Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Judas Unchained
Book Review: Drags compared to Hamilton's other novels.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read all of Peter F. Hamilton's novels and liked them, most recently this novel's immediate pre-cursor, Pandora's Star. But this one drags, and has such exhaustive and detailed descriptions of the interstellar societies and great family politics that the science fiction seems almost an afterthought . . . perhaps, at 40, I am still too juvenile to appreciate it, but for my money, give me rockets and monsters and grand space opera, and leave the machinations of the senate to stories dealing with this century. This is the first Hamilton novel I have been unable to finish, I really tried to like it, but after forcing myself through 150 pages of it, I gave up.Book Review: Entertaining yarn that could have fit well in 1/3 the pages used
Summary: 3 Stars
The prior reviewer who mentioned that it would be helpful to read this book shortly after Pandora's S tar was on target. Turns out the characters were so thinly drawn that they were swept away under the torrent of detail of endless cat and mouse between the various human protagonists, traitors, heros and alien implacables. Another sort of writer might have been able to pull it off, but instead the temptation to just skip pages to keep to the essentials of the core narrative was high. In retrospect, little would have been lost. Still, the ideas are intriguing and push the reader to turn the pages, even if more rapidly than the author might like.Book Review: Epic sci-fi
Summary: 5 Stars
Quite an astonishingly good story. This is really just part 2 of the story that starts in Pandora's Star, and it's a fantastic ending to the story. Hamilton has a knack for creating an insanely complex web of story lines, and somehow tying them all together. The last half of the book was like the fastest parts of the fastest roller coaster you've ever been on. At some point you mostly have everything figured out (although he still manages to throw in a few surprises even at the end), but you are still on the edge of your seat the whole time. Not for the easily offended, but completely worth your time.
One of the best SciFi stories I have read. Certainly one of the most exciting books of any genre I have read.
Book Review: Even with a Scorecard, you can't tell the players!
Summary: 2 Stars
Imagine a juggler with twenty objects in the air at one time, and continually dropping them. That's this book. I have no objection to subplots, but there is a limit.
Apparently this book is a continuation of an earlier work. However, a book should stand on its own two feet, and twenty subplots. After thirty pages into the book, I lost count of the characters and what they were doing. Much less, the goal of the writer.
A book should be many things, depending on the author, but it should not leave the reader behind. This heavy tome not only left this reader behind, but annoyed as well.
Book Review: Exactly what you Expect
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is pretty much what you expect after Pandora's star, a vast sprawling space opera. What you will quickly realize though is it is Hamilton at his best as well. All the plots from the first thread resolve themselves neatly and it's sometimes amazing how the author manages to weave so many threads into such a satisfying story. My only complaint, and it's minor, is how quickly the war between MorningLightMountain and the CommonWealth is resolved. Humanity essentially develops magical super weapons to wipe that threat out. Having said that though, it's clear the author intended this book to centre on the Starflyer and its agents and this is quite satisfying. As the book starts to get near the end the excitement builds to incredible heights thanks to the authors brilliant narrative of the final chase on Far Away.
As other reviewers have pointed out, their are a lot of characters to remember and the book makes no attempt to offer you a gentle reminder of went on in the prequel. If you have a poor memory and/or it has been awhile since reading the first book, you might want to give it a quick read again. I found after the first 100 pages I wasn't having much of a problem recalling past characters and events though.