[0RP]⋙ PDF Gratis Pandora Star The Commonwealth Saga Peter F Hamilton 9780345479211 Books

Pandora Star The Commonwealth Saga Peter F Hamilton 9780345479211 Books

Download As PDF : Pandora Star The Commonwealth Saga Peter F Hamilton 9780345479211 Books

Pandora Star The Commonwealth Saga Peter F Hamilton 9780345479211 Books

Two years ago, I read Peter Hamilton's magnum opus, The Night's Dawn trilogy, a 3,000 page doorstop of a space opera which opened my eyes to a new era of science fiction. Far removed from the old pulp novels, with predictable hackneyed alien races and faster than light travel, Hamilton actually created new life forms and technologies that I found to be very creative and believable. And while I was glad to finally finish the final novel in the trilogy, it motivated me to sample more of his writing, hence this, the first of a two volume work.

Much like the Night's Dawn trilogy, in this work Hamilton weaves a dizzying number of story threads into an ultimately cohesive, tightly wound story that captivates the reader. If you can push your way through the first 200 pages without feeling completely lost, you will be amply rewarded in the balance of the novel.

Set several hundred years into the future, the human race has colonized hundreds of planets through the use of wormhole technology. While this is not a new construct, Hamilton has modified and applied it to make it his own. These human occupied colonies are joined in an intergalactic Commonwealth, governed largely by an aristocracy of powerful families and organizations.

In addition to conquering faster than light travel, the human race has discovered the fountain of youth, a medical procedure referred to as "rejuvenation", which is scheduled every 20-30 years or so, depending on one's pocketbook and lifestyle preference. Humans periodically initiate "memory dumps" and carry memory chips in their brain in the event of accidental death, after which a person's memories can be implanted into a newly cloned body. Presto, eternal life.

Of course, in colonizing the universe, several alien life forms are encountered, some with mythological origins and others created out of whole cloth by the author. Thankfully, there are no giant insect or animal forms that so annoyingly find their way into most science fiction stories. Instead, as in his previous work, Hamilton has gone far outside the box in hypothesizing possible alien life forms which are far beyond the constructs imaginable by most sci-fi authors.

As mentioned above, this is the first of two books in a series, being followed by Judas Unchained, another roughly 1,000 page book. I'll say this for Hamilton, if he is paid by the word, he is a very rich man.


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Pandora Star The Commonwealth Saga Peter F Hamilton 9780345479211 Books Reviews

The set up is typical of the genre earth in the future has developed travel via wormholes, allowing colonization of three "rings" of planets, each an increasing distance from earth. Several alien species were encountered, but none hostile, and the expansion essentially eliminated frictions. Meanwhile, wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in a few wealthy families.

Add to this mixture an alien race on a far distant planet. Earth decides to investigate, unintentionally freeing the aliens from isolation. The alien mindset is one of expansion, and any life form is considered competition to be eliminated.

This sets up the penultimate battle scenes between humans and aliens. So far, so good.

However, we add to this a couple of extra plots. A possibly mythical super force in the galaxy, which may or may not exist, and may or may not be infiltrating earth. This entire plot line seems pointless, except as possible foreshadowing for the second volume.

A third narrative thread involves mysterious "paths" created (or at least used) by a third alien species, which are unpredictably open to humans. This plot line seems completely disconnected from the action, and never goes anywhere...again, one assumes the author is laying the ground work for the second volume.

All of this makes this a REALLY long book. I felt that the extraneous plots should have either been eliminated, shortened, or made more relevant to THIS volume.
This book is huge investment of your time, especially considering that it doesn't end. It simply pauses so you can purchase the second half of your 2,000 page commitment. These are the reasons I wish invested my time elsewhere.
1) Editing. WTF.
Reader, take heed of how many reviews, even positive ones, mention this flaw. To me its unforgiveable. Every passage in a well written book must exist for one or more of these reasons move the plot forward; offer vital background; give character depth; or say something profound about the human condition. Hamilton writes like he’s being paid by the word. Lengthy, excruciating details of places never to be revisited, incidents and characters barely relevant to the plot line, and technical descriptions of machinery - it just goes on and on. Remember this review when you get to the hang gliding scene!
2) Poorly written women.
Hamilton writes like a man in midlife experiencing his second adolescence. All the women are sexually voracious tropes, except for the one asexual professional woman, Paula Mayo. Apparently the only reason sexual harassment is no longer an issue in the far future of humanity is that women are so very horny that sleeping with their workplace superior is simply a given. Hot sexy teenagers! Hot sexy older cougars who may or may not be lesbians lusting after the hot sexy teenagers! Hot sexy ship crew member with a heart of gold! Did I mention the women are hot and sexy?
3) Character development.
Just because it’s “hard” science fiction doesn’t mean you get pass on character development. Hamilton introduces character after character with no indication of their true importance. Some reappear, some don’t. Many of his sadly two dimensional characters blur together, creating confusion. Have I met this guy before? I think so, but I can’t remember. Hamilton even gives an early throw away character the SAME first name, Nigel, as the main character. Why? I think his characters are so forgettable the author himself doesn’t remember their names.
And I have to mention the ridiculousness of Ozzie. You know he’s a bohemian because he has a big afro and likes to say “Hey, man” “dude” and “groovy!” He walks the paths of the elves. Cool! He’s not wise or thoughtful or deep. But he’s cool. Groovy even!
4) A future filled with 300 year old adolescents.
Hamilton postulates a world where humans can “regenerate,” so people can live 300 or 400 years with the physical and cognitive vigor of a 30 year old. Yet somehow, not a single character develops the tiniest degree of wisdom, compassion or emotional evolution. Hamilton’s future is filled with ancient adolescents interested in nothing more than wealth and power and sex. And more sex! With hot sexy teenagers! Did I mention the hot sex?
5) Absolutely awful audible narration by John Lee.
Just torture. Fortunately I also had the kindle whisper sync, so I could skim endless passages and take a break from Lee. He swallows words at the ends of sentences so they can barely be heard. He drones on without variation. All the characters sound the same. He takes the worst of Hamilton’s flaws and makes them even worse, which hardly seems possible.
6) The worst sin of all for me is that Hamilton took 37 hours of my life, and had nothing go “say.” Ok, you want to write a book where humans live to be almost a half a century old without ever actually growing up into wise and thoughtful people, so the society is also wholly lacking in wisdom and compassion. The rich and powerful get increasingly rich and powerful. Humans still use internal combustion engines and desecrate the environment in extractive rather than sustainable economics which extends out into the galaxy. Rich and powerful men actually have harems. Harems! That’s an appalling and disgusting concept in a world where women supposedly have significant political power. Hamilton offers this up as our future, not as a cautionary tale, not as a dystopian future. This is the world of Hamilton’s mind. I'm not suggesting a book should have a "this is the moral of the story" moment. But shouldn't there be some kind of take away? Some sense of what the author thinks about life, society or the human condition?
There is some creativity here, there are some good points to the book, and I did finish it. I could have given it two stars because there are probably worse books out there. But I want to draw attention to the significant flaws which you can choose to consider before making the hefty commitment of time this book demands. Believe me, this is no Dune!
Two years ago, I read Peter Hamilton's magnum opus, The Night's Dawn trilogy, a 3,000 page doorstop of a space opera which opened my eyes to a new era of science fiction. Far removed from the old pulp novels, with predictable hackneyed alien races and faster than light travel, Hamilton actually created new life forms and technologies that I found to be very creative and believable. And while I was glad to finally finish the final novel in the trilogy, it motivated me to sample more of his writing, hence this, the first of a two volume work.

Much like the Night's Dawn trilogy, in this work Hamilton weaves a dizzying number of story threads into an ultimately cohesive, tightly wound story that captivates the reader. If you can push your way through the first 200 pages without feeling completely lost, you will be amply rewarded in the balance of the novel.

Set several hundred years into the future, the human race has colonized hundreds of planets through the use of wormhole technology. While this is not a new construct, Hamilton has modified and applied it to make it his own. These human occupied colonies are joined in an intergalactic Commonwealth, governed largely by an aristocracy of powerful families and organizations.

In addition to conquering faster than light travel, the human race has discovered the fountain of youth, a medical procedure referred to as "rejuvenation", which is scheduled every 20-30 years or so, depending on one's pocketbook and lifestyle preference. Humans periodically initiate "memory dumps" and carry memory chips in their brain in the event of accidental death, after which a person's memories can be implanted into a newly cloned body. Presto, eternal life.

Of course, in colonizing the universe, several alien life forms are encountered, some with mythological origins and others created out of whole cloth by the author. Thankfully, there are no giant insect or animal forms that so annoyingly find their way into most science fiction stories. Instead, as in his previous work, Hamilton has gone far outside the box in hypothesizing possible alien life forms which are far beyond the constructs imaginable by most sci-fi authors.

As mentioned above, this is the first of two books in a series, being followed by Judas Unchained, another roughly 1,000 page book. I'll say this for Hamilton, if he is paid by the word, he is a very rich man.