Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
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Book Reviews of Pandora's Star
Book Review: Mostly Fun Read
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a good, but not great book. If the plot progressed more quickly it would have easily gotten five stars from me. With that caveat aside, this was a good book with good writing and a story that really heats up in the last few hundred pages of the novel.
The future setting of the Commonwealth is very well done, believable and nuanced for the most part. I would have liked to see more varied characters, however. A weakness with the characters in the novel is that they are only superficially different from one another. I would have liked to see characters that have really different philosophies, religious outlooks, or political beliefs. To cite one example, all the characters pretty much agreed that marriage was a transitory state given that people were basically immortal due to rejuvination technology. It seems to me that while this could be the dominant belief, I could easily imagine a religious community believing marriage to be a sacred eternal sacramental union, as there are such large communities in our world today. Also, the characters spoke the same way and were were mostly interchangeable with one another. This is a huge mistake by an otherwise adept author. Other than that annoyance, the technology, politics, and culture of the Commonwealth was believably constructed in my judgment. I did have concerns about this when I began reading but the author weaves together a convincing account of this society as I turned the pages.
The biggest flaw of the book is poor plotting. I agree with other reviewers that cutting 300 or so of this book would have been a good idea.
In all, it was a good read. I bought the next book in the series, so I'd say the author was successful when it came to capturing my imagination.
Book Review: Four and a half, really
Summary: 4 Stars
I really can't express how much I enjoyed this book. The narrative style was A BIT long winded at times, and I did find myself flipping through some of the more ancillary storylines in order to get back to my favorite characters. That being said the background story and general world-building was tremendous fun. I enjoyed how Hamilton skated the particularly thorny issue of establishing an interstellar society without the use of star ships by the planetary wormhole method. He also did an excellent job of depicting an open minded and progressive futuristic society without going off the deep end. Granted his society has a tolerent view of sexuality and family, but most science fiction fans I know are open minded and cool so it is probably a non-issue. He does this with allusions and frank discussion of real life sexuality, and without turning it into "Dear Penthouse". (Still, I'm sure some crazies will be offended, but they always are). Hamilton also makes sure he reveals his rich background a little bit at a time, avoiding the information-dump-every-chapter routine that even sci-fi stars like David Weber utilize. I think I'm still a little hazy about the power structure of the Intersolar Commonwealth, but it's a complex system that even the characters seem confused about from time to time. My only real complaint is the cliff-hanger at the end, as I am growing REAL tired of the whole "wait until the next book" deal. It just seems like a cheap way of getting my $10. Note to authors: if I liked your first book, I'll try out the second. You do not have to use the next installment trick unless your first installment was garbage. So four stars only Mr. Hamilton, I'll give you the fifth when you actually finish a storyline ;-)Book Review: Decent but With Flaws (Contains Spoilers)
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Don't be fooled.
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Worth my time, but weighed down by its weaker aspects
Summary: 4 Stars
(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.