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righteousridel 's review for:
Pandora's Star
by Peter F. Hamilton
The Encyclopedia Galactica
Pandora’s Star weighs in at 992 pages, indicative of 2-3 books worth of content. It’s a slow, meandering tome that envisions 2000s-era American society expanded to 600 planets, introducing a number of technical advancements that have widespread philosophical and metaphysical implications. The breadth of creativity (ignoring the author’s blindspots) is stunning, and the effort spent on introducing this civilization equally so. With plenty of page count and imagination, the stage is set for a remarkable tale.
Yet it is a terrible story.
Narration is an art form, and I fully admit that my preferences are not the same as others. I’m someone who wants plot, to be shown not told, and to end up emotionally invested. Pandora’s Star instead provides 20+ narrators spread over 10+ B-Plots, with a sprinkling of the core plotline throughout this expanse. The subplots rarely interact with one another, and they take so long to pay out (if at all) that I rarely care about the characters or their lives. They cover such a diverse array of society — from senators of the Commonwealth to a hippie father on a resort planet — that the scope of tale suffers: one minute, you're reading about the political fate of 600 planets, and the next it's about the renovation of a beach house!
This is even before discussing the writing style. Every location (and there are hundreds) begins with a Wikipedia-style article: botany, cities of note, historical relevance, economics, political clout... all of which interrupt the sparse plot. Chapters are structured nonsensically: not indicative of a single subplot, narrator, or even theme. As you read, you get that feeling of Wikipedia where you started learning how to build a starship, and fifteen minutes later, you're deep in minutiae of how to organize a strike. What did you accidentally click? How did you get here? What's the narrative?
The only consistency is that the author wishes you to live and breathe the Commonwealth. And it’s a truly expansive place. The society is post-scarcity and post-mortality, thanks wormholes providing teleportation to thousands of habitable planets, and the ability to de-age bodies / load memories into new bodies. The society that results is… hedonistic to say the least. It’s a vision of the future that is decidedly not the 2020s. With the many narrators, you really get a feel for the super poor and super rich, and everything in between. It shows a tremendous amount of forethought and effort that went into the details, and I really, really appreciate the worldbuilding.
Getting through Pandora’s Star is like reading an entire trilogy, and I wish I cut my losses about 50 pages in. Even 80% through the novel, the introductory-style of prose never changes. I appreciate the effort that went into building out the Commonwealth, and perhaps you’re the type of reader who doesn’t need plot, in which case this is an imaginative future worth exploring. For me, I will not be reading anything more by this author.
Not Recommended with Reservations.
With 1000 pages of content, there’s nearly three books worth of frustrations that I can’t dump out into a spoiler discussion without it coming off like a rant. The Wikipedia-style of writing, and its impact on stopping plot and character development, was most painful when introducing MorningLightMountain. Dozens of pages detailing the birth of immotiles civilization (literally talking about cells exploring waterways) in order to lead up to Bose’s defeat. I was enraged at the wild switch in tone, abrupt introduction of a different narrator, and ultimately being Told what the enemy was like.
Similiarly, after Paula leaves Naval Intelligence, there’s a long winded segment introducing Huxley’s Haven. Detail after detail about her taking steam trains to some rural ass-end of nowhere in the Commonwealth. It’s that type of writing that just made me want to light the book on fire.
The bias against women is also painfully obvious, with Mellanie's storyline (and the porn subplot, and also the seductress subplot) being the worst sexist offender. Forget minority or LGBTQ representation, but even basic stuff like sexism is just littered throughout the novel. There's an offhand statement where women on the spaceship ended up getting a penis so they could urinate easier, and this caused problems for the men during sex. The casualness of which this statement was delivered is stunning.
Finally, Ozzie’s plotline is simply the worst. I expected payoff within this novel — there’s easily 300 pages of his Fantasy solo adventure — but he still hasn’t returned to the Commonwealth and literally fell off a cliff at the end. The abrupt ending has ensured that I won’t pick up the next novel.
There’s a single novel and five novellas in Pandora’s Star, and they should have been released that way:
* Pandora’s Star - main plotline between the Second Chance, MorningLightMountain, and the attack on the Commonwealth
* Terrorism - Justine, Kazimir and secret war vs the Starflyer
* Police in the 25th Century - Paula Myo investigating Morton
* Police and the Starflyer - Paula vs Adam, and gradual discovery of the Starflyer conspiracy with Mellanie
* Ozzie and the Elves - ‘nuff said
* Environmentists - All the beach stuff and eventually them getting attacked by MorningLightMountain
The mash together kinda works with Paula and the Second Chance, but everything else is really just extra flavour. Perfect for novellas. And easily downsized to about 350 pages.
Pandora’s Star weighs in at 992 pages, indicative of 2-3 books worth of content. It’s a slow, meandering tome that envisions 2000s-era American society expanded to 600 planets, introducing a number of technical advancements that have widespread philosophical and metaphysical implications. The breadth of creativity (ignoring the author’s blindspots) is stunning, and the effort spent on introducing this civilization equally so. With plenty of page count and imagination, the stage is set for a remarkable tale.
Yet it is a terrible story.
Narration is an art form, and I fully admit that my preferences are not the same as others. I’m someone who wants plot, to be shown not told, and to end up emotionally invested. Pandora’s Star instead provides 20+ narrators spread over 10+ B-Plots, with a sprinkling of the core plotline throughout this expanse. The subplots rarely interact with one another, and they take so long to pay out (if at all) that I rarely care about the characters or their lives. They cover such a diverse array of society — from senators of the Commonwealth to a hippie father on a resort planet — that the scope of tale suffers: one minute, you're reading about the political fate of 600 planets, and the next it's about the renovation of a beach house!
This is even before discussing the writing style. Every location (and there are hundreds) begins with a Wikipedia-style article: botany, cities of note, historical relevance, economics, political clout... all of which interrupt the sparse plot. Chapters are structured nonsensically: not indicative of a single subplot, narrator, or even theme. As you read, you get that feeling of Wikipedia where you started learning how to build a starship, and fifteen minutes later, you're deep in minutiae of how to organize a strike. What did you accidentally click? How did you get here? What's the narrative?
The only consistency is that the author wishes you to live and breathe the Commonwealth. And it’s a truly expansive place. The society is post-scarcity and post-mortality, thanks wormholes providing teleportation to thousands of habitable planets, and the ability to de-age bodies / load memories into new bodies. The society that results is… hedonistic to say the least. It’s a vision of the future that is decidedly not the 2020s. With the many narrators, you really get a feel for the super poor and super rich, and everything in between. It shows a tremendous amount of forethought and effort that went into the details, and I really, really appreciate the worldbuilding.
Getting through Pandora’s Star is like reading an entire trilogy, and I wish I cut my losses about 50 pages in. Even 80% through the novel, the introductory-style of prose never changes. I appreciate the effort that went into building out the Commonwealth, and perhaps you’re the type of reader who doesn’t need plot, in which case this is an imaginative future worth exploring. For me, I will not be reading anything more by this author.
Not Recommended with Reservations.
Spoiler
The following is in spoiler tags, and I say so since some Goodreads clients may not respect it. You’ve been warned:With 1000 pages of content, there’s nearly three books worth of frustrations that I can’t dump out into a spoiler discussion without it coming off like a rant. The Wikipedia-style of writing, and its impact on stopping plot and character development, was most painful when introducing MorningLightMountain. Dozens of pages detailing the birth of immotiles civilization (literally talking about cells exploring waterways) in order to lead up to Bose’s defeat. I was enraged at the wild switch in tone, abrupt introduction of a different narrator, and ultimately being Told what the enemy was like.
Similiarly, after Paula leaves Naval Intelligence, there’s a long winded segment introducing Huxley’s Haven. Detail after detail about her taking steam trains to some rural ass-end of nowhere in the Commonwealth. It’s that type of writing that just made me want to light the book on fire.
The bias against women is also painfully obvious, with Mellanie's storyline (and the porn subplot, and also the seductress subplot) being the worst sexist offender. Forget minority or LGBTQ representation, but even basic stuff like sexism is just littered throughout the novel. There's an offhand statement where women on the spaceship ended up getting a penis so they could urinate easier, and this caused problems for the men during sex. The casualness of which this statement was delivered is stunning.
Finally, Ozzie’s plotline is simply the worst. I expected payoff within this novel — there’s easily 300 pages of his Fantasy solo adventure — but he still hasn’t returned to the Commonwealth and literally fell off a cliff at the end. The abrupt ending has ensured that I won’t pick up the next novel.
There’s a single novel and five novellas in Pandora’s Star, and they should have been released that way:
* Pandora’s Star - main plotline between the Second Chance, MorningLightMountain, and the attack on the Commonwealth
* Terrorism - Justine, Kazimir and secret war vs the Starflyer
* Police in the 25th Century - Paula Myo investigating Morton
* Police and the Starflyer - Paula vs Adam, and gradual discovery of the Starflyer conspiracy with Mellanie
* Ozzie and the Elves - ‘nuff said
* Environmentists - All the beach stuff and eventually them getting attacked by MorningLightMountain
The mash together kinda works with Paula and the Second Chance, but everything else is really just extra flavour. Perfect for novellas. And easily downsized to about 350 pages.