Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
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Book Reviews of Pandora's Star
Book Review: Amazing story
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. It has such an imaginative worlds and universe with technologies that are breath taking and amazing.Book Review: Best since Gap Series
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is the best SF since the Gap series which still remains #1.Book Review: Good book, overall.
Summary: 4 Stars
On a whim, I ordered the book from Amazon to fill in the void left after finishing up the Dune series again. Sometimes these things are a gamble, as you can't flip through it quickly, and you've no idea the tastes of the other reviewers in comparison to your own.
However, after spending about 3 weeks in-between work and home reading through all 900 some odd pages, I have to say I liked the book. I suppose my tastes are sort of picky. I like some Fiction, some Detective stories (particularly Holmes), the occasional Fantasy book, and a good bit of Sci-Fi.
The book is a bit "Lower Sci-Fi" than what I'm used to reading, in that it's technology level seems depressingly appropriate for a few hundred years into the future. Every possible technology in the book is firmly based in real-world physics, and very little "Fuzzy Logic" is needed to fill in the gaps and make me believe that it is, indeed, the "future."
Pandora's Star is set a few hundred years ahead of us where interplanetary travel has been solved by wormholes. The setting itself is very solid, and seems to assume that the future will be much like the present itself, with mega-corporations and super-powerful families running everything behind the scenes. It's not thick on political intrigue or espionage, and a lot of the events are simply brute-forced through by massive amounts of cash from said corporations or families, which has two effects for me: The first being that it successfully puts the perspective of power in the right spot for key players, and the second is that it seems to pigeon-hole the book just a tad into the "Ultra-rich" characters. There are Joe-Schmoes playing parts in the book, but they seem to be catalysts, while the financially too-well-endowed are the main event most of the time.
It's also not big on action. This is definitely not some Military-Sci-Fi book, and sometimes that's a relief as the genre itself seems to keep falling over the "Aliens" syndrome a little too often for my tastes. What action there is in the book is described adequately and flows rather well.
I was a bit surprised that the book turned out to be almost a detective novel, both in the main story-arch, and in several of the intimate stories concerning the main characters. In fact, there really seem to be two different stories and two different genres happening here. One is your sci-fi detective story, brought to you by the character Paula Myo and Adam Elvin, and the other seems to be almost a generic Sci-Fi theme of "Spaceflight + Aliens = Book".
However, the author does capably blend the two, and while I found myself sort of wondering where everything was going in the beginning quarter of the book or so, the meat of the book is really contained in the latter half, and now I'm considering buying the sequel my next trip through B&N.
Overall I'd say it's well written, the flow of events is pretty, and the book kept me firmly trenched in my suspension of disbelief. I bought the whole thing line and sinker, and with only the scant things perking up my sarcasm.
However, with the praise for the book, there are a few things which I found to take away from the experience (and these may be my personal preferences, so take them as you will):
-New characters are being added continuously up until about half or three-quarters the way through the book. Trying to keep track of them all can be a bit dizzying, and some of them seemed to take up too much space for being the side-characters they were.
-The exhaustive descriptions of landscapes got to me towards the end. Some may not fault him for this, but the cities and surrounding environments easily get the most attention to detail. With as many curious situations as the book finds itself in, I found this to be a bit annoying, but it's not a deal-breaker.
-This may be very nitpicky, but along with a good chunk of the genre, "saturated with sex" is also rather appropriate to describe this book as well. It happens, and it happens often. It's a casual thing in this book, and many others, and I think that it can definitely take away from the wonder of a good Sci-Fi story. I don't mind the occasional bout of bedtime fun in my books, don't get me wrong, but it's rarely done well. Yes, yes, sex in the future is like brushing your teeth, everyone does it twice a day, I get it... It doesn't need to be pointed out so directly. I think a more subtle approach could be taken, and much better results had. Deal breaker? No. Some of the encounters are well done and appropriate in Pandora's Star, but a significant portion seem to be in only because "It's what the readers want."
Would I recommend it? Well, if you don't mind a lengthy book, and want to see a good creative mind at work at a Sci-Fi detective story that has a few good twists, I would. This -is- a good book, the prose is excellent, and provides a nice fertile area to stretch the mind in a different way before leaping back into another fast-paced post-apocalyptic Starship Troopers type of novel.
4/5 stars for this one.
Book Review: For those with a cinematic mind
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Pandora's Star plus Judas Unchained is 2000 pages of sci-fi adventure!
Summary: 4 Stars
Pandora's Star, by Peter Hamilton, is part one of a two part epic concluding with Judas Unchained. And it really is part one. Pandora's Star without Judas Unchained is half a story. These books don't stand alone.
The general theme is as follows. Because of their ability to control the formation and location of wormholes, humans have expanded throughout the galaxy. They've encountered a few sentient alien species, but none that were particularly harmful to human interests.
An astronomer was "lucky" enough to watch a star... disappear. However, it didn't just disappear. It was enveloped in some type of super cocoon. What technology could envelop a star? Did an advanced race put this cocoon up to protect it from a greater danger? Or was something very, very dangerous, penned inside?
We needed to find out.
As a mission approaches the barrier, it suddenly switches off, and humans meet MorningLightMountain. Let's just leave it at "bad things begin to happen."
These "bad things" result in a fight for, quite simply, the survival of humans as a species (in Judas Unchained).
If that's not enough, this series also has the mysterious Starflyer, possibly manipulating both races to get them to annihilate each other so that it can pick up the pieces. Of course, Starflyer is a myth, right? Only zealots care about Starflyer.
You don't want to miss the history of MorningLightMountain in chapter 18 of Pandora's Star (remember the tale of opening Pandora's box?).
Humans, by the way, have really ratcheted up their biotechnology: re-life, rejuvenation, memory crystals, defensive and offensive implants ("wet wired"), and connections to the unisphere.
Cool.
There are very complicated personal relationships in both books, and, I have to admit, they begin to get tedious. Hence the four stars.
Judas Unchained brings all the loose threads together. Will humans survive? Is Starflyer real? Do the interests of the Dynasty Families lie with the human race?
Your questions will be answered. Make sure you have time to read all 2000 pages!