Review: Pandora's Star

Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga #1)Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well then. I hope that book reviews don't need to be a length that's proportional to the size of the book being reviewed. Actually, I can safely say that this one definitely won't be.

Damn, that was a big tome. And as much as I like John Lee, I need a new reader in my next book. Between this and Revelation Space, I've heard John Lee's voice more this year than any member of my family's voice. My wife does say I can tune her out, and unfortunately I think this happened with Mr. Lee as well for large parts of the book.

There were great parts, and great characters. Then there were long periods of slog and yawn. What's bad is that my brain had zoned out and gone elsewhere during some of the longer slogs, and ended up missing some of the good parts. I can't say how many times I'd regain focus and be like "when did they switch to that character?"

I feel like I need some CliffNotes. There were things I wanted to know more about, but missed the connections. I mean, sometimes I'd be listening and be thinking, "just who is this character?" even though I knew I'd read about them earlier. It just had been so long....

And this is only half the story. Ouch. I definitely need some CliffNotes before I tackle Judas Unchained. Probably some NoDoze too.

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