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  • Pandora's Star

  • Commonwealth Saga, Book 1
  • By: Peter F. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 37 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2,413 ratings)
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Pandora's Star cover art

Pandora's Star

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
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Summary

Pandora's Star is the first part of Peter F. Hamilton's epic Commonwealth Saga duology a fantastic galaxy-spanning novel from the master of space opera. For fans of Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds.

At the edge of the galaxy something awakens and it's coming for us . . .

Earth AD 2329: Humanity has colonized over four hundred planets, all interlinked by wormholes. For the first time in mankind's history there is peace. Then a star over a thousand light years away suddenly vanishes, imprisoned inside a force field of immense size. Yet who or what has that sort of technology? And what could this mean for us? Only a faster-than-light starship, captained by ex-NASA astronaut Wilson Kime, can reach that distance to investigate.

For Wilson, getting inside the force field could be easy. It may be harder to stop something else from getting out.

What if there was a very good reason to seal off an entire star system?

©2004 Peter F Hamilton (P)2008 Tantor Media Inc

Critic reviews

The best book Hamilton has written in years (Guardian)
Anyone who begins this won’t be able to put it down (Publishers Weekly)
Compelling (SFX)

What listeners say about Pandora's Star

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Si
  • 18-06-14

The good just about outweighs the bad

I read this in print some time ago but when I recently listened to it on audio it seems to have lost some of its magic. What struck me most this time was Hamilton's long-winded explorations of trivia and his excruciating fixation on teenage girls. Almost every female character has a body age of under 19 and Hamilton describes them in detail, normally starting with the breasts. It's a wonder he can write so many books using only one hand.

That aside I do still like the universe he creates and the way he integrates believable future tech into the story. As a creator of believable far-future worlds he's one of the best.

And the narration? No. Just, no. John Lee would make a great newsreader but for a story like this, not a chance. He sounds like a cross between Rising Damp's Rigsby and the host at a spelling bee. He pronounces every syllable with such clarity you can almost hear him winding up before each word, the individual sounds clattering off his tongue like the noise of malfunctioning farm machinery. If he could do this whilst retaining the emotive content directed by the text then maybe I could live with it, but he can't, and I can't.

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47 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Just can't listen to narrator....

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks, usually as passenger in a car.
Everyone is different, but for me I also could not continue listening to this book. I listened to the preview and thought it was OK, but believe me after a while it is totally brain numbing.
Peter F Hamilton takes ages getting to the point, and likes to describe loads of scene setting stuff and frankly tons of superfluous detail and observations that are of no real relevance to main plot or story. This is OK if reading - but somehow this narrator so slow and tries to dwell on words as if he is enacting a dramatic scene in a dark twisted play - and he does this ALL the time. It's difficult to concentrate on, and he moves from chapters as if there is no break so you sometimes don't realise he's talking about a different scene or person until its a minute in so you have to rewind.
I actually ended up trying to listen to him at 1.5 times speed - and was surprised that even at that speed, some words at the end of his sentences still seemed unnecessarily drawn out. Sounded like a cross between Richard Burton reading in the stye of James T Kirk (the actual character not William Shatner)
This narrator might be good for some styles of books, but definitely not P.F.Hamilton.
In the end I have tried on 3 separate occasions to listen to this in the car - and have decided to give up.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very solid and enjoyable space opera

I enjoyed this book (which is part 1 of a 2 part story - see Judas Unchained for aprt 2) which takes place in the Commonwealth - a version of human kinds future where the stars are within reach via wormholes and you can, mostly, if you're reasonably careful, live forever!

The story is about the discovery of a couple of stars which dissapear, the investigation as to what happened and the subsequent consequences. Hard to write this review without spoliers so I shall skip the detail of the plot and just say it is quite complex and there is a lot of detail but never so much that you end up confused as to who is doing what and why - a triumph in books this large in both size and scope.

The characters are well described and Hamilton spendsa a lot of the time in the book detailing people and places in a infinite detail. There were time's I really thought the book could have been 2/3 of the length but after reading Judas Unchained afterwards I was impressed how pretty much everything came together with good solid reasons for the details in the first (and also the second) book.

I really liked the Commonwealth and the tech and the concept of people living for >200 years allowing them to have several marriages and so on, with the ability to block out bits of the past. I also enjoyed what was discovered at Pandora's Star and felt that how this was described and built up was really very good.

It's a long book, but the pay off is worth it in my opinion. This was my first Hamilton book and I look forward to reading the others.

I see some criticism of the narrator, and it did take me a few chapters to get used to him, but his speech was clear and personally I did not find it a problem. After listening to tyhe sequel as well it's a good job too - must be 50+ hours!

In summary, a great space opera, long and detailed but with some nice ideas. Moderately hard core sci-fi which is easy to read yet epic is scale and scope.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Nice aliens, shame about the people

This is tedious stuff, full of dull rich people, leading meaningless, near-immortal lives. A thousand pages in there is a bit of action when the aliens finally arrive; by now you are hoping for a swift annihilation of the human race, but then you discover that this was only part 1.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Horrible, horrible narrator

Another reviewer commented on how great he found the narrator. I absolutely cannot agree.

I can't say anything about the story itself, because I had to quit after 1 1/2 hours (during the bar scene with the socialists).

John Lee's intonation is just maddening. He starts every sentence - every single excruciating sentence - much too loud and then drones off into a low mumble, sometimes making the last few words barely understandable.

At first I found this only mildly annoying, but after the first hour it began to feel like Chinese water torture to me.
Definitely check out the audio sample before you buy the book. If narrator's style doesn't bother you, ignore my review. But if you find Mr. Lee's style even slightly off-putting, consider staying away from this audiobook as the sheer length of the recording will drastically magnify the problem.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

narrator

At first i thought i had a software problem, downloaded it in the wrong format or something. It sounds like when a child plays with the volume control on your stereo, trying to be a dj. It turns out this intentional.... Never have i found a narrator so unpleasant.

If your sensitive to the random loud soft delivery its impossible to pay attention to the story (which seems to be pretty damn interesting). For me i will have to read the book.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely fabulous!

A space-opera on a grand scale, this really is a modern classic. The narration is fabulous, John Lee has a great style, all the main characters have their own voices, that are instantly recognisable, making it a pleasure to listen to. Even better this is a great vision of the future for the human race, not one of the more depressing dystopian affairs.



I originally bought this because of the lengthy run-time (lots of long-distance driving) but this should not put anyone off - it's very easy to listen to, the pace never lets up, and you're through it all too soon. Some of the characters you can't help but love, even some of the more machiavellian (Ozzy, the super-genius surfer dude, is my personal favourite).



For those who like this, Judas Unchained is the sequel that continues the story and is equally as good. I have a feeling, after this, most of Peter Hamilton's books are going to be making their way into my wishlist.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the greatest space operas yet!

Absolutely love this book!

Set against the backdrop of a world connected by wormholes reducing distances between Earth and the stars combined with the process of rejuvination - the plots, subplots, conspiracy, love, sex - this book is a masterpiece.

Looking forward to getting through the next one!

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

To long and to many people

This i not a bad book. This book is way to long, but i hate unabridged versions. I haven't finished the book yet, but after 17 hours nothing has happened yet...ohh sorry, the starship has visited the Pandora Star but that is not a part of the story. So far we have only been introduced to the participants in the story and that feels like an unending list op people. You jump back and forth between the characters with no notice and yes, i have lost track. However, after 17 hours two of the characters finally meet so maybe things will start happening now. Not really suited for audio because you have to reference earlier chapters all the time if you wish to keep track of the many participating characters.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Pandoras Star

i love long si-fi novels i bought judas unchained - it was dry ,i tried this-intro did not say it was same character- i just cant listen to this its dry with no flow

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9 people found this helpful