You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lmsk 's review for:
Pandora's Star
by Peter F. Hamilton
Features many Peter F. Hamilton (can we call him PFH? is that too 2021?) hallmarks: vaguely benevolent ultra-wealthy immortal dynasts, portal technology to solve FTL travel, and heavy doses of exposition covering a whole spectra of technology/alien concepts.
My issues with this are twofold:
First, for every novel idea worth exploring (MorningLightMountain) there's a couple that have been done before (backed up sentience, portals) and a half-dozen that don't really matter (e.g. enzyme-bonded concrete, which appears as a phrase at least a dozen times). Would prefer speculative sci-fi to push more, & Culture series does better.
Second, viewed purely as a space opera, the 100+ character cast and dozens of A, B, C, D plots are just a bit thin to stand on their own. Maybe 1/3 of the characters and 1/4 of the plots are honestly quite good - it's a pity one has to jump through the rest of the hoops.
There's just enough juice in here: the MorningLightMountain chapter(s), certain high-payoff scenes - such that I slogged through all 2000 pages of this and the sequel (because if you're in for one, you're in for both) - but I'm not sure I'll keep going in the PFH-verse.
My issues with this are twofold:
First, for every novel idea worth exploring (MorningLightMountain) there's a couple that have been done before (backed up sentience, portals) and a half-dozen that don't really matter (e.g. enzyme-bonded concrete, which appears as a phrase at least a dozen times). Would prefer speculative sci-fi to push more, & Culture series does better.
Second, viewed purely as a space opera, the 100+ character cast and dozens of A, B, C, D plots are just a bit thin to stand on their own. Maybe 1/3 of the characters and 1/4 of the plots are honestly quite good - it's a pity one has to jump through the rest of the hoops.
There's just enough juice in here: the MorningLightMountain chapter(s), certain high-payoff scenes - such that I slogged through all 2000 pages of this and the sequel (because if you're in for one, you're in for both) - but I'm not sure I'll keep going in the PFH-verse.