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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
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (464 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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Publisher's 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?

The Commonwealth Saga duology concludes with Judas Unchained.

©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

Average Customer Ratings
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The best Sci-Fi out there

Iv got 104 Sci-Fi audiobooks and the Commonwealth books are still my favourites.
If you can handle some physics and highly detailed descriptions, these books suck you into another universe like no other book can.

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1 person found this helpful

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MorningLightMountain. O M G !?!

I’ll just say this. I’ve read a lot of sci-fi in my day and this is the only time I feel I truly know what it’s like to be inside an alien mind. Disturbingly beautiful. An Amazing story

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For science fiction fans - this is one of the best

This is Peter Hamilton’s best novel. A story in the future where humans have colonised many planets and live in safety and security. That is until they unintentionally release an imprisoned alien species.

Great writing and an excellent performance.

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Storylines entwine across 700 lightyears

Who else would tap our cultural history to build a future with "Elves", bringing in Larry Niven's Ringworld, fantastical aliens, and "Ghosts" and magic based on technological bio-inserts, and a world of Humanitarian Historically time-locked Gene altered people. The imagination, descriptions, the "YES!" moments, the "NO!" moments. And maybe a couple of tear jerking moments. Interesting, bazaar, flawed Humans, a friendly AI and a new enemy.

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Very slow start but worth the wait

It felt like excessive exposition but the last one quarter makes up for it. I enjoyed it the most with 13 of 37 hours remaining.

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sci-fi masterpiece beautifully written and read.

a Hamilton sci-fi masterpiece beautifully written and read. make sure you download Judas unchained before you finish this or you"ll end reacting the same way as Ozzy at the cliffhanger...

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excellent

another brilliant story from a writer in such command of his story, characters and science. i'm in awe,

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Great book, terrible narrator

I'm a huge fan of this book series, but it's hard to listen to with this narrator.

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brilliant story and narration

loved this book, loved the characters and the science. can't wait to get the sequel

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • D
  • 29-10-2018

Struggled to find my footing in this book but perseverance paid off

It took me almost two months and 7+ hours of arduous attempts at listening to this audio novel before it hooked me. This is in no small part to the narration. It’s the first book I’ve listened to by the narrator, he is slightly monotone. One of my biggest gripes is the way one scene will merge into another without the slightest hint of a pause leading you to spend the next few minutes figuring out ‘oh we’ve moved on and talking about something different now have we?’ This combined with the vast amount of characters and locations can make it difficult to follow but not impossible.
It is testimony to the book though that it showed enough promise for me to keep at it. I am enjoying the book.
I will listen to the next novel for sure.

I hope audible takes note of reviews like this and gets their editing/directing to a level where it isn’t an issue. I point the finger at those aspects more than the narrator himself.

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