Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1)
Peter F. Hamilton
The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star... vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him. Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship's mission for its own ends. Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth... and humanity itself. Could it be that Johansson was right?
Publication Year: 2005
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0 0"Pandora's Star" is nearly one thousand pages long. That's a lot of novel.
If I'm going to read a thousand pages, I'm expecting something that's worth the effort. I'm expecting "War and Peace." With "Pandora's Star," Author Peter Hamilton seems to be going for a kind of galactic "War and Peace." However, W&P does something PS can't quite do: from the jump, it makes the reader care very much about each of its characters, what they're doing, and why. From the jump, the reader knows what's happening; where; and, again, why. While reading PS, I often found myself wondering who characters (some new, some returning after a couple of hundred pages away) were, where they were, what they were doing, and why. The author expects us to trust that he'll bring everything together for the big climax, but he doesn't. He ends his interminably long novel on a cliffhanger, leaving the reader to contemplate the daunting prospect of consuming another thousand pages just to find out what happens to the multitude of vaguely remembered characters introduced in the first. Assuming, that is, that the sequel doesn't end on another cliffhanger.
Maybe if this edition had included a cast of characters, maybe some maps, some kind of reference material - like a good edition of "War and Peace" - this may have gone down easier. As published, "Pandora's Star" represents a great deal of time invested in something that doesn't pay off. Color me disappointed.
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