Pandora's Star

This book is absolutely huge. The copy I read was around 960 pages. This was my first Peter F. Hamilton book, and while I loved the story, I struggled with the writing. It is just so verbose. I don't normally have trouble and have read quite a few longer books, but I felt like there was at last 150 pages of descriptive language in there. Yet, in my opinion it would be a mistake if you avoid this book because of my previous statement. The story is so good. I love an epic story and this is truly one of… show more.

Although Hamilton is not a scientist, he is a science-fiction writer who frequently uses the latest ideas from science.

This book begins with an astronomer making a surprising discovery and then broadens into a complex tale of intraspecies and interspecies war. It is the first book in an exciting series by Hamilton called The Commonwealth Saga, all of which I really enjoyed as both adventure and “at the edge” scientific speculation. 

A word more suitable than "epic" is "sprawling." This is a giant sprawl of a novel. Things don't even really seem to be happening until nearly 400 pages. And then they settle down again. And happen again. Each lull might be hundreds of pages long. (And there's a sequel, just as long).

This is not a plot-focused novel. It's very much a plot-unfocused novel. But what it does excel at, and I mean really excel at, is long-form worldbuilding. Or rather, universe-building. This universe feels lived-in, oddly grounded.

I got a real sense of the multitude of characters as real… show more.

This is arguably science fiction not fantasy but Hamilton’s great accomplishment as a writer is to weld the traditions of these two genres together, with stories that are as epic as Tolkien and Martin. In Pandora's Star we are introduced to Paula Myo, Chief Investigator for what is in effect the galactic police force. She’s a vivid and wonderful character in a complex story that ends with shocking abruptness; and is then continued in the ‘sequel,’ Judas Unchained. I was on a train journey when I finished the first book but luckily 😊 I had the second volume to… show more.