Publishing Information: Paperback; 1152 pages
Publisher: Pan; New edition edition (4 Mar 2005)
ISBN 10: 0330493310
ISBN 13: 978-0330493314
Series: 1st book of the Commonwealth Saga
Copies: Out of pocket
Reviewers: Yagiz
In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across. When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant - and then a neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each 'vanished' star encased in a giant force field -- and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.
The first two massive books of Peter F. Hamilton's The Void Trilogy had been on my desk when I received The Evolutionary Void, the final instalment of the trilogy. I was ready to sit and savour one of the greatest recent space operas however after consulting some avid sci-fi readers, I decided that it would be better to start the Commonwealth Saga before The Void Trilogy. Now that I read Pandora's Star I'm intending to read the remaining four books without leaving much gap between them.
Pandora's Star starts with one of the historical moments of mankind: landing on Mars sometime during the 21st century. However the discovery of the wormhole technology gives humanity a much bigger window of opportunities to spread throughout the near universe. After the first few pages, the story jumps in time and takes the reader to almost four centuries ahead. In this future, wormholes are the common way to accomplish inter-planetary travel and humanity has reached immortality by way of cloning, memory archiving and restoring, and rejuvenation. The main plot starts when an astronomer discovers the sudden disappearance of Dyson Alpha, a star that is light years away from the border of Commonwealth, which is composed of 600 inhabited planets. The author thickens the plot with mystery, murder investigations, politics and alien races.
It is not surprising that in this quite large book, that is also the beginning of a quite large series, the setting is immense. It is wide and deep. The reader is told about many inhabited planets that are part of the Commonwealth. When the author introduces a new planet to the story, he spends some time talking about the planet in question, which improves the quality of the setting even further. His characters are memorable and he develops them throughout the book. The scale of the story and the number of the main protagonists are very impressive.
I like the way Hamilton writes. He has a confident and controlled style. It feels like he doesn't do things hastily and wants his readers to enjoy every detail. For instance, the introduction of one of the protagonists, Melanie, had its complete sub-plot that another author might not have elaborated that deeply. The downside, to me, is that it creates a slow start. However, there's no doubt that it's a more complete and satisfying experience when the book starts to pick up pace. And believe me, it does. The tension increases and the pages turn faster and faster as the reader starts to grasp the full picture.
The part that I loved the most was the whole Chapter 18. It was written from the point-of-view of an alien entity. The way that Hamilton imagined and created it was truly amazing.
Pandora's Star is full of incredible ideas. One of the great things about this type of excellently thought-out sci-fi is that it makes the reader think by offering a window on a potential future. OCTattoos, unisphere, e-butlers, self-heating breakfast packs, various alien races known to humans? Can they be real one day? Will our descendants take a train ride across multiple planets? Will we be able to download ourselves into computers and hold on to our conscience forever? Are we finally going to meet intelligent alien species that talk like Master Yoda and understand where our myths of elves come from?
And the good thing is, when the author deals with technology, he doesn't do it with simplicity. He introduces interesting social and sociological aspects to the story. Here's an example: In a world where humankind can live forever through rejuvenations or cloning (and memory implants), what would marriage represent? Would divorce become unavoidable? Would everybody sign marriage or partnership contracts before saying "I do"? What would be the first thing you do if you are reborn 21 again? Would the society frown upon a relationship between a 4 time-rejuvenated person and a first-lifer? Would you still be complaining about traffic when it slowed everybody down to a fifty-five-kilometre-an-hour crawl?
I'm impressed by Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star. It is a great example of incredible world-building and character-driven space-opera. All that I can think of is to start to read the next book of the series, Judas Unchained, as soon as possible.
Plot: 9
Characters: 9
Style: 9
Overall: 9/10
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