Yes, it's long, yes, it's like eating a favorite candy (you're full and somewhat sick, but you can't stop), yes, it's sometimes silly, but wow is it fun! The book has interesting, if sometimes unbelieveable science, entertaining, if sometimes unbelieveable people, high adventure, politics, and many storylines that do, in the course of both books, come together in totally satisfying ways. I particularly enjoyed (and was spooked by) the detailed development of the alien culture, the Prime, that threatens the Commonwealth. They are not evil and do not set out to destroy humanity specifically, but are obeying the dictates of their evolution which impels them to expand. They do not think or reason as humans do and cannot be negotiated with. How do you fight such an enemy? I will not remember "Pandora's Star" and it's sequel, "Judas Unchained", as great SF literature, but will greatly enjoy thinking about them and how much fun they were to read. ( )

I probably shouldn't have read the two volumes of this series so close together. It was just too much and made me more impatient with the faults of the books. The story is engaging, and the author creates a very detailed universe. Too detailed probably, this prevented me from feeling at home there.

Another problem is the lack of believability. I can accept the technological premises (in fact I have no idea how realistic or unrealistic they may be), but the society imagined by Hamilton is a sort of capitalistic paradize, where a few people concentrate amazing power and wealth on a galactic level, and still manage to not mess things up royally, to never abuse their power (apart from some petty squabbling which is supposed to make the whole thing more realistic I suppose), to never even just crack up when facing incredibly stressful situations and the anihilation of our entire species. Everyone ends up doing the right thing eventually.

The society described here seems to be one huge upper-middle class, with as I said a handful of super-powerful individuals benevolently ruling it. Although there is one hint that some people do not have access to all the technology available (especially to rejuvenation and re-life procedures), this hint is associated with the description of a "socialist party" that is basically a small band of fanatical terrorists, and we never get to meet one of these people who are excluded from virtual immortality. Maybe they just quietly died out?

The unbelievability also extends to characters. As I mentioned, facing the possibility of mass extinction, everybody seems to act rationally and with the greater good in mind. Some characters start out with more or less normal human faults, but they end up working with everybody for the greater good. Told the right way, this could be moving, but unfortunately it just comes out as an artificial change in the personality of the character.

I did read the two books to the end, which I wouldn't have done if they had really annoyed or bored me. However, I felt relieved when it was over. As I said, it was a mistake to read the two back to back. I would probably be more forgiving if I had waited a while between the two. ( )

A long, epic space opera. This story at times drags on, and at times flies by. There are numerous story lines, and as an audible version can be hard to pick up who each or the characters are and their relationships. Most of it ties together nicely at the end, though it does finish strange for a couple of the main characters. I believe there is a sequel which may explain the abrupt ending. All in all, not a bad book. ( )

ZB5

This kind of book was once my bread and butter, but I don't think I've read any space opera for more than 20 years. According to Wikipedia, Peter F. Hamilton is the most commercially successful living practitioner of the genre, producing the sort of giant multi-volume sagas typical of modern fantasy, so he seemed a good place to pick it up again. "Pandora's Star" at 1,144 pages, is only the first half of the gargantuan "Commonwealth Saga".

It is 2380, and humanity has settled on planets across the galaxy linked by a network of wormholes and the unisphere, a futuristic version of the internet. Its citizens, should they so choose, are effectively immortal thanks to rejuvenation and re-life procedures, and power largely rests in the hands of a small elite who control most of the industries and wealth.

Astronomer Dudley Bose spots a pair of stars many light years away suddenly wink out of existence. It seems impossible. In order to investigate, the first faster than light starship is built to travel to the pair. On arrival, the crew discovers the stars have been enclosed by a shield, the work of a technology far in advance of humans. While there, they inadvertantly switch the shields off, unleashing the aggressive Primes, the aliens the shield is designed to contain. The Commonwealth has to put itself on a war footing rapidly.

Although largely peaceful, the Commonwealth does harbour a terrorist cell, the Guardians of Selfhood, who believe human activity is being manipulated by a mysterious alien they call the Starflyer. Policewoman Paula Myo has been investigating their activities for decades without success. Events in the book lead her increasingly to believe that the Guardians might actually be onto something.

These are just two strands of an intricately plotted, panoramic book. As it is essentially only the first half of an even longer novel none of the strands is resolved by the novel's end. Reading it is like immersing yourself in a sci-fi TV series like "Battlestar Galactica" or "Babylon 5". As with those series, as well as spinning a yarn Hamilton has taken the opportunity to use his future society to examine a few 21st century issues too. Not that he has much profound to say, mind.

Nor is there much here of great originality. The conjoined minds of the Primes and their desire to subjugate are a straightforward steal from Star Trek's Borg, for example. Overall, though, it is to Hamilton's credit that his aliens are very, well, alien.

As with most very long books I've ever come across, "Pandora's Star" doesn't justify having quite so much wood pulped to make it. Hamilton can't resist describing every aspect of his future society in enormous detail - its transport, its planets, how the dynasties came by their wealth etc. Much of it could have been cut down or chopped out.

This is reading candy, undemanding entertainment written in unambitious prose designed to fill apathetic hours when literary fiction seems too much like hard work. I'm looking forward to "Judas Unchained", the conclusion of the saga, in the same way one looks forward to a night vegging in front of the TV. We all need books like this once in a while. Very much a guilty pleasure.