Book Review: Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained

The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton

Pandora's Star (Book 1)
Judas Unchained (Book 2)

Rating: 4.5 (2 book average)
Recommended: Highly!

Wow. HEAVY. And I mean that in every sense -- the books are close to 1000 pages, each, in paperback, and there's a whole lot of material that he packs in, especially in Pandora's Star.

Some of that material, I'd say, is unnecessary. A few relatively minor characters get built up more than I think is necessary. So yes, I'll get my main critique out there right now: it's too long.

*gasp* Madeleine just called a book too long?

Yes, I did. I found myself skimming parts of Judas Unchained. And parts of Pandora's Star were annoying to read, as Hamilton gave the readers a glimpse of the alien threat before he gave any character, any at all, such information. So when certain characters are speculating about the nature of the alien menace, the reader wants to scream about how wrong they are.

Judas Unchained's ending was way too long. The suspense and dilemma at the very end was just annoying and, frankly, not that suspenseful. I'd figured it out and was just waiting for the characters to catch up. (FYI: there are no main characters, at least none that take particular precedence over the 5-7 others that are also main characters.)

The characters are believable and richly detailed, as are the worlds. It's one of those books where I wanted to go back and reread to make sure that I caught everything, before moving on to Judas Unchained.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the duology is the massive conspiracy theory underlying most of the major plot. I think that's an interesting way to present some of the worldview, and it makes some of the necessary-exposition-masquerading-as-dialogue a lot easier to swallow.

In terms of the aliens themselves, Hamilton does a good job of making them, well, alien. I like science fiction where there are areas that the aliens and the humans can never, ever, overlap. I think that if there are aliens out there, they aren't anything like what we've dreamed up so far.

As I previously mentioned, some of the embellishments on the characters are unnecessary to the overall plot, and I was left wondering how they actually connected. Most of those ties were established, firmly, during the second book, but it still felt like it was too long.

If you have a week or two to spare, pick up these books.