Peter F Hamilton help!

giftgrub

Right...i just started the new Hamilton slugfest "Judas Unchained"

The only thing is that its been so long since i read Pandora's Star that i've forgotten a lot of what happened in the first book, meaning i'm a little lost in book 2.

Ive tried googling a synopsis but so far have had no joy.

If anyone knows where i'd find one it would be much appreciated.

Fenster

PM me. I'd be fed to the Starflyer if I went blabbing spoilers here.

I also finished Judas Unchained, fantastic book.

Jimboo_Jones

450 pages in ---- ohhh the starflyer has to pay!!!!!!

Manach

Just finished Pandora's Star yesterday. Cliffhanger endings; don't you just love 'em.
Just to confirm, that this is a 2 book series?

Vokes

Yes. The 2nd book is now on hardback.

qwertz

Hardback (standard (~€25?) and collectors edition (~€36)) in Waterstones and large format paperback for €14 as a special value offer in Hodges Figgis.

I just started Pandoras Star and really like it.

CiDeRmAn

What on earth is a collectors edition? Is the typeface posher? Does it exude some smell of incense and wisdom? Include a vial of the sweat of Peter F Hamiltons brow? Or is it a cynical ploy by a publisher to make people pay even more money when all you really want is the written text between the book covers?

bonkey

Wow. It was released on Hardback and Trade Paperback on the same day over here in Switz.....which seemed to be about a week before the UK release date

Cracking read, I must say.

As for a summery of Pandora's.....

Re-read the book.

No, seriously. If you can't remember, pick it back up, and do the pair back-to-back. You won't regret it.

jc

AnCapaillMor

Got about 80 pages to go in it. Cracking book so far, i want to marry that mellanie bird.

Ping Chow Chi

AnCapaillMor wrote:

Got about 80 pages to go in it. Cracking book so far, i want to marry that mellanie bird.

he always does have some knock out stunner in his books

Just finished it and it was great. Hopefully someday he will do another book in the same universe.

AnCapaillMor

Ping Chow Chi wrote:

he always does have some knock out stunner in his books

Just finished it and it was great. Hopefully someday he will do another book in the same universe.

finished it anyway, t'was good, but dunno like the nights dawn trilogy, i felt it ended quickly.

Yeah i reckon he's a bit of a perve, they were banging each other constantly in the nights dawn trilogy.

Raptor

Just finished Pandoras Star (had it for ages, but only started it when I found out that Judas Unchained was coming out!) Well worth the read at all, tbh perferred the Nights Dawn Trilogy but PS really got going towards the end so fingers crossed for the second book

Btw, on his site it says that his next work will be the "Void Trilogy", set in the same universe as these two books 1000 years later.

ixoy

I've just finished PS there two minutes ago. Really enjoyed it and got through it pretty quickly despite its skull-cracking weight. It's good to know that any time anything goes wrong now, I'll be blaming the Starflyer! Damned thing was behind everything bad in my life...

Some great pyrotechnics in this book, as in in all his books. How can you not be endeared to a book that has

23 planets being effectively nuked?

Go on the mountain!

Is "Judas Unchained" a worthy followup? And does it end more satisfingly than the Deus-Ex Machina way of Night's Dawn trilogy?

bonkey

Ping Chow Chi wrote:

Hopefully someday he will do another book in the same universe.

You do know that Misspent Youth is in the same universe? Its kindof a prequel.

jc

BossArky

I'm on page 68 of Pandora's Star, just getting into it and really looking forward to the next few days/weeks reading it!

ixoy

Just finished "Judas Unchained" yesterday - 949 pages of pure sci-fi goodness. It featured one of my favourite ever 1-on-1 battles with

Gore Burnelli vs Bruce McForester

and, importantly, it ends satisfyingly. Unlike with "Night's Dawn" where he appeared to write himself into a corner, it seems he had this one well planned out. These were the best two books I read in 2006. Full marks.

BossArky

ixoy wrote:

These were the best two books I read in 2006. Full marks.

You read both PS and JU already in 2006? :eek:

ixoy

BossArky wrote:

You read both PS and JU already in 2006? :eek:

I read them in Jan/Feb of this year and then use a CST wormhole to double-back and post about them tonight. That or a typo

CiDeRmAn

Read Judas Unchained in Nov and have to say, it sucked.
Its all a bit to soapy for my liking, story didn't grab me at all like the Nights Dawn trilogy did, and believe me I love the guys work, just seemed like an awful lot of padding.
Puts me in mind of the very overextended Foundation series, should have ended after the first 3 books, not including the Prelude book.
The thing about Judas was the number of coincidences yoy have to swallow about the number of characters that seem to save the world, they keep bumping into each other, get jobs in just the right places etc.
Don't get me wrong its still an enjoyable book, but nowhere near as good as his best.
Reading, and almost finished, the Richard Morgan book Woken Furies.
Thats a truely great read, aside from his ocassional lapse into writing pornographic love scenes.

ixoy

CiDeRmAn wrote:

The thing about Judas was the number of coincidences yoy have to swallow about the number of characters that seem to save the world, they keep bumping into each other, get jobs in just the right places etc.
Don't get me wrong its still an enjoyable book, but nowhere near as good as his best.

Ya see, I thought there was something behind that. At one point,

Morton comments on how it's an odd coincidence that he ended up in Randtown where Mellanie got her break interviewing Mark. I took it to assume that Hamilton is plotting something at this point, although he didn't appear to explain it. I figured it was the Starflyer but, since that went away, maybe the SI?

Maybe I'm giving him too much credit in thinking there's a new layer underneath this all but I definetely feel there's a lot more untapped with the SI so far and High Angel, both of whose storylines seemed to vanish quite quickly.

As for the soap opera elements, I forgave it. Sci-fi is one of the worst genres for the likes of dialogue and Hamilton does write space-opera rather than more hardcore stuff. I pretty much got exactly what I expected.

pH

Half way through Judas Unchained, cos I got both books for xmas. There are spoilers on the back of Judas Unchained which I'd shouldn't have read before starting Pandora's Star ... grrrrr.

Overall 2 fun books, though what's with his obsession to give us a model number for every train in the Galaxy?

I really hope the plot makes sense in the end, like really good sense or I'm gonna be annoyed!

BossArky

Beware, potential spolier below for Pandora's Star:

I have been reading Pandora's Star now for approximately 8 days (2 hours travelling to and from work each day gives lots of reading time) and on about plage 800-ish. The past 50 to 70 pages have been boring the cr@p out of me. First of all the political weekend getaway for all the big wigs in Seattle at Justine's, followed by Ozzie and Orions long long time on the ice planet.

I was enjoying the book up until these two sections... hopefully they will be over and done with soon and we'll be back into space or something more interesting.

BossArky

pH wrote:

There are spoilers on the back of Judas Unchained which I'd shouldn't have read before starting Pandora's Star ... grrrrr.

After reading your post I went and looked at the back of Judas Unchained which I got for Xmas but still have to read... you are right... it does tell you more or less what happened in Pandora's Star. I only read the first paragraph of the summary but forced myself to put it down least I ruin Pandora's star ending.

Vokes

Didn't think I was gonna buy this book for a while because its in hardback with a price north of €20. But found a trade paperback version this morning for €13.

Looking forward to getting stuck into it later

flinx11

Someone was asking is he doing anything else connected to the Commenwealth Series. He is at present writing a new trilogy based in the Commenwealth called the Void Trilogy.

No word as to plot but he expects to have the first book completed by this summer & published by winter this year.

flinx11

Sorry.
The only thing thats known is its set 1000 years after Judas unchained.

BossArky

I'm half way through Judas Unchained and you just ruined it on me. If the next one is set 1000 years in the future I presume humanity survive! :rolleyes:

flinx11

Whos to say its not about the primes setting up shop in Dublin!!!!!

The Silfin learn to wear pants.

CiDeRmAn

I'm just hoping that he creates somthing on par with the Nights Dawn Trilogy, as I have said before I found the 2nd book really disappointing overall, then read Woken Furies afterwards and it just compounded the feeling of disapproval, showed what an author can really do in this field.

BossArky

CiDeRmAn wrote:

What on earth is a collectors edition? Is the typeface posher? Does it exude some smell of incense and wisdom? Include a vial of the sweat of Peter F Hamiltons brow? Or is it a cynical ploy by a publisher to make people pay even more money when all you really want is the written text between the book covers?

I got Judas Unchained for xmas, it was all sealed up so that I didn't actually realise it was a signed copy, one of the limited edition apparently... its number 417 or 1000 according to the page where Peter F.Hamilton signed it.

On about page 730 now, and must say I was fairly dissapointed with it. Lots of long drawn out scenes with characters who have minor parts in the whole scheme. The MorningLightMountain sections and conflict scenes are great, but the rest was just mildly interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. I hope the last 200 have got some major action in there or I will be annoyed.

CiDeRmAn

Well, how did you get on? Nothing in the final section of the book made up for the tedium of the bulk of the rest of the novel. Too many happy coincidences, too few people in a society of billions keep falling into situations with each other for no apparent reason.
Sorry but massive space battle porn is not enough for me anymore, anyway, Iain M Banks writes it much much better!

BossArky

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Well, how did you get on?

... massive space battle porn is not enough for me anymore

Finished Judas last week. Let me summarise:

- Read the two books back to back in 3 weeks altogether
- Pandora's Star was twice as good
- Too much politics in both which slowed the pace
- Not enough action which everyone is expecting I presume, but when the action comes along it is great.
- If I was the editor I would have snipped out the whole storyline where Ozzie, Orion and Tochee go off on their travels through various worlds. I felt it didn't add much to the story apart from a bit of background padding.
- Too mand boring cases which Paulo Myo has to solve and which again are mere background padding.
- Melanie gets around so much she must have all types of diseases.
- The final chase few hundred pages with the Guardians, Paris Office, Cats Claws and StarFlyer on Faraway I found pretty tedious. Too slow moving.

I convinced my gf to read Pandora's Star before I finished Judas, but now don't have to heart to tell her not to bother with it as she has been reading for a week or so.

On the whole I would give Pandor'as Star a 6.5/10 and Judas a 5/10.

The reasons they get those positive marks in the first place is due to the visions of the future which Hamilton can construct. The story was pretty brutal though. Ok, maybe I'm being harsh - I enjoyed it but wouldn't go looking for his next 300000000 page edition in a hurry.

CiDeRmAn

Well, if you haven't already done so read the Nights Dawn trilogy, again very soapy with an even bigger raft of characters to keep track of but a much better read, rivalling Consider Phelabas as one of the greatest space operas ever written.
Otherwise just read the Takesi Kovacs books by Richard Morgan, just read Woken furies and apart from a habit of sticking porn in the middle if a politically astute scifi novel.

BossArky

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Well, if you haven't already done so read the Nights Dawn trilogy....

Yeah I read the ND trilogy a few years ago. Trying to figure out if I enjoyed it more because I was more into sci-fi then or if it was because it was better. Probably cos it was better.

Going to concentrate on reading my way through some classic novels, e.g. from the list of 100 top books from the 20th century. Got a good few of them on eBay over the past week.

flinx11

Just finished Judas Unchained.

OOOOHH GOD!!!!

Talk about the end sticking out like a sore thumb.
Frankly im dissappointed. I think Hamilton might have gotten bored or writers block or somthing near the end.
And yes you could snip about 600 pages out of both books & still end up with all the plot points.

I have to say at this juncture i still the way he constructs his universe from the ground up but PLEASE dont strangle the magic of the vision with turgid secondary plotlines.

Hopefully he will drink lot of coffee, take a long holiday & deliver a better story next time.

By the way is there anybody else out there who writes in a similar vein to Hamilton? I love to drop into a fully formed future from the first page.

pH

By the way is there anybody else out there who writes in a similar vein to Hamilton? I love to drop into a fully formed future from the first page.

Well Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books (Altered carbon etc.), any of the culture novels by Ian M.Banks and also his latest the algrebraist.

Also check out alastair reynolds.

One of my favorite new 'finds' is Charles Stross - I liked Singularity Sky a lot!

secret_squirrel

flinx11 wrote:

I love to drop into a fully formed future from the first page.

try neil asher. Very good and in same vein as PFH.

Personally I thought Pandora and Judas were his best books apart from my personal fave Fallen Dragon..

The characterisation was much better in those than Nights Dawn. And no Deus Ex Machina ending for a change!!

Jimboo_Jones

CiDeRmAn wrote:

Sorry but massive space battle porn is not enough for me anymore, anyway, Iain M Banks writes it much much better!

Which ones would they be? I find his work very hit and miss, from the ridiculously good 'player of games' ( One of the best sci fi books ever, I love you morat! ), 'use of weapons' and 'consider phlebas' yet 'against a dark background', well I have tried to read that three times and it just bores me. I think it is his humour that grates me, the next time I read a supposedly witty robot (in the vain of school teacher) I will go nuclear! But none of them have space battles on the scale that Peter F writes.

I actually think that the ending of Judas is a lot better than Nights Dawn, Nights Dawn was one of the most disappointing endings ever (I can only think of Absolution Gap by
Alastair Reynolds that has a more disappointing ending ) Yes the ending could(should) have been a lot shorter, but hey its only an extra day or so reading time, I’d rather have that than the ‘bling – every thing in the universe was then OK once again’.

flinx11 wrote:

By the way is there anybody else out there who writes in a similar vein to Hamilton? I love to drop into a fully formed future from the first page.

Let me see

Alistair Reynolds - Gap series was most excellent series, perhaps my favourite one- you will have to forgive the authors tendency to just skip important events and you would probably be better off skipping the last five pages and coming up with your own ending but I really liked this series despite its flaws.

Dan Simmons – Hyperion – great series, has the greatest bad guy ever (no more on this, do not spoil it for the lad) Not so much ‘hard’ science, it has some mad crazy ideas in but the last two book in the series have some of the most endearing characters in.

And there is always the stuff by C J Cherryh (down below station and the han books) I never seem to see anyone recommend her stuff, but some of it is absolute quality, and she did win the hugo award, so there must be some following.

pH wrote:

One of my favorite new 'finds' is Charles Stross - I liked Singularity Sky a lot!

Yes I liked this as well

AnCapaillMor

Reynolds dunno, some of his books were great, loved chasm city and redmeption but the resolution of the inhibitors really pissed me off. been looking for new stuff must give simmons a go.

The gap series was'nt that donaldson? got 30 pages into the 3rd book and stopped.

Jimboo_Jones

AnCapaillMor wrote:

Reynolds dunno, some of his books were great, loved chasm city and redmeption but the resolution of the inhibitors really pissed me off. been looking for new stuff must give simmons a go.

The gap series was'nt that donaldson? got 30 pages into the 3rd book and stopped.

opps ment the Inhibitor series (Absolution Gap being the last one) I loved the series, really really did - never felt so let down by an ending though

Is the third book in the gap series the one where it takes three chapters to turn a ship arround ;p and they tell the same story about 4 times from different peoples views....Its not a bad series really - though it is hard work at times, the depths that he drives some charaters is quite bad.

With the simmons book the first one is very strange - but stick with it as all is reveled by the end

secret_squirrel

Jimboo_Jones wrote:

always the stuff by C J Cherryh (down below station and the han books)

I second this. Downbelow Station and Cyteen were her 2 hugo's both excellent.

The Chanur Series absolutely excellent.

Foreigner series truly stunning - the most believable humanoid aliens ever.

She rarely gets a novel wrong.

Second what people have said about Alastair Reynolds, he comes up with some of the best ideas in modern SF together with great storytelling and then manages to screw them up with skipping of crucial scenes, dreadful endings and random offings of major characters when he gets bored of them.

Stephen Donaldsons Gap series still counts as my favourite SF series ever. They arent an easy read, the things he puts his characters through is shocking, but its the best Character Led convoluted space opera you will read.

Hyperion was one of the very few novels I have never finished, just couldnt get on with it.

Jimboo_Jones

How far did you get with the hyperion books? The last two are (in my opinion) exellent, very charater driven. They also tie up some of the first two books, making them appear slightly less strange

They are worth reading just for 'The Tree of Pain'

CiDeRmAn

I would second the recently posted notion of going back over sci-fis history and reading the great novels of the last 100 years or so, some awesome stuff out there, stuff with real substance and things to say. Once again of no has read him goout and read John Varley, his stuff is great, The Opiuchi Hotline and Steel Beach fantastic, just reading a series of books from Frank Herbert, The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect and The Acension Factor, otherwise known as the Pandora Trilogy, great stuff.

secret_squirrel

In terms of Sci-Classics I cant recommend some of Robert A Heinliens stuff enough.

Just re-read Starship Troopers for the 3rd or 4th time. The amount of socio-political commentary he manages to slip into a cracking story is amazing.

One one level its similar to the film, in spirit at least. Kinda a gung-ho military adventure yarn. On other levels its a critique of Government, Democracy and the futility of war.

The rest of his stuff can be good, some of it has dated, some is still very relevant.

There's also some very good books in the Sci-Fi Masterworks series.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - is stunning.

CiDeRmAn

I have just started reading The Dreaming Void, Peter F Hamiltons new book, so far so good.
Only thing that has me confused is in the timeline in the back of the book, Cat has been sent to stasis for 5000years, what did she do? Can't quite remember her role in the previous two books, any help?

AnCapaillMor

Cool was looking for something new to read.

CiDeRmAn

2 thirds the way through it now, holy crap, this thing has gone all Takashi Kovacs, if you know what I mean, its going to be long feckin' wait til the next one!

AnCapaillMor

CiDeRmAn wrote:

2 thirds the way through it now, holy crap, this thing has gone all Takashi Kovacs, if you know what I mean, its going to be long feckin' wait til the next one!

Ah jaysus no, a 2 parter, between that and the saga of the 7 suns, i'll go mad.

AnCapaillMor

Just started it, its a bloody 3 parter.

I'm not sure but i think Cat was one of the prisoners in stasis that was freed and sent to scout the planet that had the first alien invasion, can't remember if she did anything bad that warranted 5k years but i do remember she was always up to no good.

CiDeRmAn

Yup, finished it last week, bloody good, all that stuf of Edeard finally going somewhere, next book focuses somewhat on him, should be great, seems a lot more rounded than any of his previous work, new book may be out in time for Christmas, he says, fingers and everything else crossed!
Going off now to read Mindstar Rising...
Half way through it, not bad, quite different from his later work, a lot in common with Ken Mcleods early stuff, although from a different political point of view.

AnCapaillMor

Finished it there last week, man i reckon Hamiltons a real dirty git. I hope its true about an xmas release for book 2.