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Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1)

Peter F. Hamilton

Start date: March 1, 2022

Finish date: March 31, 2022

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Pandora's Star

Morning Light Mountain heavy metal song, of course
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last updated Mar 25, 2023 08:23AM

PS: The Book's Pacing: Is it Slow For You, Too?
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What Members Thought

Dec 03, 2011 Nomad Scry rated it it was ok

Shelves: audio

My problem with this massive half-an-epic was two-fold. First, with the exception of Paula Mayo and Ozzie, I found none of the characters personally interesting. To compound that, there was no character growth. Mayo learned things that she had not know before, but who she was stayed the same throughout. (To be fair, that would be one of her character traits, but still...)

The other main problem was that I just did not care about most of what happened. Justine spent hours (of reading time) flying ...more

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May 15, 2013 Patrick rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

Pandora's Star recently appeared on a "most popular" science fiction list using reddit as its source. I have had the book for a while, including a paperback version that became part of my beach reading in mid-May. It's a monster of a book and one of two in a duology.

The story starts with the spotting of two stars that disappear. Some investigation determines that artificial barriers were activated around the stars. Why? Did some alien within the systems need to be contained or were they protecti Pandora's Star recently appeared on a "most popular" science fiction list using reddit as its source. I have had the book for a while, including a paperback version that became part of my beach reading in mid-May. It's a monster of a book and one of two in a duology.

The story starts with the spotting of two stars that disappear. Some investigation determines that artificial barriers were activated around the stars. Why? Did some alien within the systems need to be contained or were they protecting themselves? Either way, humanity must investigate to determine the potential risks to the Commonwealth, a collection of human inhabited worlds connected by wormhole stations. Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Self are convinced that an ominous alien, called the Starflyer, is behind the exploration of the disappearing stars.

Peter F. Hamilton fills a thousand pages with characters, descriptions, and action, and the interest of them is a bit scattered for me. The most interesting characters are Paula Myo and Wilson Kime. Myo is a detective who has been hunting the Guardians of the Self's leader, Bradley Johannson, and primary strategist and smuggler, Adam Elvin. She's been on the case for over a hundred years (people routinely go through a process known as rejuvenation, which effectively makes them immortal, as well has having their memory backed up). Myo was "rescued" from a planet that followed an Aldous Huxley model of genetically tweaking people for expertise in specific tasks, and Myo is a fantastic detective, though the Guardians elude her (because of the Starflyer?). We follow her method and near misses. Dedicated, focused, and no nonsense, she proves several times to be sympathetic and faces her moral crisis at the end of the book fully aware of the risks.

Wilson Kime landed the first human expedition on Mars, only to be upstaged by Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaac, creators of the first wormhole generators. After many rejuvenations, he is selected by Sheldon to lead the exploration of the barrier star, called Dyson Alpha. He eventually leads a follow up scouting mission and becomes the first admiral of the Commonwealth navy. He's out to reclaim some of that lost glory and because he loves exploration.

Ozzie has a whole sequence of parts that I did not like. He teams up with a kid who alternatively seems like he's two and then 18. Ostensibly, Ozzie is seeking what the alien Silfden, a fey, carefree culture, know of the Dyson barrier. Ozzie grew up in surfer culture California and says "dude" far too often for my taste.

I found quite intriguing the SI character: the AI created by humanity who stores the human memories. The SI has an interest in the Dyson barrier, but it is enigmatic and its interest and motivations are mysterious, which is why it is intriguing.

Hamilton knows how to describe various planets and technologies with ease. His ideas on rejuvenation, the Dyson aliens, wormholes, and a host of technologies are wonderfully executed and thought out. However, I found many of the descriptions unnecessary, word padding. Also, much of his dialogue seemed overly wrought--some of the interactions between couples were particularly galling.

Still, the scope and the characters he does do well lead me to a lukewarm four stars. Pandora's Star is definitely the set up for book two, which I will read. ...more

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