Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Mar 07, 2010 Kara Babcock rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: artificial-intelligence, space-opera, owned, 2011-read, science-fiction

We begin at the beginning, because the beginning is awesome and foreshadows the epic quality of Pandora's Star, as well as the sense of humour, levity, and gravity that Peter F. Hamilton uses to create an incredibly compelling and vast narrative.

Wilson Kime is the pilot of the first manned Mars lander. The mission crew steps onto the surface and raises the United States flag, only to be interrupted by a stranger in a home-made space suit. That suit is attached to a pressure hose providing a brea ...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Sandi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, 2011, audiobooks

90% of Pandora's Star irked the crap out of me. First, it just goes on and on and on. It's seems like a bunch of stories pieced together with no real connection. Many of the storylines never even go anywhere. Hamilton does a phenomenal job of over-describing everything. It gets mind-numbing.

Second, the sexism really annoyed the heck out of me. I'm not usually one to scream "sexism", but Hamilton can't resist talking about any female character's looks and about how some male character would like ...more

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May 03, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Being a huge fan of the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy, I was naturally very happy to get my hands on this book. If you liked 'Night's Dawn', there's a chance you will find something to your liking in here - but don't expect anything approaching the quality of 'The Neutronium Alchemist'.

In this series (completed by 'Judas Unchained' next year), Hamilton seems to set out to do something similar to what he did in 'Night's Dawn': present a riveting, complex world and then take a sledgehammer to it. The uni Being a huge fan of the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy, I was naturally very happy to get my hands on this book. If you liked 'Night's Dawn', there's a chance you will find something to your liking in here - but don't expect anything approaching the quality of 'The Neutronium Alchemist'.

In this series (completed by 'Judas Unchained' next year), Hamilton seems to set out to do something similar to what he did in 'Night's Dawn': present a riveting, complex world and then take a sledgehammer to it. The universe in 'Pandora's Star' sure is awfully detailed, and parts of it (such as the trains that travel between worlds) are surely fascinating.

However, the world just doesn't click as neatly as 'Night's Dawn', and I was left with the feeling that, as detailed as this novel was, I just didn't buy into it. There's a LOT of pages in this book used to describe the world, but instead of being mesmerising, they tend to be very frustrating as the author takes the reader by the hand to guide him through yet another human colony vaguely based on Western places, such as Venice or California.

I think this is one of these books that would have benefited from having less, not more. Some parts were very carefully crafted and interesting, while other sub-plots were frustrating for being so boring and leading nowhere. In some cases (the fanfic-level chapter on the court case of a rich businessman, to quote one) was so poorly written and so unappealing that they almost convinced me to put down the book and pick up something else.

Because of the number of secondary characters in the novel, some characters become such clichés that they`re actually painful to read. Mark, the "everyday normal guy" witnessing the events of the novel in the midst of his very boring life, made me groan every time his name showed up. Mellanie, the nubian naive girl who gets mistreated by the rich man she loves blindly, was also very painful to read so stereotypical she was. It's a pity, because they ultimately bury great characters such as Nigel Sheldon or Ozzie, that show a bit more fleshing out. Oh, and to show you how poorly fleshed-out these secondary characters turned out to be, I was unable to find one woman in the novel that was not somehow beautiful and closer to a man's fantasy than an actual believeable woman.

Still; throughout all these gripes is an interesting bit of space opera waiting to unfold. The beauty of 'Night's Dawn' was to see a fully realized world fall to pieces under a new threat. 'Judas Unchained' promises to do exactly that to the world of 'Pandora's Star'. This promise has kept me going through this very long novel: that all I read so far was preparation for Peter Hamilton taking an awesome sledgehammer to his carefully constructed world. That is not to say I harbor fantasies of revenge upon this long novel, but rather that this long preparation might be worth it once Hamilton turns things upside down.

If the followup is up to par with Hamilton's previous works, then this novel might be worth slowly wading through. Here's hoping that it will be: because Pandora's Star in itself is ambitious, but so flawed that it failed to fire up my imagination and really engage me. ...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Ryandake rated it it was ok · review of another edition

just finished off Pandora's Star--am vacillating wildly between wanting to punch hamilton in the nose and wanting to read the sequel.

i mean, what a great, great setup. i am smoking with envy for the imagination that dreamt up the world(s) hamilton built. and the kick-start for the book--the disappearance of the stars--is breathtaking. i mean, it's so like humans, to be unable to leave that alone.

hamilton's cast of characters wouldn't fit on a double-decker bus, but that's ok. he makes it work. a ...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Michelle rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, unfinished, ebook

eh, nevermind.

occasional fantastic ideas are sprinkled into a very thickly congealed soup of "meh", heavily seasoned with a bunch of casual sexism. after reading 1/3 of this behemoth (that much already longer than an "average" book length), a story had yet to emerge, and i just didn't give 2 grams of rat poop for a single character or any situation happening. the final eyeroll that cracked my attention span for good came when a non-human AI called the only female bit-part character with any real ...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Richard rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

A thousand pages and you still can't bring the sodding thing to some sort of conclusion. Going to take a whole other book is it? In the so called 'Golden Age' this could have been put to bed quite satisfactorily in about 300 pages. Shame really cos the story is quite interesting, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth thinking I'm going to have to work my way through another 1000 pages just to get to the bottom of it all. Wouldn't be so bad if the writing and world building were top notch, making i ...more

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