|
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Judas Unchained (end of The Commonwealth Saga) by Peter F. Hamilton
01/11/2005 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: Macmillan. 949 page hardback. Price: £18.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-4050-0036-8. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.panmacmillan.com
One of the most difficult things to do is to review the second half of a book without revealing too much about the end of the first half. The alternative is to repeat much of the review of the first half. These words are chosen carefully as Peter Hamilton admits that the Commonwealth Saga was conceived as one complete book. The first part, 'Pandora's Star', written and published some time ago was completed well before this. The second part was finished, though the whole structure had been mapped out in some detail before the writing of chapter one commenced.
The main problems with 'Judas Unchained' are logistic. As the total page count of the combined volume is over two thousand, a single book would be impractical. Think of the weight of that much paper! Publishing both parts simultaneously or even with a month's interval would leave a large gap between this saga and the author's previous one. Publishers do not like their best-selling authors to be out of the public eye for too long. 'Judas Unchained' does not have a 'story so far' section at the beginning, neither do the characters sit down and tell you what has been going on. The reasons for this are also logistic. To outline the plot of 'Pandora's Star' in sufficient detail to pick up all the plot strands would add a considerable chunk to an already huge book. Therefore, if the two books are read a distance apart, it is important to have a very good memory as the story continues from one to the other without a break or a breather. Advice would be to buy both books and read them back to back, but be prepared to invest a lot of time.
The setting for the novels is a future in which wormhole technology has enabled human-kind to spread out from near Earth space by almost instantaneous travel between worlds. Different planets have been colonised by widely differing groups so that there has been an opportunity to experiment with modes of government and life-styles. There are aliens sharing the universe but those so far encountered have been benevolent and no obstacle to human expansion. All this changes when it is realised that a distant star is discovered to have a force field surrounding it. Human curiosity sends an expedition to explore and the ship somehow turns off the force field. Unleashed is an alien species that has such a different psychology that it only understands that humans exist, therefore they are a threat. Therefore, they must be exterminated. So the aliens invade human worlds causing great destruction .The escalation of weapons of mass destruction is enormous.
Interwoven with this plot-line is a complex situation surrounding the beliefs of the Guardians of Selfhood. These people, lead by the charismatic Bradley Johansson, believe that an alien, referred to as the Starflyer, crash-landed on the planet of Far Away. It has infiltrated human society and manipulated human technological development to the point where it was instrumental in letting the Prime aliens out of their box. The majority of the rest of the Commonwealth of human planets considers this to be akin to a fringe cult and not worth taking seriously. For Paula Myo, the truth is that these are dangerous people and must be stopped from the criminal activities they seem to be engaged in. So, within what is an escalating war scenario, there is also a manhunt.
There are a lot of other things going on in the novels. On the surface, it would seem that it would be easy to shorten the books by removing some of the plot strands. They are actually so tightly woven together that it is difficult to see how this would be done. One of the effects that Hamilton is trying to create is to see great, world-shattering events from the perspective of the ordinary citizen, those who get caught up in the flow rather than making the vital decisions. This makes for a big book as Hamilton's visions are galactic. He is also very good at creating aliens.
Does 'Judas Unchained' stand up on its own? No, but both novels together are worth reading.
It is also worth noting that this volume has already made the Sunday Times Best Seller list. A lot of people have been eager to get hold of this book.
Pauline Morgan
|
|
