Good morning all, well, for those of you who have read this book, from what I've heard you love it and so do I. I've not read the sequel but I know this was an excellent book. One that was very hard to put down.
As the below email says tomorrow evening is our Science fiction book club meeting and I truly hope we have a great turnout to discuss this book, the times and link to the booknook room are below.
Original message:
Hello Folks,We had a good turnout at our most recent meeting, including a new member. Hope more will come to the next one.
We decided to skip August and read a long book, the first half of a tale of drama, intrigue, humans and aliens on a vast scale, told by a master of wide screen space opera. For our next book, we're reading Pandora's Star, the first half of the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton.
The next meeting of the Science Fiction club will be on Thursday, September 12, 2013.
Place, Book Nook at:
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e
Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 01:00 UTC.
Our book, Pandora's Star, is available in a Publisher Quality edition from Bookshare at:
https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/225744
And it is also available as a digital download from BARD at:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.58258
Here is the BARD synopsis:
Retired NASA pilot Wilson Kime is recruited by the Intersolar Commonwealth to investigate a distant star's sudden disappearance. When Kime discovers the star and a potentially dangerous alien race hidden behind an energy barrier, the Commonwealth prepares its defenses.
The Bookshare Long Synopsis reads as follows:
In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across. When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant - and then a neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each 'vanished' star encased in a giant force field-- and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.
Finally, here are two brief reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, from Amazon's page for this book:
Hamilton's exhilarating new opus proves that "intelligent space opera" isn't an oxymoron. By the 24th century, the vast human Commonwealth has spread from Earth via artificial wormholes. Various benign or seemingly indifferent alien races have been encountered during exploration of new planets, but an astronomer sparks curiosity by announcing that a pair of stars is enclosed by a mysterious energy barrier. [...] The author deftly juggles many characters in multiple plot lines, sometimes slowing down the action briefly, at other times racing forward. Revelations late in the book will have readers scurrying back to earlier pages to reinterpret what they initially thought. Not many SF writers are capable of tackling such a big project so confidently. In this respect, Hamilton (Fallen Dragon) resembles a less cheery but very tech-savvy-and extremely paranoid-Charles Dickens. Given the abrupt cliffhanger of an ending, some may prefer to save this massive installment until the story's conclusion, Judas Unleashed, appears next year. Anyone who begins this one, however, probably won't be able toFrom Publishers Weeklyput it down.Hamilton creates a dense, thoroughly defined twenty-fourth-century world, in which humanity has colonized the stars, thanks to the discovery of wormhole travel, and established a successful commonwealth. The species has even encountered aliens and space-faring artifacts. One remaining mystery is the barrier around stars known as the Dyson Pair. Human curiosity still being what it is, a spaceship capable of faster-than-light travel (thanks to those wormholes again) goes to investigate. When what's behind the barrier is discovered, the thrill-ride really starts. Aliens formerly trapped inside it, fighting over limited resources, are freed to invade human space. Unfortunately, that is more or less where this book leaves us, but a sequel is in the works. Hamilton's attention to character development makes the slow buildup to a dizzyingly destructive denouement rewarding, and all the little subplots and threads one hopes will be tied back to the main thread keep it complex and engaging. Hamilton is never simple, andFrom Booklisteven his aliens are well written, complex creations with their own motivations.
These reviews were written before the publication of the concluding half of the story, Judas Unchained, was published. This book is also available on Bookshare and on BARD.
Pandora's Star is a long book, coming in at just under 40 hours on BARD, but there's plenty of time to read it, and Hamilton's writing will very likely keep those who like Science Fiction very motivated to find out what happens next. Hope to see lots of you at the next meeting to talk about what I already know is an extremely exciting read.
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