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horizon_brave 's review for:
Pandora's Star
by Peter F. Hamilton
Damnit. I actually fear writing this review. This will be most likely be a few days worth of writing because this book is damn big, and has a LOT going on. First of all, I had heard about this series and author after reading and being vastly disappointed and turn off by reading Alaistar Reynolds two books. So put off was I by Reynolds, that I sort of clumped the author Peter F. Hamilton into the same style and just saved myself the time and headache. In a way Hamilton IS in the same vein as Reynolds. In fact both are very very similar in idea and 'feel' of their worlds. The difference I'm going to draw on is that to be blunt, I didn't give a rat's ass about the characters in both of Reynold's books. ( I did have some connection with the characters in his Century Rain book at least in the beginning..)
This is what worried me immensely when beginning the trek of reading Pandora's Star and the Commonwealth Saga in general. Though this could have been a good thing. Honestly I went in with expectations very low. Having assumed that Hamilton would be as bad as Reynolds I didn't expect much. Truth be told, I literally had another audio book downloaded and ready to go once I found that Pandora's Star turned south. It never came to that. In fact, I really grew attached to this book. So much so I had to pace myself, and it's a 32 hour audio book, but I was blazing through it something fierce. What I can say right off the bat is that this book is one that you *can* casually read, it's not hard or too wordy like William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy. So I had a much easier time comprehending while I was doing my morning workout. That being said, the downfall here is it's breadth of characters. And I say downfall, with some hesitation. Normally having a wide plethora of characters is great, it gives you a very wide take on different perspectives in the world that the author is showing us. And hot diggity, it works here. It works fantastically, but the characters come on in full wave right from the get go. The first few chapters we're literally dumped with new characters into our laps. This hits you fast and hard, and it gets confusing quickly. As readers we're expected to learn about the world/universe AND take in a huge amount of named characters
This isn't a huge factor in a normal fiction book, but I've found that in science fiction especially sci fi that introduces many deep and fundamental changes from our own world, both together is a bit much to take in. That being said, Hamilton has…somehow managed to give the newly introduced character actual personality. I was really surprised. Each one came off as being somehow different and unique. Now this could be a factor of the superb voice narration of John Lee… but Unlike with Alistair Reyold's books, I actually have a bit of investment and attachment to the characters I'm reading about.
The way the characters are written is not too over done and dramatized, something which I can't stand. (Okay Paula Myo's character and dialogue is a bit of a stretch at times) but these characters, their lives, and careers are very real.
Anyway let's get to some of the concepts of this book. Because as I have gone through this book, it's got a lot of really neat, really fun ideas. I can't help but find myself comparing it to Reynold's Century Rain and Pushing Ice. Both share a few similar ideas, but to me… Hamilton's working is far far superior and it comes across as a real universe not
The Saga begins in 2380, the human race has had wormhole technology for over 300 years thanks to the work of Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs, and has colonised several hundred planets across hundreds of light years.
What's sort of neat and what gives it some unique flavor is the idea of how space travel works here. Okay so when Faster than Light Tech was invented it was applied apparently to these big planet based rail lines. The trains travel through wormhole portals that are set up by an organization called CST. They are basically the pioneer scientists getting the wormholes mapped out to newly discovered habitable planets. When it first began only a small number of planets would have a "port" put on it. Humanity slowly but surely expanded out, and began linking all of the habitable planets together. Instead of flying in a star ship and using the wormholes though, the train system on the planets were used and built up. So the cool spin on this is that it leaves humanity without an actual star ship. Think about it, almost all sci fi books always just assume that humans have built ships that can go faster than light and fly from system to system. And while the humans here have FTL drives they are built onto trains rather than star ships.
On a distant planet, Astronomer Dudley Bose performs the first detailed observations of an astronomical event known as the Dyson Pair Enclosure. Two stars, located roughly 1,000 light years from Earth (750 light years from the edge of Commonwealth space), seemingly disappeared some time earlier. It turns out they were enclosed in something called "Dyson Spheres" (the idea of Dyson spheres is actually a real thing…yes I googled it)
The universe that we're presented with here grows very quickly. And while it all seems very natural and realistic, as stated earlier, it's a lot to take in up front. In fact, the plot line is actually a bit messy. It's not complicated, but there's so many random threads that Hamilton seems to take the book, it all seems as if he had like 4 to 5 story ideas, couldn't decide on one single genre and just mashed it all together. That sounds worse that how it actually plays out though. Some how the seemingly random unrelated threads work. But it takes some discipline to stick it through. The first story plot of Adam Elvine reads almost has a 1940's film noir. Because you don’t have the back story of the aliens, and the Commonwealth, you're present with what sounds like a communist plot to bring down the gov't. Which technically is that specific characters goal… but there's so much more that you don't "see" in the beginning. This is of course fleshed out to the reader later as the story goes.
Again at certain times the book strays from straight sci fi and gives us chapters of what feels like I'm reading a murder mystery, or again at times I'm reading a romance novel. While this didn't bother me and I actually enjoyed seeing these genre's set against a sci fi background, it may turn off some readers who are looking for constant hard sci fi.
So let's dig back into some of the concepts presented here and how they work:
Death may be postponed indefinitely in the Commonwealth. Most Commonwealth citizens have a memory crystal, or chip inserted at the base of the brain which is able to record memories including those before insertion. Commonwealth citizens undergo a process called rejuvenation, approximately every thirty to fifty years. Or whenever they really feel like it. Now this creates one heck of a divide for me. On one hand, I think the idea is really cool and honestly I can actually see this sort of being viable in the future in real life. So it's not too hard of a stretch that in this sci fi universe, you can adopt a new body and have those saved memories, downloaded into the new host. In that way you can sort of live forever. This is referred as "rejuving". It's a common practice (if you the cash) It seems to be on par with having cosmetic surgery.. Not exclusive for the super rich, but it's not cheap. Now for the plot with this, I'm torn. This allows for a lot of interesting and head scratching scenarios.
The rejuv process turns family relations on it's head.
There's a character, Mark, who's in his 20's, has a brother who's 150 years older…His father is newly rejuved, and brought home a teenage looking girl, who both probably in in their hundreds.
Mark is a first lifer, literally is 28. Now Mark's wife if a multi lifer. Meaning she's been rejuv'd already. Probably 200 or so years old. He feels left out, and amongst real adults while thinking everyone is looking down at him.
Also "Womb tanks" are a thing. They take the place of natural birthing often times. Because of rejuvenations, women can opt to use them instead of going through natural births each go round. This allows for huge families…(And I do mean huge)
With everyone surviving for so long each re-life can produce more and more children. So heads of dynasties can spawn hundreds and hundreds of kids and grandkids. For example the Halgarth dyntasy, treats their kids like students in a school or something. NO real emotional involvement at the higher up levels. But more strict disciplinary view point. Like a boarding school or college.
What's even odder is that some dynasties are split up, with "leaders" assigned to different "branches" some in different cities or planets. Perhaps for some dynasties, there's no real central leadership anymore.
I don't want to spoil everything and review every single concept here so I'll just make a few more honorable mentions that sort of set the tone of the book…
Along with this, there's things like the SI, which is a "Sentient Intelligence". Apparently human has created a computer software program that achieved Skynet level's of self sustainability. It spawned a sentient being that can be interfaced with and talked to. But it's very privy to who it wishes to respond to so only the elite can actually talk with it. The being is rather aloof and seems to intervene in human affairs when it chooses to.
OCTattoos (Organic Circuitry Tattoos) are also a major technological device. These are tattooed on the skin and resemble colourful, often metallic tattoos, and serve hundreds of purposes from transferring credits to serving as sensors. Pretty cool idea that serves as a detour from the normal cyber brain enhancements. These are glowing skin tats, that I can see would look pretty cyberpunk.
I'll leave the alien race out of this review, as it definitely should be read in real time, and I don't want to spoil too much. That being said, the aliens are a hive minded collection that seems to be strangely xenophobic. They can't imagine or fathom a universe with two different specicies, let alone multitudes. (Yes in this universe, there are a handful of other races across the Commonwealth) I like the fact that there aren't "Star Wars" levels of races but just enough to make it interesting.
Unfortunately there are a few downsides… first to continue with the above mentioned races.. Hamilton describes them all as being rather different but aside from physical appearance they all seem the same to me. THey're all "smarter" or intellectually superior to humans, and have this sort of condescending tone towards humans. Yet Hamilton does a poor job at showing how or why this is. Or how they view each other. The races are all shown and described as separate parties, but never in a group together. Perhaps in book 2 we'll get some cross alien action!
So let me wrap this up, this review is getting to be ridiculously long. The book is good. Really good. I'd say that it's probably one of my favorites in terms of epic sci fi. For whatever reason…and I still can't piece together why exactly, it beats the hell out of Alistair Reynold's books. And that's a shame cause I wanted to really enjoy Century Rain. It had the makings of a really good book blending the historical with sci fi.. Hamilton does was Reynolds didn't I think by making the characters more relatable. Unfortunately I think he introduces a bit *too* many characters, atleast upfront. If you're looking for a quick setup and "off to the races" with the action, this series probably may disappoint. Hamilton gives us a lot of character building and unless you have a very good memory, things may get jumbled between story arcs. The book presents us with some really cool idea's that are variants to what we're used to in sci fi. It's a fun, interesting ride that does well not to fall into the trap of "oh poor helpless humanity against the superior in every way aliens" Hamiliton makes it a point to impart that while the aliens are indeed technologically advanced, we have certain things and technology that baffle them, and they can only immitate it later. (the reverse is true as well). I feel as though I'm reading about an actual war, not just an onslaught like in most alien invasion books and movies. Very well done Peter Hamilton. On to Judas Unchained, and I hope to be pulled further into this sci fi epic.
This is what worried me immensely when beginning the trek of reading Pandora's Star and the Commonwealth Saga in general. Though this could have been a good thing. Honestly I went in with expectations very low. Having assumed that Hamilton would be as bad as Reynolds I didn't expect much. Truth be told, I literally had another audio book downloaded and ready to go once I found that Pandora's Star turned south. It never came to that. In fact, I really grew attached to this book. So much so I had to pace myself, and it's a 32 hour audio book, but I was blazing through it something fierce. What I can say right off the bat is that this book is one that you *can* casually read, it's not hard or too wordy like William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy. So I had a much easier time comprehending while I was doing my morning workout. That being said, the downfall here is it's breadth of characters. And I say downfall, with some hesitation. Normally having a wide plethora of characters is great, it gives you a very wide take on different perspectives in the world that the author is showing us. And hot diggity, it works here. It works fantastically, but the characters come on in full wave right from the get go. The first few chapters we're literally dumped with new characters into our laps. This hits you fast and hard, and it gets confusing quickly. As readers we're expected to learn about the world/universe AND take in a huge amount of named characters
This isn't a huge factor in a normal fiction book, but I've found that in science fiction especially sci fi that introduces many deep and fundamental changes from our own world, both together is a bit much to take in. That being said, Hamilton has…somehow managed to give the newly introduced character actual personality. I was really surprised. Each one came off as being somehow different and unique. Now this could be a factor of the superb voice narration of John Lee… but Unlike with Alistair Reyold's books, I actually have a bit of investment and attachment to the characters I'm reading about.
The way the characters are written is not too over done and dramatized, something which I can't stand. (Okay Paula Myo's character and dialogue is a bit of a stretch at times) but these characters, their lives, and careers are very real.
Anyway let's get to some of the concepts of this book. Because as I have gone through this book, it's got a lot of really neat, really fun ideas. I can't help but find myself comparing it to Reynold's Century Rain and Pushing Ice. Both share a few similar ideas, but to me… Hamilton's working is far far superior and it comes across as a real universe not
The Saga begins in 2380, the human race has had wormhole technology for over 300 years thanks to the work of Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs, and has colonised several hundred planets across hundreds of light years.
What's sort of neat and what gives it some unique flavor is the idea of how space travel works here. Okay so when Faster than Light Tech was invented it was applied apparently to these big planet based rail lines. The trains travel through wormhole portals that are set up by an organization called CST. They are basically the pioneer scientists getting the wormholes mapped out to newly discovered habitable planets. When it first began only a small number of planets would have a "port" put on it. Humanity slowly but surely expanded out, and began linking all of the habitable planets together. Instead of flying in a star ship and using the wormholes though, the train system on the planets were used and built up. So the cool spin on this is that it leaves humanity without an actual star ship. Think about it, almost all sci fi books always just assume that humans have built ships that can go faster than light and fly from system to system. And while the humans here have FTL drives they are built onto trains rather than star ships.
On a distant planet, Astronomer Dudley Bose performs the first detailed observations of an astronomical event known as the Dyson Pair Enclosure. Two stars, located roughly 1,000 light years from Earth (750 light years from the edge of Commonwealth space), seemingly disappeared some time earlier. It turns out they were enclosed in something called "Dyson Spheres" (the idea of Dyson spheres is actually a real thing…yes I googled it)
The universe that we're presented with here grows very quickly. And while it all seems very natural and realistic, as stated earlier, it's a lot to take in up front. In fact, the plot line is actually a bit messy. It's not complicated, but there's so many random threads that Hamilton seems to take the book, it all seems as if he had like 4 to 5 story ideas, couldn't decide on one single genre and just mashed it all together. That sounds worse that how it actually plays out though. Some how the seemingly random unrelated threads work. But it takes some discipline to stick it through. The first story plot of Adam Elvine reads almost has a 1940's film noir. Because you don’t have the back story of the aliens, and the Commonwealth, you're present with what sounds like a communist plot to bring down the gov't. Which technically is that specific characters goal… but there's so much more that you don't "see" in the beginning. This is of course fleshed out to the reader later as the story goes.
Again at certain times the book strays from straight sci fi and gives us chapters of what feels like I'm reading a murder mystery, or again at times I'm reading a romance novel. While this didn't bother me and I actually enjoyed seeing these genre's set against a sci fi background, it may turn off some readers who are looking for constant hard sci fi.
So let's dig back into some of the concepts presented here and how they work:
Death may be postponed indefinitely in the Commonwealth. Most Commonwealth citizens have a memory crystal, or chip inserted at the base of the brain which is able to record memories including those before insertion. Commonwealth citizens undergo a process called rejuvenation, approximately every thirty to fifty years. Or whenever they really feel like it. Now this creates one heck of a divide for me. On one hand, I think the idea is really cool and honestly I can actually see this sort of being viable in the future in real life. So it's not too hard of a stretch that in this sci fi universe, you can adopt a new body and have those saved memories, downloaded into the new host. In that way you can sort of live forever. This is referred as "rejuving". It's a common practice (if you the cash) It seems to be on par with having cosmetic surgery.. Not exclusive for the super rich, but it's not cheap. Now for the plot with this, I'm torn. This allows for a lot of interesting and head scratching scenarios.
The rejuv process turns family relations on it's head.
There's a character, Mark, who's in his 20's, has a brother who's 150 years older…His father is newly rejuved, and brought home a teenage looking girl, who both probably in in their hundreds.
Mark is a first lifer, literally is 28. Now Mark's wife if a multi lifer. Meaning she's been rejuv'd already. Probably 200 or so years old. He feels left out, and amongst real adults while thinking everyone is looking down at him.
Also "Womb tanks" are a thing. They take the place of natural birthing often times. Because of rejuvenations, women can opt to use them instead of going through natural births each go round. This allows for huge families…(And I do mean huge)
With everyone surviving for so long each re-life can produce more and more children. So heads of dynasties can spawn hundreds and hundreds of kids and grandkids. For example the Halgarth dyntasy, treats their kids like students in a school or something. NO real emotional involvement at the higher up levels. But more strict disciplinary view point. Like a boarding school or college.
What's even odder is that some dynasties are split up, with "leaders" assigned to different "branches" some in different cities or planets. Perhaps for some dynasties, there's no real central leadership anymore.
I don't want to spoil everything and review every single concept here so I'll just make a few more honorable mentions that sort of set the tone of the book…
Along with this, there's things like the SI, which is a "Sentient Intelligence". Apparently human has created a computer software program that achieved Skynet level's of self sustainability. It spawned a sentient being that can be interfaced with and talked to. But it's very privy to who it wishes to respond to so only the elite can actually talk with it. The being is rather aloof and seems to intervene in human affairs when it chooses to.
OCTattoos (Organic Circuitry Tattoos) are also a major technological device. These are tattooed on the skin and resemble colourful, often metallic tattoos, and serve hundreds of purposes from transferring credits to serving as sensors. Pretty cool idea that serves as a detour from the normal cyber brain enhancements. These are glowing skin tats, that I can see would look pretty cyberpunk.
I'll leave the alien race out of this review, as it definitely should be read in real time, and I don't want to spoil too much. That being said, the aliens are a hive minded collection that seems to be strangely xenophobic. They can't imagine or fathom a universe with two different specicies, let alone multitudes. (Yes in this universe, there are a handful of other races across the Commonwealth) I like the fact that there aren't "Star Wars" levels of races but just enough to make it interesting.
Unfortunately there are a few downsides… first to continue with the above mentioned races.. Hamilton describes them all as being rather different but aside from physical appearance they all seem the same to me. THey're all "smarter" or intellectually superior to humans, and have this sort of condescending tone towards humans. Yet Hamilton does a poor job at showing how or why this is. Or how they view each other. The races are all shown and described as separate parties, but never in a group together. Perhaps in book 2 we'll get some cross alien action!
So let me wrap this up, this review is getting to be ridiculously long. The book is good. Really good. I'd say that it's probably one of my favorites in terms of epic sci fi. For whatever reason…and I still can't piece together why exactly, it beats the hell out of Alistair Reynold's books. And that's a shame cause I wanted to really enjoy Century Rain. It had the makings of a really good book blending the historical with sci fi.. Hamilton does was Reynolds didn't I think by making the characters more relatable. Unfortunately I think he introduces a bit *too* many characters, atleast upfront. If you're looking for a quick setup and "off to the races" with the action, this series probably may disappoint. Hamilton gives us a lot of character building and unless you have a very good memory, things may get jumbled between story arcs. The book presents us with some really cool idea's that are variants to what we're used to in sci fi. It's a fun, interesting ride that does well not to fall into the trap of "oh poor helpless humanity against the superior in every way aliens" Hamiliton makes it a point to impart that while the aliens are indeed technologically advanced, we have certain things and technology that baffle them, and they can only immitate it later. (the reverse is true as well). I feel as though I'm reading about an actual war, not just an onslaught like in most alien invasion books and movies. Very well done Peter Hamilton. On to Judas Unchained, and I hope to be pulled further into this sci fi epic.