and the interesting concept of Grand Families, who through rejuvenation and the miracle of compounding interest, amass so much money as to run the galaxy and be the true powers behind the government.

Add to this the concept of the Starflyer, a potentially fictional alien whose final agenda is unknown but presumed to be not in the best interest of mankind, and the Guardians of Selfhood, an underground and essentially terrorist organization who are pledged to fight the Starflyer, and it's a merry mix indeed.

For main characters the variety is impressive. There is Wilson Kime, the commander of the initial manned mission to Mars and possessed of exceptional military command presence; Paula Myo, a genetically bred single minded detective who has only had one unsolved case in 130 years (the arrest of a particularly beguiling agent of the Guardians of Selfhood); Nigel Sheldon, one of the co-inventors of the wormhole generator and the head of one of the Grand Families; Ozzie, the other co-inventor of the wormhole generator and semi-anti-authoritarian, except that because of his great wealth he effectively is "the man" when he wants to be; Dudley Bose, the astronomer who first notices the disappearance of the two stars; Melanie, an immature but ambitious gold-digger who sleeps her way to her goals, and the SI, an artificial intelligence created by man who is generally benevolent but seems to also have its own agenda. There are many others, but you get the idea.

Peter Hamilton manages to weave multiple storylines, some of which it is unclear as to how the fit into the main story arc. I'd consider him the "Tom Clancy" of science fiction in this regard. He manages to inject some science into science fiction, considering things like different gravitational forces depending on the mass of the colonized planets that other authors don't bother with. In hindsight it doesn't sound impressive, but he remembers to do this type of thing in a variety of areas, and it just lends credibility to the tale.

The main storylines include political maneuvering by the Grand Families (Nigel Sheldon), the military mission to the disappeared stars (Wilson Kime), the Indiana Jones type adventures of Ozzie, the rise of Melanie (more interesting than it sounds), the plans and raids of the Guardians of Selfhood against the Starflyer, and the investigation of Paula Myro into the Guardians of Selfhood. I may have left out one or two.

The only minor annoyance I found is that the author is British (no, that's not the annoyance) and occasionally some of the descriptions reference buildings in London (e.g., the layout of Parliament) that while I'm sure are accurate, do nothing for helping me visualize the scene.

Lastly, be forewarned that Pandora' Star is only half the story. It literally and metaphorically leaves you mid-stream in the story. You'll have to read "Judas Unchained" to get the second half.

This book is great. I plan on checking out several of Peter Hamilton's other books as soon as I finish this one, which won't be long given how hard it is to put down.

I just finished the audio version and I'm a bit disappointed. The book just abruptly ends at a point where it makes no sense at all to stop. Multi-part series or not, give us some type of logical conclusion. ...even if it's only by wrapping-up a major event or answering a few big questions. The transition needs to make sense in some way. This was just bizarre.

The thing that makes it so frustrating is that the reader is forced to endure, literally, hours of boring dialogue from story-lines that could easily have been dropped from the book without damaging anything. I wanted to hit fast-forward every time a Paula Mio (sp?) scene popped-up. Even now, I can't understand how she's critical to the overall plot but the author wastes a huge amount of time developing her character. On top of that, no opportunity is missed to insert a bit of erotica (the first dozen or so times it was fine. After that it just got kinda creepy and strange). My point is that if you have time to drone-on endlessly about sub-plots that don't really matter, and can afford to explore the sexual nature of every character in the book, then surely you have time to develop the story to a point where it makes sense to end book one and transition into the next.

Don't get me wrong, the main storyline is highly entertaining and there are a lot of things the author does right, hence the 3-star rating. I just find it irritating when an author can't figure-out how to conclude something so they just

;)

Taking trains to other planets was a nifty notion (although a civilization with easy travel through portals and a remote AI consciousness giving guidance to the government will sound familiar to anyone reading Hyperion), and was one reason why so many of the worlds in the book reminded me of the suburbs. That and the fact that the worlds described all had a certain uniform blandness about them, no matter how many pages of pseudo-history Hamilton throws in. They all reminded me of some UK/US/Australian suburbs, definitely a very Western future Hamilton portrays.

The story does take a while to get going, but once it does it is pretty enjoyable, sot he last third of the book is much better than the first. When I picked this book up, given its size I thought it was a standalone, so I was really anxious for something to happen and 400 pages later, not much had happened, though when I found out it was "Book 1" it wasn't quite so bad. Still, could've been shorter or with more plot and less irrelevant background info. Bit overall, a good, light summer read or for reading on the train while commuting to suburbia...

And yes, far too many Briticisms in it.

The action takes place from 2380; humankind has expanded to hundreds of planets connected by wormholes and the Unisphere. Anyone who has money can live for hundreds of years thanks to rejuvenation treatment.

Everything is seemingly blooming and nice, but a secret brotherhood, The Guardians of Selfhood, keeps insisting that humankind is being manipulated by an invisible alien, whose ship was found on one now inhabited planet - the Far Away. The brotherhood is making preparations, smuggling weapons and weird pieces of equipment in order to face the alien. Of course, no sane people would listen to their blabber.

But things change when an ageing astronomy professor discovers the disappearance of two distant stars. A starship is sent to investigate and as they reach their target it sparks off a terrible war and it becomes evident that it was all engineered and manipulated by someone/something.
As is customary for Hamilton, the first half of the book is mostly taken up by the introduction of places and characters, and the action only really picks up in the second half of the boom. The characters are opened in-depth and chewing through all the descriptions is fully rewarded - so enjoy every word! Technologies are attractive - for instance, the rejuvenation treatment and e-functional OC tattoos covering the skin, which people can choose to have in different colours (mmm...).

Although there is a multitude of characters and places and a horde of descriptions - as is characteristic of Hamilton - it has to be said that this Commonwealth Saga is a lot more compact and fast-paced compared to the Night`s Dawn trilogy.

I have to admit that there is a space fight/flight that was so intense that I had to put the book down after reading - my hands shook so much. I had, perhaps got too involved in the story, but maybe this is a good indication of how engaging it is. In my opinion, if you pick up this book, your kids, husband and dogs will be unfed for about a week - well, depending on your reading pace. Anyways, the best thing Hamilton has written so far.

Yes, this is not a complete novel. This is the first installment of a collection and none of the plots, subplots, etc. are resolved at the end of this book. You are left hanging, waiting for the next installment.

As many reviewers mentioned, this book has a multitude of characters. The plot lines are so numerous that it makes for a bit of confusion. I contemplated putting this book aside on several occasions, but held on to the end, hoping to see the outcome. I was disappointed. The end was not the end of the story. No resolution or closure. I'm sorry that I bought it. I won't buy the next.

I just finished this book yesterday. During most of the time I was reading it, I couldn't force from my mind thoughts of how unnecessarily long it was. The book has far too many characters, some of whom you probably won't give a rat's fart about in the last third of the book. Some characters could have been removed entirely from the novel without any impact on the storyline whatsoever.

The flow of the novel also had a terribly annoying habit of coming right out of a climactic sequence only to take a nose dive in a desert-like interlude where probably another character was introduced. This was particularly painful toward the end of the story, as the plot begins to unfold at a faster pace. The temptation was overwhelming to speed read or skip ahead an return to the action, so to speak. There also tended to be a lot of dry descriptions where I would have to concentrate quite a bit to visualize the scene. Contrast with Alastair Reynolds whose descriptive prose practically forces an image in your head.

After two paragraphs of negativity, I want to make clear that this is still a book that any fan of the space opera sub-genre will want to read. The storyline is indeed epic. I still shudder at the introduction of the lead alien antagonist; it was frightfully moving, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I'll be picking up the sequel this afternoon.

This novel is 700 pages. The first 600 pages are basically people having conversations. Almost nothing happens until the end when Humanity is attacked by the aliens. Then we find out that the novel is continued in a second book. It seems that the first 600 pages are "filler" that one can sleep through.
It seems to me that the author was required to produce a certain number of pages, regardless of whether or not he had enough of a plot.
I understand that Hamilton is considered a talented writer, but is difficult for me to understand why. I would recommend any of Robert Sawyer's books to those who want to read excellent sci-fi.
This type of writing by authors like Hamilton, is due, in part, to the new trend among writers to leave the book unfinished so they can produce a sequel. This creates the need to artificially inflate the number of pages.

Pandora's Star is a book of epic proportions. It shows boundless imagination and is truly striking in its breadth and detail. Plot elements include (but are not limited to) numerous different worlds, an "Intersolar Commonwealth," cults, vanishing stars, wormholes, interstellar starships not limited by light speed, repeated physical rejuvenation of body and mind, and a fascinatingly inhuman alien life form. It is also daunting in length. For me, the book took fully 700 pages to reach ramming speed, but it was so rich and unique that the effort itself seemed worthwhile. I intend to read the sequel, "Judas Unchained," and I'm looking forward to seeing what Hamilton does with the universe he has created.

The book goes from laborious to exciting and back to laborious in a matter of a few pages. At one point about 300 pages in, I struggled with whether or not to throw it away. I kept reading, as I had already invested so much time. The story is quite interesting, but after finishing the book, there are many parts that seem frivolous and unnecessary.

The biggest disappointment came in the last few pages. The way Mr. Hamilton chose to end this first of two books outraged me, and I nearly tore the book to pieces as I finished the last sentence. The end of Pandora's Star was anti-climactic and a bit insulting to the reader. As cliffhangers go, well, it was less like a cliff and more like a curb.

I just finished it, and it is quite a project to read. I just don't understand the gripers in other reviews complaining about everything from using wormholes (please, its science FICTION, fer crissakes) to too many boring subplots.

Yes, there is a lot going on in this novel. I personally enjoy the complexity of all the subplots, and what others consider bloat and 300 pages of excess, I enjoy as the kind of detail and narrative you need to flesh out a complete world, or universe in this case. Of course its not perfect and there are places it drags a bit for me. But that does not detract much from the overall experience. And several complained that the story didn't "resolve" and that they had to wait for the next novel to find out what happens. One can only pity such an attitude. Go play video games if you want quick resolution. It gives me something to look forward to.

So, if you like short punchy, no-nonsense stories that include just the nuggets and not the whole complex panorama of the story, by all means avoid this one. I just happen to think it is one of the most engrossing SF efforts I have read in a long time.

I read Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy long before this, and had recently read his single novel Fallen Dragon, so I am familiar with Hamilton's ability to build complex worlds on all levels.
This book is amazing in scope, detail, suspense and action. I loved it. The most frustrating characters by far are those who are fighting the Stargazer, their acts seem ludicrous and devastating and pointless. But Hamilton makes it all work on so many levels.
I had no idea this was going to require a sequel, until the very end and that was frustrating but it was worth the ride.

I loved this series. Based on the British science fiction writer's previous novel, Misspent Youth. Pandora's Star propagates technologies and ideas developed in that earlier work two hundred years into the future. However, the series stands on its own. Having not read Misspent Youth did not detract from my enjoyment of this very insightful and entertaining series. Hamilton's ability to envision the ultimate outcome of tomorrow's technological advances is unmatched in the genre.

Dean M. Cole
Author of SECTOR 64: Ambush

This book is billed as a classic must read space opera, and it doesn't fail to deliver. ~1000 pages of excruciating detail about 'The Commonwealth', the human space empire based solely on travel via wormhole. Clever weaving of multiple story-lines leads to one of the most chilling scenes I've ever read in science fiction... along about page 750 or so. A very satisfying cliffhanger ending has me looking for the sequel (another ~1000 pager). Only for the serious fan of science fiction and space empire lovers. Well worth the time to read.

Wow! This is one of the best sci-fi books I've read in a long time.

Pandora's Star is a complex, perhaps epic, tale about the evolution of the Commonwealth (note the capital "C"), as it affects a wide variety of characters. With the invention of wormhole generators, humanity found an effective way to colonize the stars. With proper terraforming and zoning, they created designer worlds, such as a world devoted to X-games type sports, industrial worlds, etc. Naturally, as humanity expanded onto new worlds, new political factions evolved, and sentient alien lifeforms are discovered.

The central storyline revolves around a pair of stars that suddenly disappear. Of course, this happened thousands of years ago since light takes time to make it through the galaxy (points to the author for remembering this). Humans decide to launch an exploratory mission to discover what happened to the stars, and unintentionally loose a hostile and powerful lifeform bent on genocide of humans (hence the title of the book I would assume). Adding to the mix of interesting concepts is rejuvenation, allowing anyone with enough money to rejuvenate their body to whatever age they chose, and the interesting concept of Grand Families, who through rejuvenation and the miracle of compounding interest, amass so much money as to run the galaxy and be the true powers behind the government.

Add to this the concept of the Starflyer, a potentially fictional alien whose final agenda is unknown but presumed to be not in the best interest of mankind, and the Guardians of Selfhood, an underground and essentially terrorist organization who are pledged to fight the Starflyer, and it's a merry mix indeed.

For main characters the variety is impressive. There is Wilson Kime, the commander of the initial manned mission to Mars and possessed of exceptional military command presence; Paula Myo, a genetically bred single minded detective who has only had one unsolved case in 130 years (the arrest of a particularly beguiling agent of the Guardians of Selfhood); Nigel Sheldon, one of the co-inventors of the wormhole generator and the head of one of the Grand Families; Ozzie, the other co-inventor of the wormhole generator and semi-anti-authoritarian, except that because of his great wealth he effectively is "the man" when he wants to be; Dudley Bose, the astronomer who first notices the disappearance of the two stars; Melanie, an immature but ambitious gold-digger who sleeps her way to her goals, and the SI, an artificial intelligence created by man who is generally benevolent but seems to also have its own agenda. There are many others, but you get the idea.

Peter Hamilton manages to weave multiple storylines, some of which it is unclear as to how the fit into the main story arc. I'd consider him the "Tom Clancy" of science fiction in this regard. He manages to inject some science into science fiction, considering things like different gravitational forces depending on the mass of the colonized planets that other authors don't bother with. In hindsight it doesn't sound impressive, but he remembers to do this type of thing in a variety of areas, and it just lends credibility to the tale.

The main storylines include political maneuvering by the Grand Families (Nigel Sheldon), the military mission to the disappeared stars (Wilson Kime), the Indiana Jones type adventures of Ozzie, the rise of Melanie (more interesting than it sounds), the plans and raids of the Guardians of Selfhood against the Starflyer, and the investigation of Paula Myro into the Guardians of Selfhood. I may have left out one or two.

The only minor annoyance I found is that the author is British (no, that's not the annoyance) and occasionally some of the descriptions reference buildings in London (e.g., the layout of Parliament) that while I'm sure are accurate, do nothing for helping me visualize the scene.

Lastly, be forewarned that Pandora' Star is only half the story. It literally and metaphorically leaves you mid-stream in the story. You'll have to read "Judas Unchained" to get the second half.

This book is great. I plan on checking out several of Peter Hamilton's other books as soon as I finish this one, which won't be long given how hard it is to put down.

I just finished the audio version and I'm a bit disappointed. The book just abruptly ends at a point where it makes no sense at all to stop. Multi-part series or not, give us some type of logical conclusion. ...even if it's only by wrapping-up a major event or answering a few big questions. The transition needs to make sense in some way. This was just bizarre.

The thing that makes it so frustrating is that the reader is forced to endure, literally, hours of boring dialogue from story-lines that could easily have been dropped from the book without damaging anything. I wanted to hit fast-forward every time a Paula Mio (sp?) scene popped-up. Even now, I can't understand how she's critical to the overall plot but the author wastes a huge amount of time developing her character. On top of that, no opportunity is missed to insert a bit of erotica (the first dozen or so times it was fine. After that it just got kinda creepy and strange). My point is that if you have time to drone-on endlessly about sub-plots that don't really matter, and can afford to explore the sexual nature of every character in the book, then surely you have time to develop the story to a point where it makes sense to end book one and transition into the next.

Don't get me wrong, the main storyline is highly entertaining and there are a lot of things the author does right, hence the 3-star rating. I just find it irritating when an author can't figure-out how to conclude something so they just

;)

Taking trains to other planets was a nifty notion (although a civilization with easy travel through portals and a remote AI consciousness giving guidance to the government will sound familiar to anyone reading Hyperion), and was one reason why so many of the worlds in the book reminded me of the suburbs. That and the fact that the worlds described all had a certain uniform blandness about them, no matter how many pages of pseudo-history Hamilton throws in. They all reminded me of some UK/US/Australian suburbs, definitely a very Western future Hamilton portrays.

The story does take a while to get going, but once it does it is pretty enjoyable, sot he last third of the book is much better than the first. When I picked this book up, given its size I thought it was a standalone, so I was really anxious for something to happen and 400 pages later, not much had happened, though when I found out it was "Book 1" it wasn't quite so bad. Still, could've been shorter or with more plot and less irrelevant background info. Bit overall, a good, light summer read or for reading on the train while commuting to suburbia...

And yes, far too many Briticisms in it.

The action takes place from 2380; humankind has expanded to hundreds of planets connected by wormholes and the Unisphere. Anyone who has money can live for hundreds of years thanks to rejuvenation treatment.

Everything is seemingly blooming and nice, but a secret brotherhood, The Guardians of Selfhood, keeps insisting that humankind is being manipulated by an invisible alien, whose ship was found on one now inhabited planet - the Far Away. The brotherhood is making preparations, smuggling weapons and weird pieces of equipment in order to face the alien. Of course, no sane people would listen to their blabber.

But things change when an ageing astronomy professor discovers the disappearance of two distant stars. A starship is sent to investigate and as they reach their target it sparks off a terrible war and it becomes evident that it was all engineered and manipulated by someone/something.
As is customary for Hamilton, the first half of the book is mostly taken up by the introduction of places and characters, and the action only really picks up in the second half of the boom. The characters are opened in-depth and chewing through all the descriptions is fully rewarded - so enjoy every word! Technologies are attractive - for instance, the rejuvenation treatment and e-functional OC tattoos covering the skin, which people can choose to have in different colours (mmm...).

Although there is a multitude of characters and places and a horde of descriptions - as is characteristic of Hamilton - it has to be said that this Commonwealth Saga is a lot more compact and fast-paced compared to the Night`s Dawn trilogy.

I have to admit that there is a space fight/flight that was so intense that I had to put the book down after reading - my hands shook so much. I had, perhaps got too involved in the story, but maybe this is a good indication of how engaging it is. In my opinion, if you pick up this book, your kids, husband and dogs will be unfed for about a week - well, depending on your reading pace. Anyways, the best thing Hamilton has written so far.

Yes, this is not a complete novel. This is the first installment of a collection and none of the plots, subplots, etc. are resolved at the end of this book. You are left hanging, waiting for the next installment.

As many reviewers mentioned, this book has a multitude of characters. The plot lines are so numerous that it makes for a bit of confusion. I contemplated putting this book aside on several occasions, but held on to the end, hoping to see the outcome. I was disappointed. The end was not the end of the story. No resolution or closure. I'm sorry that I bought it. I won't buy the next.

I just finished this book yesterday. During most of the time I was reading it, I couldn't force from my mind thoughts of how unnecessarily long it was. The book has far too many characters, some of whom you probably won't give a rat's fart about in the last third of the book. Some characters could have been removed entirely from the novel without any impact on the storyline whatsoever.

The flow of the novel also had a terribly annoying habit of coming right out of a climactic sequence only to take a nose dive in a desert-like interlude where probably another character was introduced. This was particularly painful toward the end of the story, as the plot begins to unfold at a faster pace. The temptation was overwhelming to speed read or skip ahead an return to the action, so to speak. There also tended to be a lot of dry descriptions where I would have to concentrate quite a bit to visualize the scene. Contrast with Alastair Reynolds whose descriptive prose practically forces an image in your head.

After two paragraphs of negativity, I want to make clear that this is still a book that any fan of the space opera sub-genre will want to read. The storyline is indeed epic. I still shudder at the introduction of the lead alien antagonist; it was frightfully moving, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I'll be picking up the sequel this afternoon.

This novel is 700 pages. The first 600 pages are basically people having conversations. Almost nothing happens until the end when Humanity is attacked by the aliens. Then we find out that the novel is continued in a second book. It seems that the first 600 pages are "filler" that one can sleep through.
It seems to me that the author was required to produce a certain number of pages, regardless of whether or not he had enough of a plot.
I understand that Hamilton is considered a talented writer, but is difficult for me to understand why. I would recommend any of Robert Sawyer's books to those who want to read excellent sci-fi.
This type of writing by authors like Hamilton, is due, in part, to the new trend among writers to leave the book unfinished so they can produce a sequel. This creates the need to artificially inflate the number of pages.

Pandora's Star is a book of epic proportions. It shows boundless imagination and is truly striking in its breadth and detail. Plot elements include (but are not limited to) numerous different worlds, an "Intersolar Commonwealth," cults, vanishing stars, wormholes, interstellar starships not limited by light speed, repeated physical rejuvenation of body and mind, and a fascinatingly inhuman alien life form. It is also daunting in length. For me, the book took fully 700 pages to reach ramming speed, but it was so rich and unique that the effort itself seemed worthwhile. I intend to read the sequel, "Judas Unchained," and I'm looking forward to seeing what Hamilton does with the universe he has created.

The book goes from laborious to exciting and back to laborious in a matter of a few pages. At one point about 300 pages in, I struggled with whether or not to throw it away. I kept reading, as I had already invested so much time. The story is quite interesting, but after finishing the book, there are many parts that seem frivolous and unnecessary.

The biggest disappointment came in the last few pages. The way Mr. Hamilton chose to end this first of two books outraged me, and I nearly tore the book to pieces as I finished the last sentence. The end of Pandora's Star was anti-climactic and a bit insulting to the reader. As cliffhangers go, well, it was less like a cliff and more like a curb.

I just finished it, and it is quite a project to read. I just don't understand the gripers in other reviews complaining about everything from using wormholes (please, its science FICTION, fer crissakes) to too many boring subplots.

Yes, there is a lot going on in this novel. I personally enjoy the complexity of all the subplots, and what others consider bloat and 300 pages of excess, I enjoy as the kind of detail and narrative you need to flesh out a complete world, or universe in this case. Of course its not perfect and there are places it drags a bit for me. But that does not detract much from the overall experience. And several complained that the story didn't "resolve" and that they had to wait for the next novel to find out what happens. One can only pity such an attitude. Go play video games if you want quick resolution. It gives me something to look forward to.

So, if you like short punchy, no-nonsense stories that include just the nuggets and not the whole complex panorama of the story, by all means avoid this one. I just happen to think it is one of the most engrossing SF efforts I have read in a long time.

I read Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy long before this, and had recently read his single novel Fallen Dragon, so I am familiar with Hamilton's ability to build complex worlds on all levels.
This book is amazing in scope, detail, suspense and action. I loved it. The most frustrating characters by far are those who are fighting the Stargazer, their acts seem ludicrous and devastating and pointless. But Hamilton makes it all work on so many levels.
I had no idea this was going to require a sequel, until the very end and that was frustrating but it was worth the ride.

I loved this series. Based on the British science fiction writer's previous novel, Misspent Youth. Pandora's Star propagates technologies and ideas developed in that earlier work two hundred years into the future. However, the series stands on its own. Having not read Misspent Youth did not detract from my enjoyment of this very insightful and entertaining series. Hamilton's ability to envision the ultimate outcome of tomorrow's technological advances is unmatched in the genre.

Dean M. Cole
Author of SECTOR 64: Ambush

This book is billed as a classic must read space opera, and it doesn't fail to deliver. ~1000 pages of excruciating detail about 'The Commonwealth', the human space empire based solely on travel via wormhole. Clever weaving of multiple story-lines leads to one of the most chilling scenes I've ever read in science fiction... along about page 750 or so. A very satisfying cliffhanger ending has me looking for the sequel (another ~1000 pager). Only for the serious fan of science fiction and space empire lovers. Well worth the time to read.

First, the good stuff: Hamilton is very talented at creating universes. With a few basic building blocks (rejuve, wormholes, etc.), he creates a very believable future universe.

He is also pretty good at creating a decent plot. I had a hard time putting the book down.

Next, the bad stuff:

First, the book is not self-contained. There should have been a warning that it's the first book in a series.

Second, as he has with other books, Hamilton gets out of hand with too many intricate sub-plots. For example, the "Mark" subplot could have been completely eliminated without much loss to the story, as far as I can tell.

Towards the end, I found myself occasionally skimming some of the less interesting sub-plots.

If past performance is any predictor of future results, Judas Unchained will introduce even more evil creatures and plots -- besides the Starflyer and the Prime.

One last point: Other reviewers have bemoaned the fact that most of the female characters are Howard Stern-esque bisexual nymphomaniac bimbos in miniskirts. Come on!! It's science fiction, it's supposed to appeal to the adolescent boy in all of us. Besides, in the far future, cosmetic procedures will have probably advanced to the point where all women are beautiful. In such a world, it is quite possible that they will wear a lot of revealing clothing. One can only hope.

It's an entertaining pair of books - but weighing in at 2000+ pages, at least half of which could be cut, is it worth it? When the intense level of detail is focused on things like reasons for traffic patterns on worlds that will only be discussed once and characters that really never manage to become important...

The man has skills as an author, but if you read at my abysmally slow pace, you should probably stick to any books he may have written that are less than 500 pages long. In fact, I would say that these two books (in form and content) are really just a single volume that has been cut in half at a particularly unfortunate part of the story.

I got bored after reading it for a while. The book has too few ideas, and is too verbose at the same time. The concept of "rejuvenation", that is, anti-aging treatment, is neat, but after seeing the word "rejuvenation" repeated more ten times on each page the whole thing starts wearing you out. A good and balanced book on how life may look in a far-future society (while also having a neat and well-developed story) is "Looking to Windward" by Iain Banks, for folks who like such things.

The short version:

If you liked classics by Asimov and Heinlein, you're most probably gonna like this.

The longer version:

I read the Night's Dawn trilogy, and have put down Pandora's Star mere minutes ago.

Some complain that it is not original, some complain that it is too long and too fractured. They are missing the point.

This book is not art, it is however very solid craftsmanship. It was never intended to be art, this is space opera at its best.

Like most thriller writers - and this is basically a standard thriller, only set in the future - PFH writes not with the ambition of breaking new literary ground, but to please his target audience (i.e. sell books).

In doing so he uses the standard tools developed through the years be numerous writers, revolving around some basic facts of mass market authoring, including:

1. If the reader like the book, you don't want it to end, so the longer the better (without going into the annoying timelessness of soap operas). Hence the various pulp series of past and present.

2. A proven way to accomplish the above is by having MANY plotlines which intersect as the story evolves.

Pandora's Star is an excellent book in this context, and I would even say that PFH have managed to tighten up a bit in comparison to the Night's Dawn trilogy.

He has also managed to produce another interesting universe, recognizable yet sufficiently different from the Federation universe of Night's Dawn

(imagine a interstellar humanity with no space ships after the wonderful Federation void-/blackhawks)

Yes, I was frustrated by being taken from a cliffhanger in one plotline, to meet some new character in a serene setting on some different planet and plow through pages of introductionary descriptions (and I'm not even completely up to speed in literary english, being a homebred Dane).

Yes, if you apply the "continuity goggles", there is plenty to obsess about.

But no matter, another part af me enjoyed every second of it immensely, being taken by a good storyteller through a universe of science, astronomy, political philosophy, human strength and weakness, sex, violence, the works.

So bring it on, Peter, I'll get Fallen Dragon in the mean time.

Oh, and I can't believe that Hollywood is not rushing to secure rights on your work, with the right team and funding, George Lucas could be sent into oblivion in a matter of months.

I came across this little gem by accident one day.It sat round on my desk for a couple of months before I got to settle into it.But I can honestly say that once I picked it up I was unable to put it down!It has all the elements of a true sci-fi classic.Exceptional plot developments as well as character definition make this an easy,engrossing,lose all track of time reading experience.You won't be disappointed and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.

Interesting characters - way too many. Too many seemingly unconnected plot lines and never came together or resolved after a very very long read. If I wasn't reading on my Kindle I would have thrown the book when it ended.

Like most reviewers, I have read Mr. Hamilton's previous work and after Fallen Dragon which was a good tight stand alone book, I was looking forward to his most recent offering. Yet this book conveys the absolute worst trends of Mr. Hamilton's writing style combined with Clancyitis (a disease brought to the literary world by refusal of Tom Clancy's editors to cut pages and add realistic dialogue).
The backdrop also has that form of Victorian fascism that Hamilton seems to enjoy. One where the universe would be a better place if only populated by beautiful fully fit people living an idealized version of 19th Century England. And despite the fact that there seems to be 20 different threads throughout the novel, it was hard to find one character that was easy to identify with.
The worst part, however, is that after slogging through over 750 pages the last page has the dreaded 'to be continued.' It's too bad because Mr. Hamilton has the potential to move up into the upper echelon of sci fi authors. Instead he has chosen to charge $26 for self indulgent uninspiring insipid dialogue writing and if possible has spent about 1500 pages (including the inevitable and hopefully only 1 sequal) going through the motions. For good Hamilton stick to his previous works, epsecially 'Second Chance at Eden' which contains short stories and proves he can be creative, entertaining and concise.

Both Pandora's Star and its second half Judas Unchained contain some interesting ideas and a few good story lines. However, if I read the words "enzyme bonded concrete" one more time I'm going to scream. What's up with that? Also, why does the epitome of automotive development hundreds of years in the future consist of cars with 6 wheels? Wow, does the volume control on the radio go all the way to 11? Why are emergency rations bangers and mash? Why does a little insignificant country like England end up having such an influence on the development of galactic travel? Anyhow, if you can get past these puzzling questions and have a fair amount of spare time on your hands, it's not that bad a read. BTW, a great product idea - a Kindle reader that would go through a book like this and auto-edit it down to something more readable.

This book (series) aspires to Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Nope. Not even close, based on Book 1. The first volume drowns in a morass of verbosity. There's a decent story in here somewhere, but the author indulges in descriptive prose to the point that the connection to any overarching plot/story line is tenuous at best. Too bad Heinlein wasn't a major influence on his writing style. I really can't see Books 2 and 3 being worth the effort.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING! I am struggling to resist the temptation to launch straight into the sequel. This book had me gripped from the beginning. This is everything Sci-Fi writing should be. Ideas and plot lines so big that they could never fit onto a screen but only onto our imaginations. Also a vision for what the human race might be able to achieve despite our failings if don't blow ourselves up or destroy the planet first!

This was a lengthy hard SF novel in which humanity investigates the disappearance of a star, only to find that they would have been better off to remain ignorant about it. The story is very broad in scope, and I initially had trouble getting into it. I think this is because I didn't identify much with any particular character. As the stakes became higher and I could see how the different plot and character thread began to come together, I enjoyed it more.

Though the main plotline (or two) of this massive book is somewhat interesting, Hamilton has just put too much extraneous stuff into it. Specifically, he has too many characters, goes into far to much detail for much of what he describes and has several irrelevant plotlines running. Admittedly, this is only the first book in the series (which is irritating in itself since there was no indication that this was a series until the cliff-hanger "ending"), so some of the "irrelevancies" might turn out to be crucial in the later book(s). But, there's something wrong when it takes several hundred pages for him to cycle through his main characters' storylines just once and introduce them. I spent a good portion of the book just trying to figure out if I already knew a character and what, if anything, he or she had to do with the story. Also, without all the window-dressing, Hamilton probably could have fit the whole story into this one volume. It's a shame, since the writing is good. But, by the time I hit the last hundred pages, I was just skimming the text: nothing was really happening to move the plot forward and after six or seven hundred pages, who needs more character development? If the book were "lighter" (easier to read), I'd probably raise my rating a star. But, as is, I'll have to give it just an OK 3 stars out of 5.

I read this book without the knowledge that there was a sequel until I reached the last page, which was just this afternoon. I began it nine weeks ago. I had to finish today because our library allows only two renewals. Peter Hamilton has created a thoroughly fascinating vision of our future so I can understand why he wanted to describe every millimeter of it in such loving detail. But do we really need to know the technical specifications of every locomotive, the interagency relationships of every bureaucrat, or the industrial capacity of every colonized planet? The plot was so dense and so uniform throughout most of the story that it could be likened to returning from your favorite bakery with a promising loaf of bread, and then stuffing too much in your mouth at once so that you can neither swallow it nor spit it out. You just keep chewing until finally it goes away.

Browsing in a mall shop, and not really finding much that interested me. A member of the staff handed me this with the suggestion that it wasn't for everyone, but he liked it.

What a debt I owe him!

I have to give it to the author, the work he did is absolutely amazing... You can't be but awed by the amount of detail thay goes into the descriptions of animals, plants, planet layouts, technology etc. The problem is that he keeps on doing these long descriptions even well after he has managed to awe you. So OK, you have an incredible imagination and a deep knowledge of physics, biology etc. Enough already!

Having said that, I never thought I would read through the 1200 pages of dense print of the first book and then go on to read the next 1200 pages of dense print of the second! The story does keep you hooked (even though I am now just skimming over the long descriptions).

The title sums up my opinion of Pandora's Star. It was a decent book, a fun read, with moments of brilliant action and pure wonder. However, these moments were rather thinly spread through a very large, bulky book that should have been trimmed to about half its actual size.

A glance at my bookshelf will reveal that I have nothing against long books per se. However, in order for a book that weighs in at over 1,000 pages to be worthwhile, it needs to have enough action to fill that many pages, and it should not punish the reader with the appearance of complication for complication's sake. Pandora's Star fails on this latter count. The narrative wanders this way and that, and it takes nearly half of the book for the major narrative thrust to become clear. The tangents and asides are numerous and long. A murder mystery takes up a major part of the first third of the book, but it turns out to have no relation or relevance to the rest of the story except as an introduction to the detective and the murderer's girlfriend. There are so many characters that you will be tempted to take notes to keep track of them, and it's impossible to tell which ones are actually important and which ones are merely prop-pieces in yet another 75-page expository tangent.

This adds up to a significant strike against the book. However, if you are able to look past these flaws, and perhaps skim some of the longer and less interesting chapters, you'll find at least a handful of truly compelling characters (like the multi-billionaire hippie wormhole inventor) and a truly intriguing, multi-layered story. If you make it to the end, you'll probably find that you enjoyed it, especially as your brain will edit out the parts that shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Puts me in mind of Harry Turtledove with the rich and varied cast of characters. Not nearly as repetitive as Turtledove however. Hamilton manages to create a great world, wonderfully detailed, and his prose is not overly pretentious. Best book I have read in a looooong time.

I really don't understand the calls for a shorter book. This story and the telling of it is EPIC! One of my favorite science fiction books EVER. If something is good, you want it to go on. Why do some people want to finish a book quickly, just to finish? The story, characters, twists, technology, interplanetary explorations, spaceships wormholes etc etc etc. is all amazing! READ this book! Then continue reading this author - the reading pleasure goes on and on and on!

The story was really good, and I can't wait for the next book, but, as the reader below said, there are some grammatical faults that the author makes repeatedly. An example (not from the book) would be : "The spaceship rose from the ground, with the gantries falling away." An extreme example perhaps, but repeated over so many pages makes it one of those things (like a dripping tap) that when you've noticed it, you can't ignore it. (A suitable replacement for the above sentence would be : "The spaceship rose from the ground. The gantries fell away", or even, if one insists on using a single sentence : "The spaceship rose from the ground; the gantries fell away.") Basically, any sentence that includes the phrase ", with" is misformed. It appears to be used a lot in action sequences, where its use might be justified as indicating the speed of events and not wanting to stop them with a period (or a "full stop", for UK readers). But would it really be too difficult to phrase it another way?

Nevertheless, I am, as always, impressed with the energy of the action and the comprehensiveness of the author's imagination. The level of characterization in this novel is far higher than in his previous works. The ability the author has to "act" in different characters and put forward their beliefs as the only ones that make sense in their context, is to me, as a writer, very sophisticated. Of course, the story might end up justifying a set of beliefs the reader might find distasteful (Hamilton seems to share an upper-class British belief in the power of the state), but we won't know that until the next episode. At least this author manages to realize that there are other beliefs.

Thanks Peter!

I got this book when browsing for a new read. It started with a lot of developing characters and storylines that were seemingly unrelated then by the midlle of the book it takes off and you can't put it down.

I didn't even notice it was Peter Hamilton or that there was another book coming out. I pick books blind somtimes. I was happy to find out there was another book. I loved the last trilogy that was actually six books by Hamilton.

I've read most everything Peter F. Hamilton has written and Pandora's star is the best yet. The author has introduced just a limited number of technology concepts that we have to accept in order to enjoy the universe he has created; in fact there are just three: wormhole technology, rejuvenation and the Silfen paths (although the latter has still to reveal its importance to the plot). This is the trademark of really great SF authors.

I liked the elegant simplicity of interstellar travel: by train ! Shocking at first, it is most logical once you've accepted the existence of wormholes. And rejuvenation (with its associated memorycell technology) is also very important to the plot, as it fundamentally changes the human attitude towards death. See the suicide attack latter in the book. There is a side effect that hasn't been fully explored: murder may be seen only as an inconvenience by the victim.

This book has everything: mystery and drama, space battles, new places to be explored, politics, love scenes, several alien species including one really evil (or two? we are waiting for the sequel). My only gripes are the really abrupt ending and the lack of depth for the Prime character, shown as single-minded (pun intended) to destroy any life in the galaxy.

All in all, a real page turner. Highly recommended.

For a 1,000 page volume one of a series, it had better be pretty compelling reading to merit the readers lengthy involvement. I got about 3/4 of the way thru this when I decided, it's just too bloated for my tastes. There's quite a bit of good space opera going on here, but I agree with some of the other reviewers, this fella needs some editing.

Peter Hamilton is one of the best current writers of real hard-core space opera. Not the best writer, not by a long shot, but the best at space opera. Yes, there are problems with pacing and some parts are better than others. This book is one of his best but you will need to read the rest in the series (cliffhanger alert!) and here and there he can get tedious. Nonetheless, for page-turning space-opera action this is one of the classics.

When I first started reading this book it seemed as if it was a collection of short stories instead of a space opera. The plot takes quite some time to gain some cohesiveness. I believe the complexity to be pretty interesting, but found myself bored at many times with the author's lengthy descriptions. Momentum of the book picked up towards the end. I enjoyed it, but felt it could have been considerably shorter.

I like the author's writing style, in some ways. It started slow and different story lines were sometimes confusing, since they sometimes didn't seem to be connected to each other. These days, I am only able to read a few pages a day, so it seemed the story went too slowly for me. But at the end of the book, I've realized that I was able to sink into the culture and storyline of the story to be able to figure out who is who and how they relate to the storyline. I like the action sequences but it took a while to get there. But all in all, it's a good story with it taking it's time to get there. I would recommend it especially to people who like to read a book straight through.

What a disappointment "Pandora's Star" was. Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" series was an imaginative, fast-paced and well-written space opera that, though definitely overwritten (it could have been half the length), was fun throughout. "Fallen Dragon" was mindless but at least quickly paced.
However, "Pandora's Star" seems to bring out all of Hamilton's weaknesses at once. To begin with, it is grossly overlong. It could have been half the length without anyone feeling a loss. Indeed, reducing it in size could only have helped it, because it would have meant eliminating a number of one-dimensional characters who simply take up space in the novel.
"Pandora's Star" is "The Mote in God's Eye" meets the Borg, with a few notions, like a "train between the stars" thrown in for good measure. This last concept, a quick and easy and instantaneous form of faster than light travel, introduces the most interesting science fictional questions in the novel, but is basically little more than a plot device. Questions about the difficulties of avoiding the spreading of disease and alien species across the galaxy are studiously avoided.
Instead, what the novel concentrates on is a Big Dumb Object, which soon becomes a Malicious Alien Race, and the machinations of dozens of one-dimensional characters running around trying to deal with the problems posed by said Object and Race.
But the biggest problem is that whenever the plot gets the slightest, tiniest bit interesting, Hamilton kills it dead with laser precision by starting the next chapter with a deadly dull chapter involving one third-rank character or another. The novel has all the momentum of a four hundred pound man running uphill. It makes the novel's length virtually deadly. For many people, it will just not be worth slogging through all the garbage to find out what happens in the end.
Pass this one by and pick up the latest Alistair Reynolds novel instead.

I'll throw my two cents in there with the rest and say that this book was just too long. It's a rare book that I start skimming certain threads and this is one of them. It finally started to pick up in the last 200 pages, but when you have to wade through 800 to 900 to get there, that is not a good thing.

If it was 300-400 pages lighter, then it could be a 4-5 star book.

Seems like modern fiction authors feel the need to go through this rite of passage and birth a few of these monster books.

I really don't need to write a 3 paragraph review of what is wrong with this book. I am half way through and will say that if you think Ayn Rand is long winded, you don't know the meaning of the word. Hamilton could cut 80% of this novel out and it would be AMAZING. Like George Martin's last Fire and Ice novel...this goes on and on and on and on about NOTHING. Plot is great. Characters are all over the bloody place and there are too many to keep track of. Details about the future are tedious and mind numbing. If the borrowed greek mythological concept wasn't part of it, I would have burnt the thing already. I hope the ending is a pay off or I'm going to find Peter and have a long, boring talk with him.

NOTE: I decided to continue on with this first series which left me somewhat satisfied although I don't think that Mr. Hamilton had his game quite together...and moved on to the Dreaming Void. Which blew my mind. And yes - you need these books to enjoy it. So there you have it - 5 stars for the whole thing, 2 for this first one which I will bump up to a 4 because it does indeed make up the whole. God. 6 books = 1. Hard to believe. But what a ride it is at the end. Well worth it. Highly recommended.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends PANDORA'S STAR as magnificent, of immense stature. How else can you describe a story of a whole new universe? & the author who has peopled it, & made you believe it exists?

Peter Hamilton's talent is rare on the SF stage. He not only takes you to new worlds, he creates & then explains them so you really understand. His good is not always good, his evil is not always evil although by the time you've finished, you will know the difference.

Outstanding!

I hadn't read any SF books for a long time, turned into a couch potato, and I should qualify this by saying I love to watch all good SF. Well, wandering through an airport bookshop before a long flight I saw the cover and gavce it a go. I could not put it down. Loved it, and it has turned me back to an avid SF reader again. Thanks Peter.

yes, it has quibbles- not sure why he needs to have such explicit sex scenes, they only distract from the book. And occasionally the environments are TOO well described to the point of you start to skip thought the page. Of course the characters are numerous and complex. But that is also the strength of the book. It's an adventure to read. And of course you then have to find and read judas unchained, which is an excellent conclusion.

ps don't bother with his other book "mispent Youth" despite it being in the same "universe"- it's complete utter rubbish.

I was harping abuto this book as I read the first 300 pages. "Its all character development, there's so many people, blah blah blah." Then after the first 300 pages I really started to love the book. I realized that this needed the introductions, because it was more vast than any book I've ever read. I had some sort of emotional investment with the characters since I've read about them so much... I loved this book/series. For a few weeks my work life really suffered, because I was up until 3am countless times reading this; Judas Unchained & The Dreaming Void. Great series and I can't wait for the next volume.

I bought The Reality Dysfunction today. I hope I get some sleep tonight.

I just finished reading Judas Unchained, the sequel to Pandora's Star. What can I say, it was an excruciating read (about 2,000 pages of very dense writing), but it was all worth it! An amazing story with depth and breadth, and most importantly: soul. I enjoyed it immensely. After a while I got tired of the expansive scenery descriptions and just skipped them. I'll go into them when I get back to these wonderful books. In the meantime, I'm off to other Hamilton books! Enjoy!

P.S. Thank you very much Zohar for recommending these books to me, and making me buy them when we were at B&N!!

I have never read for Peter F. Hamilton before, but the premise for Pandora's Star was intriguing enough to make me get this book. I was very surprised by how engrossing it was. My only criticism was that a bout 50 pages of unnecessary detail could have been edited out.

Cannot wait for book 2.

After reading hundreds of sci-fi books over the years, the originality of Peter Hamilton is very refreshing. That combined with the Dicksonian plots makes for real page turner novels. Pandora's Star creates a universe which contains the good, the bad and the ugly. It strives to create an atmosphere that is entirely plausible in the long term. Mr. Hamilton is at his best he brings you to a crucial turning point in a sub-plot and then changes focus. He is a master when it comes to writing a pager-turner novel and does not stint when comes to actually ending his novels. The only thing that drives me crazy is the wait for his next novel.

Most readers know Peter Hamilton from his Night's Dawn trilogy, published in this country in six volumes. Pandora's Star is the first volume in another sprawling (and I do mean sprawling) series. The book begins with the discovery that two distant linked solar systems have been isolated by a force field. Because the observation is made visually, this means that the event occurred hundred of years ago. This event leads the Commonwealth, an organization of the human planets, to investigate. Whoever could put a force field around such a tremendous area would be very possible. And what is the motive? Is the force field meant to keep others out, or those living in the system in?
In a break from Hamilton's early books, as Pandora's Star opens, humanity does not use star ships for faster than light travel. Rather, wormholes are used to link distant worlds. Thus, one of the first things that must be done is to build a ship capable of faster than light travel. Other aspects of Hamilton's future are near-immortality, a terrorist group obsessed with the idea that an alien has taken over the government, and various alien races that seem indifferent to human population, and whose motives are not apparent.
Those who've read Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy will not be surprised at his practice of introducing many characters and separate plot lines that will (one hopes) converge eventually. Some of these plots are so separate from the main plot as to seem to exist only to establish background of the characters. Indeed, at time the books seems to consist of short stories set in the same future but having no other connection. For example, we follow a police inspector investigating a 40 year old murder case relates to the main plot in a tangential (at best) way. This means that some of the characters can disappear for hundreds of pages at at time. While this can be irritating, the diversity of Hamilton's plotting makes it work for me. I much preferred this book to his last one, Fallen Dragon, which was (for Hamilton) quite focussed on mainly one character.
That Hamilton could produced two different but richly detailed visions of the future in Night's Dawn and Panddora's Star is very impressive. I hope he can keep this up.
I have one complaint about Hamilton's style that might strike others as pedantic but it drives me crazy. He consistently links independent clauses not with a conjunction, but a comma. To some extent this method duplicates the way people actually talk. However, he's been doing it from the beginning of his career, and having read thousands of pages of his, I am beginning to get tired of it.
Of course, it is hard to judge a trilogy by the first book. No matter how good it is, one's opinion of it will be affected by later installments. In Night's Dawn, Hamilton painted himself into a corner with his plot, and the ending was not entirely successful. Fallen Dragon's ending had even more of a deus ex machina quality. We'll have to see about this one. Pandora's Star ends with a huge cliffhanger that will have readers waiting for the next installment.

Hamilton paints imagination pictures of dream worlds and puts you into them full bore. Extra-terrestials with real personalities, inconceivable antagonists, murder mysteries including interviews with the victims, fantastic faster than light flights of fantasy, it's all there. This is a long book, difficult to track in some parts although brought back into focus later, and it's not over when it's done. After almost 1000 pages, I ordered the sequel. Gotta find out whether humanity and 1000 other races survive or not!

If I had been asked to rate this work after the first 300 pages, I would have been hard pressed not to award 5 stars. However, the last half was a real slog. In fact, I had to skip a 100 or so pages near the end just to say I finished it - only to find that almost nothing had been resolved after all this effort. I don't mind (and sometimes really enjoy) multi book series but not this one. An editor with a liberal red pen would have improved this book considerably.

Most of the time authors write giant books and they suck. Hamilton is different. I found this book and expected too much talk and not enough substance. I was completely wrong! Hamilton is undoubtedly the best at what he writes. I can't wait to read Judad Unchained! -Mordial

I have read every book that Peter F Hamilton has written and this one has just blown me away. I dont know where he gets his idea's from but please keep going. The technologies, characters and settings are brilliant, couldnt put it down till it was finished and cannot wait for the next book. This bok is so good i wanna go out and found an intersolar dynasty and start working towards this future.....awesome

I am admittedly much more widely read in the Fantasy genre, with only brief fortes into SF, but this book was great. It created a very believable world and kept the plot moving at a pretty quick pace. Some of the characters could have been developed a bit more, but overall this was a fun book that left me wanting more.

I listened to this book after purchasing and downloading from Audible.com. I listen while I ride a road bike, so keeping track of a complex plot isn't easy. There's no doubt I would have enjoyed Pandora's Star much more if I read it. As a listen, I found it very difficult to keep track of the myriad number of characters, and often had trouble figuring out what a particular character had to do with the main plot. Folks that read it seem to have loved it, but was too complicated and too long to listen to.

Ok, first of all, its not a space opera. Very little of it actually happens anywhere in space.
Second, the book should come with a very clear indication on the cover : this is the first book in the series, DO NOT start unless you are content with not getting ANY sort of conclusion to the story at the end of the first book.
It really only started getting interesting in the second half, and then abruptly cut off.

Some of the characters in the story ring very hollow too, and at points the environmental descriptions get to be really tedious and irrelevant.

I'm about 400 pages into this big book, and normally I would not review until I finish a book. But I am not sure I am going to make it to the end.
A different reviewer praised "many separate plot threads" but I find them chaotic and distracting. It is as though there are at least 6 or 8 separate novels. One reads 20 or 30 pages involving one setting and one group of characters, then one gets an "installment" of a totally different story . . . and on, and on.
This can be very frustrating. I discovered I was really interested in several of the plot threads, but bored or impatient with others. So -- understandably -- when one of the threads that interest me is interrupted by some irrelevant narrative -- I try to race past it, skimming, I suppose you could say.
Overall, this writer has great talent but is very self indulgent and undisciplined. Anything he feels like tossing into the sack, so to speak -- in it goes. If the book were written tighter and structured in a more integrated way, I think it would be much better.
There are a few scenes in the book, also, that are just too silly. In one instance, a group of raiders attack an armed convoy. The convoy has all the lasers, missiles, and ion weapons of the 24th century. But the raiders are riding war horses. We are told these animals have multiple hearts and other organic features that make them very hard to kill. The riders attack into automatic weapons fire, and we are treated to the butchery of these horses-- although, to be sure, because of their bio-engineering, the horses take terrific damage before they finally collapse. As an animal lover, I found this pretty awful. And more to the point, as a reviewer, I found the whole concept just simply preposterous.
The odds that I will make it to the last page are no better than even. Perhaps the author should take a creative writing class.

I have enjoyed Hamilton's earlier books in the series, and quite liked Pandora's Star, but not as much as the earlier novels.

I felt that the novel was a little too padded out and would have benefited from a little trimming to bring back the page-turning qualities of the earlier books (they were long too, but didn't feel it... Pandora's Star, sadly does).

A good effort, though, and I'll still be picking up his next work to see how it fares.

Maybe one to get from the library or borrow from a friend if you don't have the money to buy it now.

No other SF author gives me the feeling that "this is what it really could be like in 4-500 years". It is not for the technically faint of heart, but that just adds to it in my opinion.

If I must complain about something, then I think the landscape descriptions at the start of nearly every chapter and sub-chapter are too long - I get distracted and start skimming down to get to the excitement.

And I also noticed the discrepancy with the suicide-ship's energy level...

Tremendous imagination displayed by the author, but obviously steeped in scientific foresight. He is also an excellent writer in general, as he's able to accurately capture the moods/personalities of so many different characters. A great sci-fi read.

I could not put this book down. Hamilton has a talent for thrilling plot lines and vivid description. The characters are engaging and complex, they have real depth that draws you in. The book starts a little slowly as the author introduces the various characters, locations and plots but it turns into an amazing journey through a richly imagined universe.

I love the cliffhanger ending, I found it shocking. I will definitely get the sequel!

My god. This guy is a prolific writer in need of a good editor. Make that a very good editor. I failed to find an interesting character or story line. It seemed that much of the verbiage and description was just filler. Mid-way through, I relegated this tome to my emergency reading pile (in the bathroom), and eventually plowed through to the whimpering end. Toward the end, I just wanted it to be over, and found myself skipping pages and large sections of chapters to find anything meaningful. Then of course, the denoument, if you can call it that, was unsatisfying and inconclusive and intended to sell the next book in the series. No thanks.

Reading this book brought me back to the days when I first discovered science fiction; when I would take a thick book and read and lose myself. This hasn't happened in a while (give or take 30-40 years.

Buy this book; get lost in it. You'll be glad you did.

Although I bought this book I'll be returning it soon. It's bascially so unreadable I actually got on the Inet to write this reveiw of the wretched thing.

The year is 2380 and astronomers (who are discovering the end of whatever) are still guys wearing sweater looking out thru terrestial telescopes. I know we shouldn't have de-orbited the Hubble.

In 400 years we still have dirty fission power plants.

Aside from not knowing any science & writing a sci-fi book, Hamilton makes this book extremely boring. I just finished a biography & this book makes that one extremely exciting.

This was a great universe building book that feels like it got lost in the weeds and ended halfway through. Typically even with trilogies and the like there is a story that stands by itself in the book. There isn't one here. There is at times too much time devoted to elements that don't really matter to the story at all. I feel like 200-300 pages could be cut out and you would end up with the same thing. I love the ideas and the universe as a whole I just felt like there was a little left to be desired in the overall content of the book.

Within this book and its sequel is a truly excellent sci-fi story. It is however quite a bit longer than it ought to be.

This book starts out with a massive chunk of world/character building that nearly lost me. I like a deep and well established story universe. I want characters to have a substance and a history. What I don't want is for the bulk of this to be piled on at the very beginning before I know or care why any of it matters. The first portion of the book is introduction after introduction of different characters and settings in excruciating detail. Most authors do this gradually, and it works best because you've started to develop a sense of why these things and characters matters. Given in one huge upfront dose, its hard to slog through.

Were the remainder of the story concisely executed I would probably still give this 5 stars because the story itself is excellent. However nearly every time we are moved to a new chapter the scene is set yet again in painstaking detail. One character is known for always wearing the same outfit and having the same hairstyle, this is still explained every time. A character who is physically attractive, we are reminded of her attractiveness each time she enters the story. Concrete is "enzyme-bonded concrete" every. single. time. I'm aware its the future, so what do those extra words add? Does something so mundane as concrete deserve mention let alone flourish? It's completely unnecessary.

There is some payoff in the details, nuances do have value. Overall I would absolutely recommend this book to someone who enjoys sci-fi. I would however not fault anyone for skimming a few pages or a paragraph that describes the material of an exterior wall of a character's house.

Hamilton continutes to impress. His ability to construct

many good stories into a powerhouse book is amazing!

He could have (as many writers have) made multiple books and

story lines from this one piece, but did his fans a great

justice by writing a wonderful and strong book that you can

enjoy reading.

Thanks Hamilton!

So much fun to read this book! The introductions to the many characters itself was a good read, the story as a whole is outstanding. There aren't many writers of this genre releasing works such as this, so if you're the least bit interested in Hamilton's other efforts do not pass this up! Once the book climaxes it doesn't stop.

Look forward to many more books from this guy.

I have a hard time not finishing a book once I start, but I came close with this one. It is simply too long, over 1100 pages, which could easily have been compressed into three or four hundred. However, the real problem is the ending, there is not one! After stuggling though the whole thing, it leaves you hanging with a little note saying it will be concluded in the next book. Are you kidding me!? You could not wrap it up in 1100 pages, you need a second book!? I am pretty sure I will ever know what happens to the commonwealth, just not worth getting through another book.

I tried, really tried, to like this book.

The first time I got thru the first chapter and gave up.

The second time I got almost halfway thru.

Maybe there's a good story in there, I don't know. It just goes way too slow for my taste. The characters aren't particularly interesting, and the author takes forever to move the story along. I don't have that much patience.

If you want space opera, go read something by Charles Stross. There's a man who can move a story.

What you think from the summary the plot is makes only about 15% of the book. The rest is enornous number of parallel plots (overloaded with useless details) very loosely related to the main plot. Also this book doesn't belong to Sci-Fi, SCIENCE is not present here. The closer to the end the more implausible it gets.

Not a bad book but a real cold turkey read because of the cliffhanger ending (and the sequel is not published yet).

I specifically checked before I bought it in the bookstore but it doesn't say so on the cover, cover-flap, booklisting or acknowledgements. I got a bad feeling when too much plot's where opening instead of closing towards the end. And on the last page it was revealed: the book will have a (still to be published) sequel.

Not only is there no warning of this in or on the book. There is also no attempt whatsoever to make the finish of this book satisfying. It makes me very angry that writers / publishers can get away with cheating me out of my money and pleasure with these kinds of tricks.

I would recommend leaving this dishonest writer and his publisher - Random House / Del Rey - alone and buy books from writers / publishers that are more honest about a book having a sequel and thus give you a more satisfying read.

Of course, not buying in bookstores but via the store (after reading the reviews carefully!) also helps.

I've just been turned on to Hamilton and can only say WOW!!! I'll be looking for more stuff from this guy. I am looking forward to the Pandora's Star sequel, the ending was a real cliff hanger and actually had me laughing happily at the fun frustration Hamilton gave me while reading the last pages! Great story!

First a Warning: This book is basically the first half of a longer story. Unlike some multi book sagas, each book does NOT really work as an individual. It is pretty much like you ripped a novel in half. Not a problem in itself, but you should be informed.

With this size of story I'll just hit some of the high and low points...

Some samples of:

The good:

Lots of cool ideas. I mean a circus parade of cool concepts. Technologies, social concepts, alien life. More than some authors would put in ten books.

The ok:

Scene writing style (dialog etc.) is done well. Several of the characters are interesting. Some of the concepts above are explored pretty well.

The bad:

The biggest fault of this book is a literary one rather than an "in universe" one: Too many "main" characters. Main defined as the one you follow while he/she/it interacts with a "set" of other characters. I can mentally handle quite a few characters (Harry Turtledove's mega books don't bother me) but this sucker just pushed it. I didn't actually count but it felt like 20 sets in about the first hundred pages. Every time the story followed back around to the earlier sets, there would be a couple that I just said: "...who is this guy? And what is he doing in this story?". I'm not sure if it was just shear numbers that did me in or if Hamilton just didn't construct them as solidly as Turtledove and others have done. But that alone would make me not recommend this book. This is somewhat improved in "Judas Unchained". If it wasn't for this books good points, this would make it a 2 star.

The second biggest fault for me: Lack of consistent universe construction. This is one I have trouble with in many books. It boils down to the idea that if something is one way in one part of the book, unless there is an explanation, it should be the same in the rest of the book. This book isn't terrible about this (some books are just awful) and if this was the only major fault I'd probably give it 4 stars.

The biggest example of this: Pretty much everybody has more computing power installed in or on their bodies than California does in 2013, and they use it "all" the time, except... for no reason given, at various points somebody has to do things that are as out of place as everybody switching rolls of film in their cameras in 2013. Most of the time it isn't major plot points, so I don't think the author is "cheating" to make things work. I think he just was so busy coming up with another super cool concept that noticing the details became unimportant to him.

PLOT SPOILER BELOW --- WARNING
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The end of the story, about the last third of "Judas Unchained", feels pretty clunky. The impression I got was the author wanted to get finished and go off and do something more interesting. Characters get less complex, plot points get solved deus ex machina, politics and infighting goes away... The good guys win, in a good guy way.

Bottom line: While impressive, I don't think this book is worth the time it takes to read.

"Pandora's Star" is very imaginative, full of action and populated with new worlds and interesting characters. It has the best ending of any novel I have read by Hamilton. It made me pump my fist and say "Yes!" then go immediately for "Judas Unchained."

A real page turner - pretty decent. Other reviewers are right that sometimes he could do with editing for length, but this is top quality sci fi if you can get past that.

You definitely need to read this with the sequel, it reads as one work that's been split in two, rather than two truly separate novels.

This is an excellent, high drama, opus. I can't wait for the next book and the action sections really buzz with excitement. The descriptions in the book could be edited down but they do give you a deep understanding of the characters and the true gut feel for the good versus evil battle.

I bought this book based on the cover blurb and was disappointed. Although there are times when the author writes well and the idea behind the story comes alive, the book has many glaring faults:

-There are many characters that aren't important but we spend a great deal of time with them. I spent fifty pages with a character that I thought would be a central character; however, he was just a plot device to introduce us to minor characters that became main characters much later in the book. We are even introduced to characters that the author doesn't come back to for two hundred pages. However, every person at a dinner party is named and described. And for all of the writing, the characters are cardboard cut-outs.

-Tons of physical description about planets, cars, trains, operations rooms. Even if we are on a planet for a short period of time to introduce a character that is leaving said planet, the entire backstory of the planet is revealed and every physical item is covered in graphic detail. Even rooms are described, such as how many fireplaces, number of doors, shade of wood panelling, etc. He actually starts listing all the varieties of trees in a forest. You can skim huge sections of the book once you realize it has no bearing on the plot.

-Poor plotting. Things happen without much reason, people act without real motivation (we never see real thought processes), the government of the future is powerful but incompetent, the evil alien pullling our strings and controlling the government is still somewhat of a bumbler, and things that you or I think are important are always overlooked.

-Throwaway writing. There are paragraphs, pages, entire chapters that do nothing to advance the plot or develop characters. Why are they there? Is this author paid by the line?

-The ending. What a literal cliffhanger. "Stay tuned for the not-so exciting conclusion..."

All in all, it is not a book worth paying full price for. Buy it used and skip the junk.

I had no idea what was going on half the time I was reading this book. Every chapter introduced yet another set of characters with yet another sub-plot. I reached the point where I was skipping 10 pages at a time and not really missing anything significant. And when I finally reached the end I almost hurled the book out the window.... what a crappy ending. This is hands down one of the worst "epic" sci-fi books I have ever read (although pared down to basics it might make a pretty good short story.) The sequel is not on my reading list...

this book is not without serious problems. hamilton builds an incredible universe and does an excellent job immersing the reader in it. he is however often too verbose in his storytelling.

what really bothered me in this novel was the many pages devoted to politics, and working of deals, buying of favors and elections, and economic tradeoffs. i just got more and more upset having to read through chapter 17, as hamilton tells the story of how the super-elite humans of the commonwealth got together and traded political favors. i don't read sci-fi to hear about people bidding for contracts to service space vessels.

this book is almost 1000 pages, and when you consider that it's really the first half of larger book, it's around 2000 pages. i'd think mr. hamilton would do his readers a favor by cutting out some of the fluff. i learned in 2nd grade that writing more does not equal writing better.

I'm giving it 4 stars because if you can get past the first half of the first book, the second half (as well as the second book) start to pay dividends. Yes, he's a little verbose but I guess I got used to it and in the end the rewards outweighed the costs.

after reading the nights dawn trilogy i have developed a liking for Hamilton, and this book absolutly blew me away

a great read- entertaining, well written, deep plot line, developed characters... the list goes on

buy it today... you wont be dissappointed

This book is way to verbose. Aggressive editing is sorely needed. I'd guess that the book could be about one third of it's current size without missing a thing. This is the first book where i've skipped pages several times. If it was a library book, i would return it after some 200 pages.

I liked The Reality Dysfunction -- the thickness was justified by interesting subplots. The fact that humanity had acually evolved was a nice change from most sci-fi too.

This book does not stand out in any such way. It's not the worst book i've read, and i will probably read the sequel too (but not if the story doesn't end there!), but i would not have read it if i knew about the fat.

Short story: buy some other book

Was a huge fan of The Reality Destruction...

This book would have been very high on my list with exception of two things which seem obligatory in every type of entertainment:

Specific promotion of interracial relationships... and how Hamilton figures that in a "multicultural" society that different races would totally subscribe to a single ancient culture (which does not even exist today) eludes me.

And the second being homosexuality on the part of one of the main characters. 1-3 percent of the population; odds are probably not... but as usual have to work it in somehow.

Generally speaking Hamilton should not play up the sex element in his novels, it never smoothly works into whatever scene he's writing when it is beyond vague references.

I have just put this book down, a little more than halfway through. The only other author I've ever done that for is Robert Ludlum. Like Ludlum, Hamilton has never met a word he didn't like. Every person place or thing has multiple modifiers and the action is explained, rather than allowed to unfold. Add some cliche characters (Dead-head style Techno Billionaire wandering through space, 'Right-Stuff' Space Captain, etc) include way too many side plots and story lines and this wandering, undisciplined tome is just too much work. Are there no editors? No red pencils or pens? If I knew his address I'd send Peter Hamilton a copy of Strunk & White. There are still some great Alien-Culture, Hyperspace-Travel genre sic-fi books out there. This isn't one of them

This was a pretty good book. Worth the read. But it all the characters had pretty lose morals and seemed to be sleeping with everyone. It got rather anoying.
There were some serious breaches in the laws of physics. Everyone knows that wormholes won't work the way sci-fi authors would like them to. But Mr Hamilton didn't see to care. There were wormholes shooting people all over the place... they're a nice plot device but they make me think of the book as more of a fantasy novel than sci-fi. There are also some "Magical" aliens that do things that are so far beyond possibility that it has to be "Magic" and not technology. I'm sure that, as usual, the author just wants us to think they are "So far advanced" that we just don't understand. But some things just aren't possible.
Finally, this book is a cliffhanger... and I mean that quite literally, if you read it you'll get the joke. Anyway, there is NO sense of conclusion at the end of the book. Basically, the book doesn't end... it just flows into the next one, that hasn't been written yet. So it's like someone just yanks the book out of your hands and you have to wait for the next one.

Pandora's Star
A very dissapointing read. Its almost 1000 pages are only the first part of a serial. They come to no conclusion. The many characters never reach a resolution with any of the challenges. The entire book is a set-up for the next one in the series. I finished the last page and could only ask 'how does it end?' I'm not willing to buy the next in the series, for fear that it too will present no conclusion to the story. Arg!

I was expecting a big, sprawling, colourful galactic-milieu story in the vein of Brin, Cherryh, or Niven. Book is big alright (1144 pages!), but I've rarely come across such dull, lifeless prose and mediocre storytelling. Endless boring descriptions that convey nothing interesting or significant, inane dialogue, and a vast array of characters so indistinguishable, lifeless and lacking in depth or personality that calling them one-dimensional would be generous. I'd recommend this book only if you have alot of time to kill and don't really care how you spend it. Might be a good book to read in prison, for example (where it's size and weight might make it a good weapon).

Somehow it all went wrong with the Naked God...ten sub-plot jostling for page space until the bitter end. The same with this tree killer. Lots of characters and very little action - and when it happens it catches you almost off guard' and in a semi-comatose state of endless pap and hackney'd character development. Somewhere under all that fat lurks a damn fine story. But like his previous soap epic it needs some damn tight editing and slicing off useless subplots and endless descriptions of hang-gliders on mountain tops, industrial parks and silly love scenes.

Come on Hamilton...don't write shaggy dog stories. You have immense talent and super ideas...just compress them a bit like you used to do in the early 'leaner days' of the Nano Flower.

...Oh, and stop trying to write like an American. It's a bit embaressing mate!!

Please read the other 1-star reviews before you buy; I foolishly did not. I stayed with this book to the end despite my suspicions that what I was reading was mostly meaningless drivel that contributed nothing to the actual story. Ponderous, useless narrative, forgettable characters, and a confusing story line are just the beginning of my problems with this book. The end of the book didn't even tempt me to read a free kindle sample of the next one in the series. Another reason to read the negative reviews: They are far more entertaining than the book itself.

Possibly the most uninteresting book I've ever tried to read. I couldn't make myself care about the characters, who were shallow and obvious. The writing was trite in the extreme. I got 50 pages in then had to put it down; I just couldn't waste any more of my time.

There is enough meterial in this 800 page book for a 100 page book. If you read it you should start by writing down all of the charactars' names and a brief discription of who they are to keep track of them. You can save a lot of time when you get to the chapters delaing with Ozzie's quest by just skipping them.

The terrible secret of this book, which I can now reveal without spoiling it for future readers, is that after 768 meandering pages the author needed a sequel to finish his story. Doesn't Hamilton have an editor, someone to tell him that his novel contains hundreds of pages of pointless detail, a multitude of unnecessary characters, and stupefyingly boring subplots? Yes, the premise of solar systems mysteriously enclosed by forcefields, and humanity being manipulated by a shadowy alien, is fascinating, but this could have been realized in a third of the space Hamilton used. (If you want a good lengthy read about aliens, try Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space, which is only 476 pages!)

Beware - This Book Will Make You Hate To Read!

I am truly sorry to have to put it that way, but after suffering through this book and its twin sister I can't say it any stronger.

Be warned this book will make you hate to read and think strongly of suing anyone involved in putting it before you.

The author is creative and has created a believable galaxy and technology to support it. This is the only nice thing I can say about this book.

The problems with these books are numerous. Many cardboard characters, many. Each of the dozens of primary characters is presented as the story's primary point of view. One or two is OK, three maybe, but dozens just loses me.

The biggest problem I have with this book is the primary - primary character. The one more words, attention, and detail is spent on. The scenery. That's right, this book is a travel log. It is a journey to see the mountains, the seas, the buildings, the machinery that makes the roads, the different color sky, the weather. The author spends literally hundreds and hundreds of pages on this primary character.

From the beginning of this first book to the end of its sister sequel is more than 1700 pages. With a good editor, you could bring this story in under 400, easy.

So, how has this travesty been perpetrated on us? In my opinion, the editor and publisher are at fault. They didn't go back to the author and tell him to cut the story in half. Get rid of the description of how the future grows the walls of mansions in Seattle; beef up the story and characters; and get rid of 2/3rds of the characters or they won't publish it.

So, who is to blame for my lose of book money and more importantly, the time of my live wasted slogging through this book of descriptions? The editor, the publishing company, and the marketing department that created the description on the back, which is misleading at best (a bold face lie, more likely). They told me I would be buying an epic adventure, a mystery to solve, a science fiction novel. What they sold me was a travel log description of 2 dozen different worlds and what kind of trees they have. Oh, and they all still drive Fords and Toyotas.

I am a deep reader. I fully envelope myself in the story as I read. Once I got about 300 to 400 pages into this description of horrible places to live, a real distopia. I realized I couldn't go on this way. It was horrible. I had a choice, either slog my way through the mud and repress my disgust or throw it away. I had heard someone describe a different way of reading recently and thought it might allow me to get through the book without chucking it at my walls.

So, I was 500 pages in and decided to just finish it out. Put it on the back of the toilet and read a few pages each day. I would do as the person described, read the dialog and skim the rest of the trash, catching a few words here and there (I don't know how to skim read, this was the best I could do).

So, that is how I got through the 20 plus pages on what Morning Light Mountain was (the bad guys). I literally skipped 15 to 18 pages at a time. Please tell me it was important to the story, I dare you.

One of the worst humanoid characters in the book is a guy named Ozzie. A character so one dimensional that I also skipped whole sections of the book describing his journey on the pathways to nowhere! The revelations he found on the dead planet and others was truly a waste of ink and paper. Does he use any of that information to conclude the conflict, any revelation that will help defeat the bad guys. In a word, no. If you have been misled into buying the book or someone gave it to you please just throw it away, but if you are reading it, you can just skip any section with this character in it.

Let's talk about the detective of our story, Paula. Who, hasn't been able to catch a terrorist and his controller for over 130 years. At one point in the story, the head of the Navy fires her. The author wanted us to feel sorry for her. Please, maybe not fired, but after 10 or 20 or 30 years, perhaps her boss should have reassigned the case to someone else. Then at the end of the story, she goes comatose to the point of death, because she has to be nice to the terrorist to save humanity from extinction. Lastly, solves a simple puzzle of who the traitor is, yet even before she can help anyone with this information, the author has the obligatory, these days, homosexual, kill the traitor. Meanwhile the reader has been screaming at the book for twenty pages, "it's Anna, it's Anna, it's Anna."

When you have to force yourself to read a book, just to get to the end of the story, there is no real pleasure in reading that book. If I could just put it down and throw it away trust me I would. But then It got worse.

How could a book that makes you hate to read be even worse you ask? I'll tell you, there is a part two to this book. The author solves nothing in this book, does virtually nothing but introduce you to one and two dimensional characters and spends all his time describing how they wallpaper in the future.

So, what did I get for my 900 plus pages? Less than nothing. A waste of my money. A waste of my time. A delay in reading things I truly enjoy. Then to find out that to finish this story I have to give more money to this author, an absentee mother of an editor, and a dishonest publishing company.

No. I will find out how to force feed the end of this story without giving them one more penny of my money and I did.

Please.
Please.
Please.
Do Not Buy This Book.

You have been warned.

Too much emphasis on exposition, and not enough depth to the drama. WAY TOO MUCH vulgarity. That kind of writing turns SciFi into trash. The ending isn't a cliff-hanger, er falls-hanger and I feel I wasted my time on this novel. When authors do this I have no interest in the sequel. Written with a British perspective and style which doesn't translate well to Yankee expectations.

Unfortunately this is another example of an author that believes that the only way to sell his work is to pollute it with sexual content. Strip out the irrelevant sex and it could have been a good book, though the lack of conclusion is disappointing.