Incredibly good science fiction novel. I'd read one of his novels previously and picked this one up at a used book store. Definitely SF of the Space Opera variety with a human civilization able to travel at greater than light speed and control of worm holes, but a lot of very interesting technology and fabulous control of characters and development. The author ties everything together at a casual pace - he takes his time and it really pays off. Two stars have been detected going off and it is determined that they are likely Dyson spheres. This warrants investigation and a faster than light starship is built for the first time as prior to this humans have exploited worm hole technology to spread to other planetary systems. What ensues when they arrive makes up the bulk of the novel. ( )

Pandora’s Star, and its sequel, Judas Unchained were impulse buys for me. I needed something to hold me over for a week of visiting relatives, plus a 3 hour plane trip each way. I read the back of each book, thought it sounded interesting, and didn’t give it a second thought until two days later on the plane. Boy, was I surprised. Peter F. Hamilton, the author of both books, did an amazing job with both books. Unfortunately, good books sort of destroy my self control, and you couldn’t pull me away from either book for more than five minutes unless it was to eat. Even worse is the fact that when I start reading like that, I can get though a good sized book in a couple of hours. Pandora’s Star, weighing in at just under one thousand pages, is bigger than a good sized book, but I still demolished it in about 10 hours of nonstop reading (for you math nerds, that’s a little more than a page and a half every minute). This unfortunately left me screwed for the rest of the week, bored out of my mind. But I’m getting off topic.

Pandora’s star is a distant future SF story, giving the author’s view on how our society will evolve if we gain the ability to create wormholes sometime in the near future. Humanity has bypassed the entire concept of interstellar spaceflight, due to the extreme convenience of the wormhole technology. An astronomer discovers that a set of stars simply disappeared out of nowhere, and since as a species, the human race can’t seem to leave well enough alone, we decide to go and find out what happened. Unfortunately, the set of stars, is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of range of our wormholes, and with no form of faster than light travel, we have no way of getting there. Oh, on an unrelated note, somewhere along the line, we developed what is basically a complete mastery of genetics, so now whenever you get old, you can simply go into a clinic and get “rejuvenated”, which basically gives you back the body you had at your early twenties. Of course, that is, if you have the money. But back to the problem at hand. With no timely way of getting there, it’s up to Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaac, the original inventors of the wormhole technology to invent a sort of hyperdrive to get a hand picked crew to the stars, Dyson Alpha and Beta. Anyway, we go poking around, and in our curiosity, shut off the barrier encasing Dyson Alpha, releasing what could be the most hostile alien race we have ever encountered. This launches an interstellar war, between us and the Primes, and although the toll it has inflicted on both sides, the primes continue to throw themselves at us, wearing the Commonwealth down with their Inexasutable numbers. The book ends with what is literally a cliffhanger, where Ozzie, who had gone to ask an almost elven race of aliens called the Silfen what was going on, and he and his companions go over a cliff.

This book, while one of the best I have read in a while, and has taken a place among my top ten SF series, is not for the faint at heart. This is something you should read only if you have a serious amount of patience, and are a huge SF fan. Remember, this is only book one of a two book series, each with around 1000 pages. It is not a light read by any means.

Did I scare off the lightweights? Good.
This book is what I would call quasi-hard SF, not exactly backing up the science with serious math, but it does a good job of making it believable, a good quality of any SF story. SF without good, believable technology is simply not good SF. The characters are well developed, but not overly so. The characters are al unique in their own way, and the way they interact with each other is quite entertaining. A great book, but those of you who sci-fi doesn’t agree with you, or you can’t sit still for more than an hour at a time, avoid this book like the plague, because you WILL have to read the second book if you finish this one. Trust me on this, it’s like an addiction (at least it is for me. *looks around* what, no one else? Anyone? Hello? Awww.). ( )

Fantastic book! Hamilton's story describes a very believable future, where humanity is reaching out for the stars to build a vast galactic empire. The technologies of this future are realistic, the characters have depth, the overall storyline is captivating. Hamilton's strength in creating a very realistic environment ('world building') is clearly visible. Definitely a must-read book, and of course there is the sequel, 'Judas Unchained', which is already waiting for me in my bookshelf. ( )

Reading a book is choosing a book, catering to your taste. But sometimes you come upon a book that's special, even if you're not interested in the time or the theme. It's just a great book. Those books appeal to all. No wonder we start to call these books "literature" and "classics".

There are also books quite the contrary. They only cater a certain crowd which in turn adores everything the author produces. Like people watching every single episode of a soap, posting on forums about it and joining communities dedicated to their series and characters. Peter Hamilton's books are in this category. People who like to read every single detail just about everything and anything without wondering where the story might go or what it changes in the main characters.

For others - like me, I admit - it means hundreds of pages of filler, literally dozens and dozens of characters unrelated to a well-hidden plot and the discovery that at the end of the book you'll have to sit through another counterweight of a book.

If you're not only interested in the name of character x but also in his every single move the last few hundred years, including his family, his home town, his car and its spare parts, you have a winner with Hamilton. If you're interested in a well written story that leads somewhere, stay clear of Hamilton altogether. ( )

This nearly-1000 page book is just the first half of a very long story, so be warned about what you're getting in to. That aside, it's a good scifi book, although it seems at first (for several hundred pages) that the stories are mostly unconnected. They do start to come together.

Overall, the story is about two star systems that suddenly disappear, surrounded by a Dyson Sphere or something similar to it. Humans have begun expanding throughout the universe via wormhole technology, and spaceflight is something of a distant memory. Death and disease have also been conquered, granting limitless lifespan (if you have the money to pay for regeneration). Being too far out for their wormholes, humans decide to build a new space ship to travel to the Dyson pair, as they have been dubbed, to examine them. When they arrive and begin studying the shield that has somehow been placed around the entire solar system, it suddenly deactivates, releasing the inhabitants within.. They capture two humans on an EVA, learn of the location of the human commonwealth, and begin invasion plans.

This is, by far, a simplified overview. It's a good scifi novel if you like long stories, but due to its size I can only recommend it for real die-hard science fiction readers. ( )