Horror Book Reviews
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Title: Pandora's Star |
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Review of Pandora's Star
- Critics have compared the engrossing space operas of Peter F. Hamilton to the classic sagas of such sf giants as Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. But Hamiltonâs bestselling fictionâpowered by a fearless imagination and world-class storytelling skillsâhas also earned him comparison to Tolstoy and Dickens. Hugely ambitious, wildly entertaining, philosophically stimulating: the novels of Peter F. Hamilton will change the way you think about science fiction. Now, with Pandoraâs Star, he begins a new multivolume adventure, one that promises to be his most mind-blowing yet.
The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport âtunnelsâ known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.
Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starshipâs mission for its own ends,.
Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself.
Could it be that Johansson was right?
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
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Comments for Pandora's Star
- Posted on 2008-10-04
a great SF read,and food for thought
My first, but not my last book by Hamilton. His characters are believable, which is amazing considering their diverse circumstances (aliens, news anchors, cops, a horny teenager, and Ozzie, a 300 year old dropout genius) Hamilton makes then all come alive. The most original alien I've seen in years adds to a great read. As I was finishing this I made sure to order the sequel "Judas Unchained". Hamilton had created a very rich universe.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2008-08-26
Emotional Investment
I was harping abuto this book as I read the first 300 pages. "Its all character development, there's so many people, blah blah blah." Then after the first 300 pages I really started to love the book. I realized that this needed the introductions, because it was more vast than any book I've ever read. I had some sort of emotional investment with the characters since I've read about them so much... I loved this book/series. For a few weeks my work life really suffered, because I was up until 3am countless times reading this; Judas Unchained & The Dreaming Void. Great series and I can't wait for the next volume.
I bought The Reality Dysfunction today. I hope I get some sleep tonight.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-08-10
Just OK book
I got bored after reading it for a while. The book has too few ideas, and is too verbose at the same time. The concept of "rejuvenation", that is, anti-aging treatment, is neat, but after seeing the word "rejuvenation" repeated more ten times on each page the whole thing starts wearing you out. A good and balanced book on how life may look in a far-future society (while also having a neat and well-developed story) is "Looking to Windward" by Iain Banks, for folks who like such things.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2008-07-25
Good book, overall.
On a whim, I ordered the book from Amazon to fill in the void left after finishing up the Dune series again. Sometimes these things are a gamble, as you can't flip through it quickly, and you've no idea the tastes of the other reviewers in comparison to your own.
However, after spending about 3 weeks in-between work and home reading through all 900 some odd pages, I have to say I liked the book. I suppose my tastes are sort of picky. I like some Fiction, some Detective stories (particularly Holmes), the occasional Fantasy book, and a good bit of Sci-Fi.
The book is a bit "Lower Sci-Fi" than what I'm used to reading, in that it's technology level seems depressingly appropriate for a few hundred years into the future. Every possible technology in the book is firmly based in real-world physics, and very little "Fuzzy Logic" is needed to fill in the gaps and make me believe that it is, indeed, the "future."
Pandora's Star is set a few hundred years ahead of us where interplanetary travel has been solved by wormholes. The setting itself is very solid, and seems to assume that the future will be much like the present itself, with mega-corporations and super-powerful families running everything behind the scenes. It's not thick on political intrigue or espionage, and a lot of the events are simply brute-forced through by massive amounts of cash from said corporations or families, which has two effects for me: The first being that it successfully puts the perspective of power in the right spot for key players, and the second is that it seems to pigeon-hole the book just a tad into the "Ultra-rich" characters. There are Joe-Schmoes playing parts in the book, but they seem to be catalysts, while the financially too-well-endowed are the main event most of the time.
It's also not big on action. This is definitely not some Military-Sci-Fi book, and sometimes that's a relief as the genre itself seems to keep falling over the "Aliens" syndrome a little too often for my tastes. What action there is in the book is described adequately and flows rather well.
I was a bit surprised that the book turned out to be almost a detective novel, both in the main story-arch, and in several of the intimate stories concerning the main characters. In fact, there really seem to be two different stories and two different genres happening here. One is your sci-fi detective story, brought to you by the character Paula Myo and Adam Elvin, and the other seems to be almost a generic Sci-Fi theme of "Spaceflight + Aliens = Book".
However, the author does capably blend the two, and while I found myself sort of wondering where everything was going in the beginning quarter of the book or so, the meat of the book is really contained in the latter half, and now I'm considering buying the sequel my next trip through B&N.
Overall I'd say it's well written, the flow of events is pretty, and the book kept me firmly trenched in my suspension of disbelief. I bought the whole thing line and sinker, and with only the scant things perking up my sarcasm.
However, with the praise for the book, there are a few things which I found to take away from the experience (and these may be my personal preferences, so take them as you will):
-New characters are being added continuously up until about half or three-quarters the way through the book. Trying to keep track of them all can be a bit dizzying, and some of them seemed to take up too much space for being the side-characters they were.
-The exhaustive descriptions of landscapes got to me towards the end. Some may not fault him for this, but the cities and surrounding environments easily get the most attention to detail. With as many curious situations as the book finds itself in, I found this to be a bit annoying, but it's not a deal-breaker.
-This may be very nitpicky, but along with a good chunk of the genre, "saturated with sex" is also rather appropriate to describe this book as well. It happens, and it happens often. It's a casual thing in this book, and many others, and I think that it can definitely take away from the wonder of a good Sci-Fi story. I don't mind the occasional bout of bedtime fun in my books, don't get me wrong, but it's rarely done well. Yes, yes, sex in the future is like brushing your teeth, everyone does it twice a day, I get it... It doesn't need to be pointed out so directly. I think a more subtle approach could be taken, and much better results had. Deal breaker? No. Some of the encounters are well done and appropriate in Pandora's Star, but a significant portion seem to be in only because "It's what the readers want."
Would I recommend it? Well, if you don't mind a lengthy book, and want to see a good creative mind at work at a Sci-Fi detective story that has a few good twists, I would. This -is- a good book, the prose is excellent, and provides a nice fertile area to stretch the mind in a different way before leaping back into another fast-paced post-apocalyptic Starship Troopers type of novel.
4/5 stars for this one.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2008-07-07
Excellent, but way too long.
I generally don't write reviews for the books I read, mostly because I find that others articulate my joys or frustrations better than I can. In the case of this particular book however... I also have nothing new to add.
But I must side the with those who say this book is overwritten. I felt like I had to put in a lot of work at times just to turn the page. That 15 to 20 page narrative early in the story on how to hang glide on an alien planet was about 15-20 pages too long.
But that diversion wasn't the only sin Peter committed. In all, I felt that this book was literally twice as long as it needed to be. Entire subplots were unncessary and nearly made me give up on the novel. And that's a shame because this could have been a truly great one. It just required someone to tell Mr. Hamilton that when we read about a large mansion, we don't really need to know about how the original builder had financed the thing, or how the original builder made his fortune, or about how the architects were influenced by the great architects of a bygone era. I don't need to know any of that stuff, especially when the mansion has been described in painstaking detail for several pages earlier in the book anyway.
This is the first book of his that I have read. I was surprised when I realized that he had written so many other published works. He has an eye for detail, no doubt about that. But the gentleman can't seem to properly pace a book to save his life.
After all that complaining, I still liked the book. It caters to my tastes. After almost putting the thing away after the first 400 pages of going nowhere it hit a stride of sorts and I felt that there was at least some momentum beginning to build - albeit in a 3 steps forward, 2 steps back sort of way.
Once I convinced myself that a society that has created wormhole technology and FTL spaceships (something I wouldn't expect to be possible for tens of thousands of years, if ever) must still use diesel powered vehicles for getting about planetside (Something we could bypass in a few decades) somehow makes sense, I slowly found myself buying in and enjoying the book more and more.
By the end, I finished and reluctantly purchased Judas Unchained. I'll give it a go and pray for Mr. Hamilton to have mercy with me.
Oh yes, one short diversion I did enjoy - a reference to a collector coming upon a first edition of the novel Raft. If it is the same Raft that was written by Stephen Baxter than call me giddy. I would recommend some of Stephen Baxter's older books over this one. Timelike Infinity, Ring, or his Manifold Trilogy. Those are all superior to Pandora's Star.
And while I'm recommeding alternatives, anything by Alastair Reynolds.
Score: 3
