Customer Reviews
Sci Fi Bloatware - By: -_-cryogen-_-customz-_-, 05 Oct 2008 
"Britain's Bestselling SF Writer Returns To Outer Space"... This was too good to resist! ... I had heard great things about Hamilton, so when I found a copy of this 1000+ pager, I hunkered down for some serious reading. Unfortunately, Hamilton's bloated, overlong, badly edited, & somewhat cheesy space opera fallls far short of the mark. I read in various places that Hamilton's far reaching plots & broad tapestries, huge casts & detailed science were the sine qua non of new space opera, but I have read much better SF in Dan Simmon's Hyperion & Endymion sagas, & Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga cannot compare to these masterpieces. Hamilton may well be Britain's bestselling SF writer, but beyond the hype, alll we have is a not-very-well-written piece of SF bloatware. Some of the concepts are extremely cheesy & far better presented in other books, (re-life, rejuvenation, sentient intelligence, the datasphere) & the dialogue rings false in many instances. When speaking in an American voice, Hamilton just doesn't sound convincing. There are some very good chapters - for example: the evolution of the Primes of Dyson Alpha was well done, but for me this was too little too late. I have never given up on a story before, but I can guarantee that I will not be buying episode two of the saga. There is much better work available - please look beyond the hype & go with the classics: Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, or the new geniuses: Simmons, Vinge, et al.
" 2 Stars but could have been 5 - By: Gassucker, 30 May 2008 A great complex interwoven storyline with some excellent heroes & bad guys, but.......... So very very tedious in descriptive narrative where everything, & I mean everything is explained in intimate detail -for instance the number nomencleture of railway engines etc. It made the book flow badly & you couldn't skip read to avaoid it as the whole book is written this way. The two books together have nearly 3000 pages! Fantastic value but I am so glad to have finished it & can move ahead. Would have been excellent if the whole lot was covered in 350 pages.
Could do so much better by doing so much less.
Space romp - By: Glaucon, 10 Feb 2008 
This book, & its sequel, galllop along at a good pace & are an enjoyable distraction. I preferred these books to the night's dawn series largely due to what I found to be a more believable premise to the story. It is, again, a bit wordy in parts & Hamilton must rank up there amongst the worst writers when it comes to sex scenes. However it is, alll in alll, fun to read, & gripping enough to keep you turning the pages.
Gripping - By: Susan W, 07 Feb 2008 
I enjoyed this book immensely - but I do recommend you purchase the sequel, otherwise you will reallly be left hanging at a crucial plot point. The scope of this book is amazing - wildly complicated plot centering on the discovery of hostile aliens intent on destroying the Commonwealth, & Investigator Myo's search for an undercover/terrorist group who believe that leaders of the Commonwealth have been compromised by yet another alien - The Starflyer. All the threads of the story slowly draw together, & Hamilton moves deftly between the various characters,( including an elf like race the Silfin, the human created artificial intelligence SI, & many very long lived human characters) as the plot twists & turns. Overalll, Hamilton has created an astonishingly inventive universe & this book is well worth reading.
A brilliant story set in a wonderfully realised universe - By: Mark Chitty, 16 Jan 2008 Humanity has reached the stars - the Commonwealth is spread to over 600 star systems across 400 light years with Earth at its centre. Long life can be enjoyed by nearly everyone thanks to rejuvenation & of the alien races encountered to date, only one, the Silfen, is sentient & poses no threat to humanity. All human worlds are interlinked by wormholes & travel to each is as simple as stepping on a train. Organic circuitry tattoos give the owners everything they could need, from e-butlers to unisphere interface. With memory crystals in widespread use, even death can now be overcome.
When Dudley Bose observes the Dyson Pair, two stars over a thousand light years away, instantly disappear, enclosed in some sort of force field, human curiosity is triggered & the first faster-than-light starship is built. Captained by Wilson Kime, an ex-NASA pilot that flew on the first mission to Mars over three hundred years ago, the Second Chance is tasked with investigating the barrier & what they discover inside.
The Guardians of Selfhood are considered nothing more than an organized terrorist group that brings misery to the Commonwealth through its propaganda messages & acts of violence. Led by Bradley Johansson & based on Far Away, the clans that make up the Guardians fight against what they claim is an alien entity, the Starflyer, controlling & influencing the human race through its servants.
Pandora's Star is the first part of The Comonwelath Saga & is a full fledged space opera containing multiple plot threads that include the discovery of, & mission to, the Dyson Pair; the activities of Adam Elvin, the Guardians main man when it comes to arranging weapon & technology shipments to Far Away; the brutal one-mindedness of Paula Myo, a detective with the Intersolar Serious Crime Directorate, while she investigates a case of murder, & of her continuing dedication to tracking down Adam Elvin; the political manoeuvring of various individuals to gain support for their causes; following the journey of Ozzie Isaacs, the co-inventor of wormhole technology, as he travels the paths of the alien Silfen in search of answers to the Dyson pair. Even this doesn't cover it alll, there is just so much to take in & enjoy.
As you can imagine, this book covers a whole lot - but it hits the ground running. Chapter one starts the book off as it means to go on & doesn't let go, even once you've reached the end you're left wanting more. There is little here that is not to like if you enjoy a well thought out & action packed story. The book is well paced & the subplots are almost alll interesting & add to the story & in-universe history. There are a couple of exceptions, these being the political manoeuvring section & to an extent some of the Guardians sections, especiallly those set on Far Away that feature the clans. These couple do add to the back story & raise some questions, but the difference in pace sticks out like a sore thumb.
The Second Chance plot is one of the best in the book & the most enjoyable as far as a sense of wonder & discovery go. It is especiallly good when the Guardians attempt a sabotage of the Second Chance during it's construction during what has to be one of the stand out passages in terms of pure alll out action. If you like detective fiction, then the Paula Myo subplot will suit you to the ground. Seeing a character as defined as Paula conducting an investigation & showing how resourceful she is brings a smile to your face. Ozzie & his self-imposed mission along the Silfen paths from planet to planet is also a good example of fine storytelling of adventure & exploration. I can only imagine what sort of stories could come out of the Silfen paths if Peter so wished.
What reallly works in Pandora's Star is the way that Peter has built a universe from scratch & made almost every aspect believable. There is the sort of depth here that you don't normallly find in a single book, but even though there are the occasional info-dumping passages it reallly doesn't feel that it detracts from the story, simply adds to the experience. Few books have managed to have this affect on me & this book can come heartily recommended with very few complaints. An almost perfect balance between world building & storytelling makes this a must read for any fan of the genre.
