Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Judas Unchained
Book Review: A stunning conclusion to the best Space Opera on the market
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter F. Hamilton excelled himself here with Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. It is absolutely essential to have read Pandora's Star before embarking on Judas Unchained as there is no summary before the reader is plunged right in where the action left off in the first book. It also helps if you read the books consecutively - this is a space opera and as enjoyable as the first book was, a lot of threads and people were introduced that it would be hard to read Judas Unchained without refreshing yourself on what went on before. But since Pandora's Star is extremely well written, for anyone who loves a good read, the though of reading around 2000 pages of brilliant written Space Opera and Science Fiction should not be a daunting task!
This books takes off with the human race grappling with the fact there is an alien out there who does not understand the concept of co-existance. And for a race such as ourselves where genocide is theoretically abhorant (I say that because history rather suggests man has happily wiped out plenty of species...), its going to take a multi-prong approach to working out the solution here!
Fortunately, Hamilton makes the whole voyage utterly satisfying as he gradually brings his highly diverse collection of characters and their different missions in life together in an apocalyptic and breathless conclusion. At no time does Hamilton leave you feeling vaguely cheated or like this was a hurried ending (as has occurred in some of his other novels) - the only hurrying is you reading quicker and quicker, desperate to learn what will happen next. And afterwards, there are a few chapters to help us drift back down to reality as we learn what happened afterwards to our hero's and heroine's...
It is truly truly sad as you get closer to the end of this book and you realise the many wonderful nights you've had, lost in another time in our future, are about to end. I repeat what I said about Pandora's Star, Hamilton deserves to have his name bandied around and recognised with the other great SF authors out there! These two books are about the best SF I have read in years and anyone who calls themselves a SF fan HAS to read them - both!
Book Review: Excellent, excellent, conclusion to Pandora's Star
Summary: 5 Stars
With his gripping plots using very, very, rich backgrounds, Peter Hamilton is one of my favorite SF authors.
Judas Unchained hits the ground running and picks up the plot effortlessly from Pandora's Star. The formula here is pretty much military space opera + cyberpunk with humanity engaged in an epic war against annihilation. There is plenty of action to satisfy the most jaded fan and it meshes in very well with the plot. The Prime(s) is a very nice idea for an alien race, with its singular consciousness. I kind of missed seeing more of its POV chapters in Judas though.
The background civilization, history, and technology for the Commonwealth is extremely detailed and very well thought out, a joy to behold. Lesser SF authors struggle to achieve a fraction of the elegance displayed in the Night's Dawn (Confederation) and Fallen Dragon backstories, but Mr. Hamilton just picked up his boots and staked out a brand new world, again. It is his best yet and I hope to see it again. My pet suggestion: pick up the re-life thread and explore the shortcomings and motivations of technological reincarnation while suffering death and personality termination in your current body. This is, I think, what Wilson Klime briefly alludes to near the end.
Like Pandora, Judas is a big book and there are lots of characters running around in a complicated plotline, but still a joy to read throughout.
Best of all, unlike Fallen Dragon and, most painfully, Night's Dawn, Mr. Hamilton really did a very good job wrapping it all up and Judas keeps you on the edge of your seat (well, bed probably) all the way to the finish. There are two cliffhanger threads at the end, one of which includes a whodunnit.
One little remark : I couldn't quite empathize fully with everyone's concerns about genocide. Yes, MorningLightMountain happens to be a species, but it is most of all presented as an awesomely aggressive _individual_. So, you could argue that the genocide is an unfortunate byproduct of the need to remove one aggressor, rather than the needless destruction of an entire race. Granted, this only applies to the people to whom the Dudley Bose motile has been talking, but still...
Book Review: a richly described, intricate human society
Summary: 4 Stars
The book continues with a classic Bug Eyed Monster theme that permeates science fiction. The aliens that threaten mankind with genocide are the counterparts of the Bugs in Weber and White's "In Death Ground", or the Moties in Niven and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye".
A question arises as to whether Hamilton's book is military SF or not? While it might seen initially so, the book may be a disappointment to you if you read it for that. At least for the war scenes between the humans and the aliens. Well done, but very skimpy. Weber and White gave far better and more detailed treatments in their book. Whereas here, Hamilton essentially invokes a deux ex machina. The book's real conflict is within the human society, and is more of a thriller or spy novel than anything else.
Ah, but if it is a depiction of a future society, complex and articulate, then Judas Unchained really outshines the aforementioned novels. Here is a rich description of a human starfaring civilisation, with ubiquituous computing that takes what we have for the Internet and stretches it to a conceptual limit. Whereas in Mote, the future society is a thinly disguised English construct circa perhaps the Regency, dolled up with high tech. While in Death Ground, relatively little of the human society shines through the pages. Weber and White really focused on the battle scenes.
Hamilton also does not make the error of assuming progress in only one sphere. Like the SF stories of the 50s, with rocket ships and astronauts using slide rules. He postulates vast extensions in longevity, of over 200 years. Reinforced by a frequent downloading of the mind, to circumvent accidental death, as in Richard Morgan's novels. All of which combines to make a plausible and intricate society. And also a very optimistic viewpoint, a la the worldview presented by the Extropians of our era.
However, Hamilton does not seem to go overboard like some of the cyberpunk writers. You aren't overwhelmed in passage after passage with some new intricate computing gizmo or effect. In those books, sometimes the plot is hard to discern because the technology gets in the way. But Hamilton weaves the technology in a very natural manner into the fabric of the society and the plot. It was his social depictions that I found the most appealing aspect of the book. A very believable society.
Other reviewers remarked that the secret societies in the novel reminded them of Muslim sleeper cells. Interesting. If Hamilton deliberately wants us to make that connection, it is a tribute to his skill that it is a very tenuous link. Nothing explicit. Avoids an ironic effect where a SF story, purportedly set in the far future, echoes the times in which it was written. A prominent example might be the original Star Trek episodes which invoked the 60s civil rights and Vietnam war issues. (Remember those?) Often, all this does is make a story very dated in a few years.
Book Review: Outstanding Book(s)
Summary: 5 Stars
Having grown up reading Niven and Pournelle this was a story to treasure. Niven doesn't write quite as well as he used to, you know...
So I stumbled onto Pandora's Star and was immediately reminded of Mote In God's Eye and Ringworld both in the scope and complexity of the tale. Anyway, a truly good read...I really enjoyed it.
A previous reviewer mentioned that there were parallels to Dracula. Maybe, but the Primes (and the Starflyer agents) reminded me of the Islamic extremists and their sleeper cells in our midst. Every bit as scary if you think about it.
Only thing that was a negative for me was the over-frequent use of the word "judder" and "juddering." Seemed like it was appearing every twenty-five to thirty pages or so and, since it is not commonly used in the USA, it stuck out rather oddly. A petty and minor grievance, I admit.
An outstanding read, though. Well worth the investment of time.
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.