I quite enjoyed Pandora's Star, and the vast universe Peter F. Hamilton
creates. Where many science fiction writers take one significant
technological advance and write about how their world would change
around that, Hamilton has explored numerous game-changing advances all
at once, and tried to see what wormhole travel/body rejuvenation/memory
download would together do to a rapidly expanding human Commonwealth of
planets.
And for some authors, that might be all. But no. Add in
to this one two species of alien that humans have uncovered, and the
main mystery of the novel - the enveloped systems of Dyson Alpha and
Beta. When an astronomer discovers this envelopment happened
instantaneously, the Commonwealth is convinced that they must finally
build a FTL ship and send it out to investigate whether those shields
were erected to keep something dangerous out or to keep something
dangerous in.
With an enormous cast of characters, Hamilton
juggles them with ease, and it is a credit to his characterization that I
always knew who he was talking about, and what had brought them to this
moment.
One faction within the Commonwealth are regarded as
insane fanatics, as they believe a hostile alien crashlanded on Far Away
centuries ago, and since has been controlling events. As the book goes
on, whether or not they may, in fact, know more than the rest of
humanity becomes an open question. (I'm certainly not going to tell
you!)
But one thing that did bother me was one conversation where
all the participants conflated homosexuality and transgendered identity.
It's nagged at me since.
I wasn't enthralled by this book, but I
always looked forward to sitting down and reading more of it. For me,
it lacked that emotional punch that the best books bring. But I enjoyed
the speculation, the worlds, and the characters. I'm looking forward to
reading the next book, particularly since this one ended on a
cliffhanger. Almost literally.
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