From the Bookshelf of What's the Name of That Book???…

Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1)

Peter F. Hamilton

Why we're reading this: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com …more
[close] https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

May 02, 2012 Punk rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, ebook, spaceships

Science Fiction. What happens when humanity invents wormholes, effectively puts an end to death, expands across the galaxy, and starts poking around a distant solar system that's encased in a mysterious barrier; or: seven hundred fifty pages of world building, ninety pages of armageddon, ten pages of cliffhanger.

Also about a dozen characters and twice as many planets. I rarely had problems recalling the characters (unless it had been more than a hundred pages since I was first introduced to them Science Fiction. What happens when humanity invents wormholes, effectively puts an end to death, expands across the galaxy, and starts poking around a distant solar system that's encased in a mysterious barrier; or: seven hundred fifty pages of world building, ninety pages of armageddon, ten pages of cliffhanger.

Also about a dozen characters and twice as many planets. I rarely had problems recalling the characters (unless it had been more than a hundred pages since I was first introduced to them: "Mark? Mark...Mark...uh, the guy at the barbecue?"), but there were so many planets I couldn't remember them all and Hamilton never bothered to gently remind the reader of where the fuck they were. The worlds he created were memorable: The Heavy Industry Planet! The One With The Space Exploration Complex! The Ski Resort & Vineyard Planet! But the names were forgettable and kind of similar so I felt seriously adrift every time the location changed. I also had trouble with the way Hamilton wrote about geography and architecture; he spent a lot of time describing spatial relationships, but it just didn't click with me. I never had the slightest clue what he was trying to say.

Queerness abounds, in mostly unremarked upon ways, just some people live in triads, or Oscar is gay, no big deal, though what little sex takes place on or near camera is all heterosexual. Lots of characters of color, but here Hamilton tips his hand as well because while he has many characters in a variety of colors, he rarely mentions if someone is white, so white is still the silent default. Women are in all sorts of influential positions, and there's at least three women integral to the story, but they're still outnumbered by male narrators. Which may sound like I'm complaining, and I am, but even with these flaws, it's still miles ahead of some of the SF I've read.

I picked this up hoping it would have SPACESHIPS and there's some spaceship, but it's mostly about empires and civilizations and what happens to a culture when you have some people on their first life and others who have been around for centuries and yet still others who control the galaxy-wide wormhole transportation service. It's a long, slow book about wormholes, and conspiracies, and I liked it. I was interested in the characters and their problems; if it had been a while since I'd last seen a character, I'd wonder what they were doing. That's what made the armageddon so devastating, because I knew these people, even if I was never quite clear what planet they were on.

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four. Not a space opera, exactly, but a space colonization opera. Plot driven...ish?, but the characters heavily influence the story too, so it's hard to say. I'm definitely going to read the sequel, and soon, because I want to know what happens next. The only question is do I torture my poor wrists with the enormous 3 lb hardback from the library, or shell out for the ebook. Probably the ebook, even though this one was of questionable quality.

eBook: Absurdly large margins, lots of misspelled words (and several homophones! homophones!), no cover.

NOTE: If you read and like this and plan on reading the sequel, you should pick it up right away; don't stop to have a sandwich or anything because Judas Unchained starts even before this book ends and Hamilton makes absolutely no effort to remind the reader about the events of Pandora's Star. [8/20/12] ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

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

Shelves: ebook, sci-fi, unfinished

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

1 like · Like · see review