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bulwerka 's review for:
Pandora's Star
by Peter F. Hamilton
The daunting first part of the Commonwealth saga, Pandora’s Star, is an 800 page monument to author Peter F. Hamilton’s imagination. This is a fully fleshed out world, with many of the problems and issues of our world, with some really interesting twists. It’s an all around great book.
It takes place hundreds of years in the future, and due to wormhole technology mankind has been able to spread out among hundreds of stars. People, due to rejuvenation technology, live forever and thus things like marriage, childhood, careers, the family unit, and even murder, change. Giant corporations run whole worlds, and Earth has become so expensive to live on, you basically need to be grandfathered into residency. Government is run on a commonwealth model, with power decentralized to individual worlds, with a weak executive organizing broader interests.
Into this world Peter Hamilton inserts a multitude of storylines, with the most prevalent being the loss of contact with two stars. The Dyson Pair, many many light years away, suddenly blinks out of existance mysteriously. This prompts the Commonwealth build a starship to investigate. Led by Wilson Kime, a former NASA astronaut, the findings of the ship may or may not change the course of human history as anything capable of blocking out a sun is not to be reckoned with.
There are more sinister elements at home, though. An ancient starship was found on one of Earth’s farthest colonies, and it may hold an alien creature who is insidiously installing itself in postitions of power and slowly taking over the human race. Many, maybe under the influence of this alien, consider it to be a wacky consipiracy theory, while others resort to terrorism to stop this alien. An intrepid group of individuals, including Paula Myo, the world famous detective, and many others in different story lines, all start to investigate the truth of this alien.
With all the forces facing humanity, one intrepid soul, Ozzie, strikes out down the mystical Silfen paths to find answers. These paths magically transport you from one world to another as you walk along them. The Silfen, the creators of the path, live life in stages, but humanity has only encountered the child version. Ozzie wants to consult the adults to halt impending doom.
Following this brief and wholly inadequete summary of Pandora’s Star it becomes apparent that there is a lot going on in this book. It’s an 800 page epic, but to break it up Hamilton has done brilliantly to create multiple storylines to halt potential monotony.
Each storyline has it’s own unique characters and style, and each presents a different viewpoint of the Commonwealth. This helps to illustrate the competing forces of this society, and helps keep the reader’s interest throughout the book. Thanks to this system, I never felt bogged down once, which can be an achilles heel of a book this size.
That being said, there are some stories that or more interesting than others. I loved the investigation of the Dyson Pair, and Paula Myo’s investigation of terrorists, but Ozzie’s exploration of the Silfen paths was the only part that dragged for me. It was a lot like the scenes from Lord of the Rings featuring Sam, Frodo, and Gollum just wandering to Mordor. It just felt far less unfocused and longer than it needed to be.
It really is unfortunate, since Ozzie is probably the most interesting character in the book. He is a hippie, genius physicist, and the Commonwealth’s richest man. He is more dynamic than almost any other character in the book. Due to time, some of them, especially Paula Myo, become very rigid and hard to identify with. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is a bad thing, her character works rigidly, and the book would be twice the size if Hamilton had to introduce each character dynamically and in depth.
As a testament to how rich and dense this book is, I almost feel like my review is bursting at the seams with information. The world is executed brilliantly, and the conflicts are absolutely believable, so much so that it did not feel like 800 pages. Peter Hamilton wrote this story very well, and the pages just flew by. Even if some parts did drag, at the end of the day I can say without hesitation I enjoyed every page.
The book does end on a cliffhanger, because it is a two part series with Judas Unchained picking up where Pandora’s Star leaves off, so don’t be too disappointed a lot is left unresolved. If you are looking for a great summer read, this has to be near the top of the list.
(This review was originally posted on my blog
It takes place hundreds of years in the future, and due to wormhole technology mankind has been able to spread out among hundreds of stars. People, due to rejuvenation technology, live forever and thus things like marriage, childhood, careers, the family unit, and even murder, change. Giant corporations run whole worlds, and Earth has become so expensive to live on, you basically need to be grandfathered into residency. Government is run on a commonwealth model, with power decentralized to individual worlds, with a weak executive organizing broader interests.
Into this world Peter Hamilton inserts a multitude of storylines, with the most prevalent being the loss of contact with two stars. The Dyson Pair, many many light years away, suddenly blinks out of existance mysteriously. This prompts the Commonwealth build a starship to investigate. Led by Wilson Kime, a former NASA astronaut, the findings of the ship may or may not change the course of human history as anything capable of blocking out a sun is not to be reckoned with.
There are more sinister elements at home, though. An ancient starship was found on one of Earth’s farthest colonies, and it may hold an alien creature who is insidiously installing itself in postitions of power and slowly taking over the human race. Many, maybe under the influence of this alien, consider it to be a wacky consipiracy theory, while others resort to terrorism to stop this alien. An intrepid group of individuals, including Paula Myo, the world famous detective, and many others in different story lines, all start to investigate the truth of this alien.
With all the forces facing humanity, one intrepid soul, Ozzie, strikes out down the mystical Silfen paths to find answers. These paths magically transport you from one world to another as you walk along them. The Silfen, the creators of the path, live life in stages, but humanity has only encountered the child version. Ozzie wants to consult the adults to halt impending doom.
Following this brief and wholly inadequete summary of Pandora’s Star it becomes apparent that there is a lot going on in this book. It’s an 800 page epic, but to break it up Hamilton has done brilliantly to create multiple storylines to halt potential monotony.
Each storyline has it’s own unique characters and style, and each presents a different viewpoint of the Commonwealth. This helps to illustrate the competing forces of this society, and helps keep the reader’s interest throughout the book. Thanks to this system, I never felt bogged down once, which can be an achilles heel of a book this size.
That being said, there are some stories that or more interesting than others. I loved the investigation of the Dyson Pair, and Paula Myo’s investigation of terrorists, but Ozzie’s exploration of the Silfen paths was the only part that dragged for me. It was a lot like the scenes from Lord of the Rings featuring Sam, Frodo, and Gollum just wandering to Mordor. It just felt far less unfocused and longer than it needed to be.
It really is unfortunate, since Ozzie is probably the most interesting character in the book. He is a hippie, genius physicist, and the Commonwealth’s richest man. He is more dynamic than almost any other character in the book. Due to time, some of them, especially Paula Myo, become very rigid and hard to identify with. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is a bad thing, her character works rigidly, and the book would be twice the size if Hamilton had to introduce each character dynamically and in depth.
As a testament to how rich and dense this book is, I almost feel like my review is bursting at the seams with information. The world is executed brilliantly, and the conflicts are absolutely believable, so much so that it did not feel like 800 pages. Peter Hamilton wrote this story very well, and the pages just flew by. Even if some parts did drag, at the end of the day I can say without hesitation I enjoyed every page.
The book does end on a cliffhanger, because it is a two part series with Judas Unchained picking up where Pandora’s Star leaves off, so don’t be too disappointed a lot is left unresolved. If you are looking for a great summer read, this has to be near the top of the list.
(This review was originally posted on my blog