Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton

I was debating if I should write a review of Pandora’s Star as it ends on something of a cliffhanger and is part one of two. Sure, I could have just waited until I finished the second one but these books are huge. I read a lot but I’m currently reading a couple of non-fiction books and quite a few magazines as well. So I am going to write about it or there won’t be one for a while.

Pandora’s Star is set around three hundred in the future and humanity has spread among the stars. It has done this through the use of wormholes and citizens of the Commonwealth can travel from planet to planet on trains rather than spaceships. Which is nice, I love a good train. Then one day, an astronomer observes an entire star system being encased inside a force field. The technology to do this is obviously pretty advanced and raises the question of ‘why’. Was it for protection? Or, more sinisterly, was it to keep something bad inside? The Commonwealth then build an FTL spaceship and set off to investigate. Spoiler – if you know the legend of Pandora, you might hazard a guess as to which of the options it may be.

This is my first Peter F. Hamilton book and I now regret being so late to the party. It is LONG read but Mr Hamilton takes his time over building an impressive and believable world full of disparate and interesting characters. The world building is incredible and you can imagine it working. I read a couple of interviews and he spends 6 months just planning everything out and how it all functions. It really shows.

The story is entertaining and kept me reading. It is not for the casual reader looking for a quick thrill but more for fans of epic space opera. I know that term used to be pejorative but books like Pandora’s Star have helped change all that. At times its size and breadth can make it hard to keep of all the elements but there is a summary of all the characters at the start of the book which, unless you read it all in a few sittings, will come in very handy indeed. The aliens are superb and so are a few of the main characters and the antagonists are a brilliant idea.

My plan was to finish Pandora’s Star and then have a palette cleanser by reading something light like “Space Team. I didn’t end up doing that and ploughed immediately into book two – Judas Unchained. It is all basically one colossal tale that the author was forced to cut in half or the paper versions would be too heavy to carry.

You can probably guess that I am now something of a fan of Peter F. Hamilton. If you want a quick bit of fun or an action packed tale of spaceships shooting at each other, it may not be for you. This is an intelligent and well thought out star-spanning epic. However, there is also action and battles and laser guns as well.