Contents:
Nor are the Prime the only threat. For more than a hundred years, a shadowy cult, the Guardians of Selfhood, has warned that an alien with mind-control abilities impossible to detect or resist—the Starflyer—has secretly infiltrated the Commonwealth. Branded as terrorists, the Guardians and their leader, Bradley Johansson, have been hunted by relentless investigator Paula Myo. But now evidence suggests that the Guardians were right all along, and that the Starflyer has placed agents in vital posts throughout the Commonwealth—agents who are now sabotaging the war effort.
Is the Starflyer an ally of the Prime, or has it orchestrated a fight to the death between the two species for its own advantage? Caught between two deadly enemies, one a brutal invader striking from without, the other a remorseless cancer killing from within, the fractious Commonwealth must unite as never before. From the Hardcover edition. You read this over an average of words per minute. The Temporal Void Commonwealth: The Void Trilogy Look on Amazon. The Dreaming Void Commonwealth: Toggle navigation Menu Reading Length. Search for any book Search!
Judas Unchained The Commonwealth Saga. Estimate Based on audiobook length. How long will this take to read? They are just stereotypes and many of them act so similar I couldn't tell one from another. All the soldiers acted the same, all the villains acted the same, and everyone had the same attitudes concerning most subjects.
Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. Starred Review. Set in the 24th century, bestseller Hamilton's richly satisfying space opera is less a sequel to. Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga, book 2) by Peter F Hamilton - book cover, description, publication history.
I assume they are the a This book had so many good things going for it, but a few bad things really overdone degrade the whole story. I assume they are the attitudes of the author. It is always annoying when authors have their sex fantasies acted out in books. It's even more annoying when these sex fantasies involve cardboard cut-out characters that seem to have no real personalities.
But the real icing on the cake of annoyance is when the author writes 2, pages worth of story and has these sex fantasies ever chapters, in between important parts of the story. For example the chapter ends with the Aliens coming out of a wormhole and shooting nukes at a human planet. Next chapter opens with sex scene 51 between arrogant scientist 1 and Author's Walking Sex Fantasy 2 who really seems completely out of place in the story. And all you wanted to do was find out what happened with the Aliens. The characters were so cardboard, reading about their love lives was just painful, and all of them have the exact same ideas about sex and love by the way, which gets old after the 3rd or 4th time.
Anyway enough of my raving. If he would have just pruned out all his sex fantasies, the books would have been at least pages shorter and they would be 4 star even with the cardboard characters. View all 3 comments. The best is still the world-building: I can't remember any sci-fi that can rival it and only the best heavyweights in fantasy could beat such a complex but feasible! Not all good, since in this second book the characters start feeling a bit flat: Everyone seems to behave the same way, just with different goals.
But the main issue of the whole endeavour is that, although everything adds together at end which is Is it good? But the main issue of the whole endeavour is that, although everything adds together at end which is an achievement in itself , it feels a bit like that, just "adding". It might be because the storyline is massive but not too deep: I was expecting more twists along the ride, but it's more like a slow convergence of plotlines.
It's superiorly well crafted, but low on surprises. The second book in common wealth saga Judas unchained was hit and miss for me in some ways, because many of the things which I liked in the first book became a bit redundant in the second book. I think Hamilton has spent lot of words micro managing the story in this book, due to which some of the most intense scenes in the book dragged out a lot.
The story wraps out properly in this book but the whole starflyer conspiracy felt like a red herring to me due to the fact because we do not get its po The second book in common wealth saga Judas unchained was hit and miss for me in some ways, because many of the things which I liked in the first book became a bit redundant in the second book. The story wraps out properly in this book but the whole starflyer conspiracy felt like a red herring to me due to the fact because we do not get its pov throughout the book. Some of the weak points of the book were 1.
Micro managing the story. Lot of uninteresting pov characters. Some of the strong points of the book are 1. Story wraps up properly. Let me elaborate on the above points 1. The strength of the last book has basically become a weakness in this book due to the fact that Hamilton spends too much time describing how things are getting effected due to what event is taking place, instead of focusing on the event. Like at the end of the book there is so much description about the mountains,lava and tornado that I completely lost my focus on the crux of the story.
This book too like the last book has a huge cast of characters but I really did not find them that much interesting. Some of the uninteresting characters for me were 1. Mellanie Resocrai In the last book we saw that her life was completely ruined due to her hooking up with Morton , but she managed to restore a bit normalcy to her life by making a deal with SI. This book focuses a lot on her character but I found her kind of cheap and selfish, a kind of person who will go to any length to achieve her goals.
Nigel Sheldon He is shown as kind of emperor in the common wealth due to the fact that he invented wormhole technology, this fact is kind of hard to digest because we are shown that common wealth has a namesake president. But all the decisions are shown to be taken by the feudal families who rule the common wealth, and within the fifteen families there are some powerful families whose word is important and one of them is Sheldon's.
Also Nigel keeping a harem of women and all in his personal palace went over the top for me. He is shown as a kind of deus ex machina which kind of becomes irritating after a point of time because all the important people are either Sheldon or connected to him in some way. Last book was awesome because we had pov of Morning light mountain but this book just gave us some glimpses of starflyer. The only character which I liked in this book was Ozzie. Now let me elaborate on strong point of the book 1.
Although the book has flaws but Hamilton manages to wrap up the story properly and also gives all the story arcs a satisfying conclusion, this was only thing which made me keep going. I used to really like Hamilton. His Night's Dawn series, all two million words or so of it, was great when I was younger- kind of Dickens meets Asimov, with billions of characters, subplots that zip around an immense and vivid universe, alien aliens, etc. Hamilton was one of the first of the new space opera writers from the UK but his work at both novel and series level and his short fiction was limited to one main universe.
He branched out with the very interesting Fallen Dragon which satisfie I used to really like Hamilton. Then comes this monstrosity. Judas Unchained and Pandora's Star is really one book that would have been around pages long. There's no reason besides size that the books were split up. Its much closer to the Night's Dawn trilogy than Fallen Dragon- but with some significant adjustments in setting and tone.
There's a real undercurrent of elitism in the novel- all the major decisions that impact the survival of the human race the immortal, vastly augmented version that modern man evolves itself into are made by a tiny privileged elite. Its kind of Platonic in its lack of democratic precepts. Indeed democracy is generally a liability to the decision making process.
The wormhole conceit that structures the book's universe is well fleshed out- Hamilton is probably the most complete world builder in SF today and he's at the top of his game in that arena here. His characters are good as well, their character arcs and transformations generally very well handled. He's still a pervert, though thankfully he's not as horrible at including sex in his books as some other authors.
His technology and combat descriptions are breathtaking in scope- probably only Banks is in the same category. The strongest element of this book is the backdrop- the world is incredible. The social impact of wormholes and immortality and ubiquitous computing is charted and discussed though still heavy on exposition, I like the little historical and anthropological asides. Its a good book but it feels somehow dated in its conception and execution.
Damn, the review is proportional to the book, at least in length. This is the concluding volume of the Commonwealth Saga. Human civilization has spread over a few hundred solar systems. Worm hole generators allow instantaneous transportation among these worlds. Space ships have been designed that can travel much faster than the speed of light. One of the technologies that has been developed, is the ability to copy memories. By downloading memories to a memory cube, a person can be "relifed" if he dies in an accident or is killed. Rebirth is equivalent to clon This is the concluding volume of the Commonwealth Saga.
Rebirth is equivalent to cloning, and re-implanting memories. It is so ironic, because little mention is made of the discontinuity of consciousness in this process--it is not a panacea. The starflyer is a mysterious entity that has invaded the psyches of some humans, turning them into traitors. The starflyer has pitted humans against an implacable enemy species, the so-called "primes".
Much of the book is taken up with the spread in the belief in the starflyer's existence. This complex plot-line is filled with lots of shoot-outs and indiscriminate killing. The book could be far shorter, and still capture all of the concepts, action, sub-plots and character development. If Peter Hamilton had simply removed all the references to "enzyme-bonded concrete", the book could have been a lot shorter! I thought, I'd never manage to get through it and it had a loong set-up for the "grand finale" - but I think it is worth every minute of the audiobook that I listened to!
The characters will start to fade and you are not given any clues or help whatsoever remembering who is who or who did what. It was interesting how hard this book was for me to find. There is a lot of buildup and the ending payoff was questionable at best. It was ramping up to be a huge and awesome combat and ended up feeling like Mad Max: The Guardians of Selfhood were more interesting when we knew less about them.
As we learn more their mystique fades away into regular terrorism with grandiose ideas, terrible follow through, and questionable morals. There was a great beginning to this story but as we got to the ending it became disappointing. There were so many memorable and epic moments in the first book and nothing much in this one. Every female character was described using their sexual background as character development.
They could be a prude or a nymphomaniac seriously how one of the women is described at one point but their sexual history was used in place of explaining anything much else, like knowing a woman does or doesn't like sex is all you really need to know about her. I really have enjoyed reading Pandora's Star, and this its not-so-thrilling conclusion, Judas Unchained. I have been thoroughly absorbed in the vast realm of the Commonwealth, and fallen in love with the indomitable and incorruptible Paula Myo. When she makes her entrance onto my screen of consciousness I sit up and take note.
And yet what a complete slog it has been getting anywhere. I don't mind longevity, but it irritates me when it appears to happen for longevity's sake. Tension built up sl I really have enjoyed reading Pandora's Star, and this its not-so-thrilling conclusion, Judas Unchained.
Tension built up slowly, and sometimes very well, but all too often the release was a bit weak and anticlimactic. I enjoyed the shifting relationships between The Guardians of Selfhood and the Commonwealth as an institution, and the realised that it is best to align even if the bedfellows are oddly matched, and to join against the common enemy. I also enjoyed and was perturbed at the enemy within, and finding out Who They Were. However in order for the revelation to be a shock, it really is a good idea to build up the reader's relationship with the players in the game and in this case the enemy when discovered left little for me to feel.
So the ending mattered little for me either. It held a little interest for me, but again, Not A Lot. I shall now be giving Peter Hamilton a long break before I pick up one of his books again. I wonder if I am missing anything. After loving Pandora's Star, despite its problems over-long, gets sidetracked in less important plot and less important characters, slows the action down too much at times I was very much looking forward to Judas Unchained. With the way things had been left in Pandora's Star, I could only see Judas Unchained ramping up the pace as it sped towards a conclusion.
Unfortunately, Judas Unchained meanders around irritatingly, avoiding the most interesting plot threads and focusing on things which see After loving Pandora's Star, despite its problems over-long, gets sidetracked in less important plot and less important characters, slows the action down too much at times I was very much looking forward to Judas Unchained. Unfortunately, Judas Unchained meanders around irritatingly, avoiding the most interesting plot threads and focusing on things which seem to be more trivial in the scheme of the grander plot.
It takes sheer determination to stick this out. The second half of the book is better, but not that much. Things begin moving more obviously towards a conclusion, and for a while the pace picks up. It doesn't last too long however, and the second half of the book could probably still be cut down by around pages, as well as at least pages that could be cut from the first half.
In the end, the ending is rushed with hardly any detail given to the event that defines the future of the galaxy. All this was quite unsatisfactory, and ruins a book which has some great characters, some great ideas and some great visions.
Hamilton By Peter F. And when he tries to individualize someone they come off as badly stereotyped '60s era hippies -- come on, does anyone seriously say "dude" in the real world much less the imagined future of the 24th century? That's what I like about these books. I'm not a fan of such drastic character change I mean, we shut Pandora's Box after all the evil ghosts have gotten out, all of which are capable of multiplying exponentially. He branched out with the very interesting Fallen Dragon which satisfie I used to really like Hamilton.
You have no idea how long it's taken me to finally finish this! And while it's a perfectly good story the amount of effort required will not allow me to give it more stars. Nice space opera concludes from Pandora's Star. Didn't really care much around the end, but a good ride along the way. Hamilton for a long while now. No one does grand scale, widescope epic space opera than him. His ability to juggle galaxies, planets and entire societies at a time is phenomenal and awe inspiring. But when you zoom in, things gets super blurry. The world-building is excessive, there's huge and pointless infodumps, multiple plot-lines that go nowhere, and his characters are sheets of stupid cardboard with no personality, bac The world-building is excessive, there's huge and pointless infodumps, multiple plot-lines that go nowhere, and his characters are sheets of stupid cardboard with no personality, backstory or voice.
There's almost zero characterization in this book, so much so that it's hard to care about the existence of anyone, much less empathize or draw close to them especially the female characters, who are little more than overly sexualized idiots Mellanie or boring and bland Paula Myo. But no, they exist almost solely because of the plot, not people with agency or personality.
Also, the book is pages longer than it needs to be. The third act dragged on for so long my eyes started to cross. This guy needs an editor, and badly. I understand it's meant to engage you in the world, and PFH absolutely does that He's an excellent writer, but doesn't know how to ration his poison and I think I'll be skipping his next few books for a while.
I'm going to attempt to keep this review relatively short. Unlike the author's work, which clocks in at an impressive 1k pages. Granted though, as impressive as that page count sounds, I think much of it could have been dwindled down.
In fact as much as I love a long space opera, there is such a thing as over writing. While I wouldn't put it anywhere near the level of Game of Thrones level of writing, it does attempt to build up some quite epic story telling with lots of names, places and things I'm going to attempt to keep this review relatively short. While I wouldn't put it anywhere near the level of Game of Thrones level of writing, it does attempt to build up some quite epic story telling with lots of names, places and things.
This style of writing which I deem "kitchen sink" writing is.. Hamilton picks up where Pandora's Star leaves off. The book begins probably a few moments after the first novel. So that should be your hint that you need to read the first to understand the 2nd. Even having read the first, the story gets so…weedy at times, even I got lost Hamilton has given us a TON of characters in Pandora's Star. Thank god he lets up and this half of the Commonwealth saga, about just developing who we know already.
You don't know how much of a relief this is.. Pandora's Star fell prey to dumping on us, a relentless, brutal, chapter after chapter, line of introductions to more and more characters. The list of characters, family members, soldiers, vets, aliens, races, and technology, was staggering. The positive about Judas Unchained is that this is drastically dialed down and the new characters are very manageable, and we get to now 'coast' into making character building for those we already know. That is the ideal… What happens though.. Sure they have emotions and personality, but often their personality is flipped and changed just to carry on the story.
For example, Morten, he's introduced as a sort of playboy, rich, weasel type. Involved with killing his wife? And he treats Mellanie like crap. Then later on he's brought back to be this heroic action star, macho marine bad ass. I mean we're not even given a reason why he's changed.
Morton was introduced to us as a playboy debonair douchebag I'm not a fan of such drastic character change Morton came off as a definite non combat warrior type, and now he's like leading a group of ex cons into battle? That's a big complaint I have with this "rejuv" relifing story device. It adds far too much uncaring. What I mean by this, is that this rejuv process really takes the caring out of anyone dying.
It's such a big safety net that I feel the characters aren't really in any danger. So I don't care if they go out into combat, I know that they'll just relifed and in a few months back in the world. Sure they'll have some mental struggle, but it doesn't seem to last all that long. This of course doesn't include the Guardians of Selfhood, but …honestly, most of them I didn't care about anyway.
At the end of book 1, Hamilton gives us this luke warm "cliff hanger" where the 3 of them fall off the world while on a boat…okay honestly I did not care for their story. It seemed needless and way way too long and drawn out for end goal. Seriously, Ozzie spends 2 books. Nearly pages, traveling on these "Silphen Paths"…which would be cool if A. They actually encountered interesting and different metaphoric adventures and people. Literally he just repeated the story that Morning Light Mountain revealed to us about the origin of the Alien Prime, the Anonmine, and their relation to why they were enclosed.
The story and interaction between Ozzie and Orion is…cute. Provides some character building some funny moments of Ozzie trying to teach Orion about girls which by the end of the book, is no longer cute.. And it gets in the way… In particular at the end of the book, Orion walks in on his new crush, Mellanie and Nigel, making out and runs off and starts crying. Has absolutely no affect on the story, and is so melodramatic it's just annoying… Speaking of which…I really wasn't that thrilled or impressed with the reasoning and story behind that either… It felt very flat and rushed… Okay…so benelovant aliens encounter the primes…then trap them.
No real big reveal or agenda. For such an "epic" book that's nearly 2k pages… the story behind the spheres and the Primes is just so ordinary it seems a shame. That's not to say it's not a good foundation for a story line, there are a lot of really fun original idea's here, but it just seems like Hamilton missed out on some good opportunities for a more rich main plot. Despite the very straight forward main plot, there is indeed plenty of intrigue, political manipulation and family backstabbing that will keep you interested.
So much so it often gets a bit confusing. There's a few different family dynasties. Because of the relifing procedure, families become very powerful, very big and very influential on certain worlds. And those who capitalized in on the "Big 15" worlds think the Dow Jones are generally power houses in the political and financial realms. The Big 15 are the major worlds that produce some of the larger economic stability to the Commonwealth.
As an aside Newark NJ near my hometown! Apparently the world serving Newark Int'l Airport has been turned into a hub for inter Commonwealth worm hole rail traffic! The attacks by the Primes hit and hit hard. And honestly I'm a bit baffled as to the ability for human to even hold their own. But I'm glad Hamilton made this a sort of "fair fight".
He describes though that the Primes have thousands of ships compared to our tens at most. Hamilton makes it so that our ships can use the FTL drives while sort of fighting or something, because it describes the ships popping in and out of wormholes a tactic that confuses and mystifies MorningLightMountain in the beginning Sort of odd to me, as my image of FTL travel means that the object wouldn't really able to just turn it on and off like flipping a switch so easily. Plus if the human ships are going FTL, wouldn't they rocket past anyone not traveling? The book implies that they just loiter around then pop out of FTL…Anyway, it's an odd mechanic.
Back to the characters… Most of the characters remain the same from the first book to the second. Mellanie is another weird one. Like Morten, it seems Hamilton changes her personality to see fit for the story. She's introduced as a bimbo. A stripper turned pornstar, she's beautiful and apparently even male who seems her is enamored. It sort of gets to be a pain, as her interaction with men just revolve around how beautiful she is and if and when they end up sleeping with her…Through the progression of the book, she progressively sleeps with at least 3 to 4 characters.
I mean…I don't judge but damn.. Anywho, Melanie suddenly becomes a bad ass after she merges with the SI and this continues in this book, she's suddenly smart, intuitive, and ballsy.
Why this bothers me so much, is that we're giving a large laundry list of characters…we're given their personalities. Then, like a light bulb, they're switched on us. It's not even like the characters grow, or learn from past mistakes, the characters are very "digital" either they change completely all at once, or they're static for the whole book. Even a character that I really enjoyed, like Mark Vernon and his wife Liz. While I feel they are the most real and down to earth, they're very static. Many of the characters like Nigel, Ozzie, Mellaine, etc..
Are so over the top and have these crazy lives and battles, and adventures, it's nice to see a couple like Mark and Liz just living in the world around them. Characters also like Adam, and Bradely, are such larger than life, action stars and lump Morton in there now: While character personality is a bit off in this book, the "personality" of the worlds he describes is really spot on, and each planet is seemingly unique in some way. I actually felt a bit bad when Elan had been invaded by the Primes and they began terraforming it with their own sludge stuff.
Other planets are given their own distinct role to play in the Commonwealth and are fleshed out decently. Of course this is sort of lost, because of the sheer number of characters, we're forced to take in a lot of different planets. That is, I believe, the biggest gripe I have with this entire series. It's just too much. Too much story, too many characters, too many things going on at once. By the end of the 2nd book, honestly I was sort of hoping it would it… It was very exciting, very climatic, but there was so much going on with so many separate groups, the alliances, and who was paired with who, and who knew about what, and who did x y and z because of 1 2 and 3…it just was a cluster fuck of action.
For example the Guardians, Commonwealth, Institute and Primes…4 freaking factions, some allied with some, it turned into a real nightmare to keep up with what characters where actually doing at times. Admittedly, it was suspenseful. I prefer to know exactly what each character is up and why he or she is doing it, but at some point I literally gave up and just went along for the ride and it was still a fun chase, race to the end.
The overall story of can humanity best the alien prime race is interesting enough that if you're not invested in one particular story there are plenty of others. Again this technically isn't a good thing, but Hamilton just presents us with so many subplots we have our pick of the litter. The detail provided per story, thankfully isn't that complex. So while the politics and interplay between factions and families can get a tad hairy, it's no Game of Thrones. I'll wrap this up by saying, both Pandora's Star, and Judas Unchained are very entertaining, and really should be thought of as one book.
You can't have one without the other. The story is a bit of an investment, if you're going into this, don't feel bad if you have to go back and re-read some areas. Certain moments in the book happen at a faster pace than others. AKA there's no large amounts of time that pass per chapter or at least it's not really expressed. Time seems to be measured in days. The story lines that involve the common wealth though it seems that weeks and even months can pass between chapters and even during chapters.
Building of ships, weapons, meetings etc. It makes for a slightly jarring read but nothing you don't get used to. Anyway the point is, you may have to do a double take at certain moments since events are sometimes glossed over, or mentioned in passing, that may leave you scratching your head. If you're a sci fi fan, who wants a sort of different take on sci fi, give it a shot. It presents some interesting ideas, I think the whole rejuv life thing is a bit of a double edged sword when it comes to storytelling….
It creates some really interesting, weird moments when it comes to family dynamics and social life, but at a meta level, it really gives me no reason to care if the character dies, cause I know he or she will be back to life. The whole idea of "Star flyer agents" and how the "Star Flyer" can possess people seems pretty cheesy to me.
It creates a point of suspense I suppose as you don't know who is or isn't an agent, but really there's so many characters that I didn't really care if one or two was actually an agent. Again Hamilton needs to shrink the massive breadth of character numbers and tell a story that has less people and "more character" if you get my meaning. Whelp that's all folks. Go pick up Pandora Star, see how you fancy it…and keep a notebook handy for the names!
I've had mixed feelings about all of Hamilton's books that I've read, but this is probably my least favorite yet. As I mentioned in my review of the first one, Pandora's Star https: I'm not sure what those reviewers meant, especially since Hamilton still seems to outsource his sex scenes to a writer who's a 14 year old boy. Maybe "mature" means "b I've had mixed feelings about all of Hamilton's books that I've read, but this is probably my least favorite yet. Maybe "mature" means "boring.
The Commonwealth Saga, on the other hand, has more meandering story lines that don't go anywhere interesting and most of the characters are somewhere on the scale from bland to obnoxious to offensive. It's like The Night's Dawn Trilogy without the redeeming qualities of the Edenists; the Commonwealth is mostly assholes all the way down. But I said I had mixed feelings, so I have to admit it's not all bad.
Some of it's pretty good. My favorite storyline in both books of the Commonwealth Saga is Ozzie's journey among the alien Silfen with a boy, Orion, and an alien, Hochee. This story isn't always action packed, but it explores more intriguing ideas and worlds than most of the other stories. Hamilton's aliens are always interesting even if his humans are annoying. Those are fascinating and really give a sense of what the humans are up against. A distant third favorite story line is the re-introduction of spaceflight after hundreds of years of relying on wormhole networks.
The main reason this is my least favorite Hamilton book yet is that most of it focuses on the storylines about the Starflyer, a mysterious alien who has allegedly infiltrated human society for its own presumably nefarious purposes. I couldn't bring myself to care about the Starflyer. I started skimming those storylines about halfway through.
I've been trying to think of how to explain my dislike of the Starflyer stories, and I think this is it: Hamilton doesn't do a good job of balancing the mystery with the threat. With MorningLightMountain, the threat is very real and well understood. But, beyond a rudimentary outline, I was never able to figure out exactly why I was supposed to be scared of the Starflyer or how it was supposedly infiltrating humanity. I never felt any real tension about whether the Starflyer was real, because basically Hamilton just has people say, "no, it's not" when presented with evidence with no real intrigue on the question.
I guess if you could get into the Starflyer stuff, you might love this book. The other problems are exacerbations of the problems from the first book. The world of the Commonwealth is simply too much like the early 21st century, despite a few changes due to everyone basically being immortal.
This went from minor to major irritation as the novel wore on. The rich still get richer, and media personalities are just as obnoxious as they are now. At least with the Night's Dawn Trilogy the Edenists balance some of this, but you get no balance in the Commonwealth. Everyone in the Commonwealth is just as annoying as people are now, if not more so.