Book Review of Judas Unchained (Ass End of The Commonwealth Saga, by Peter F. Hamilton)In a spirit of full disclosure, I think of myself as a rather lazy person. So it should come as a bit of a surprise to me (and you, if you know me) that I am inspired, nay, compelled to submit a review of Judas Unchained (and the Commonwealth Saga of which it is the ass-end). But it does not surprise me. In fact, I’ve been saying for weeks how much I looked forward to finishing this series just so I could get

After I finished Pandora's Star , I ordered this sequel online and began it soon after it arrived at my doorstep. This is significant, because while I do not adhere religiously to the general order of my to-read list, I try to follow it in good faith. I couldn't wait over a year to read Judas Unchained, so despite my general moratorium on buying books, I made an exception. And I'm glad I did. Judas Unchained is off the frelling chain!As with my review for Pandora's Star, I'll try to keep this...

If you have read Pandora's Star previously starting on Judas Unchained should feel like coming home, as there would be no need to familiarize yourself with the settings or characters. On the other hand, if you attempt to read this book without having read Pandora's Star first it would be like wandering into somebody else's home by mistake, wondering who changed your furniture, realizing your mistake and make a quick exit before the cops arrive. Judas Unchained continues the epic story started in...

I have a confession to make: the Grumpy Cat is my spiritual animal. The confession was necessary because seemingly everybody and their brother loved the book. Everybody except for grumpy me that is. Let me remind you that in the previous book the humans of the future opened a Pandora Box and let some aliens with Highlander motto ("There can be only one") out in the wild. The latter happily proceed to exterminate our future race. End of book 1. This one picked right where the previous one left. H...

Close to three months have passed since I started reading this book. Three months of trying desperately to find something captivating enough to go on.Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga is not a bad little (heh) duology; it has its interesting concepts, its solid characters, its wonderfully described worlds. It is also filled to the brim with page after page, chapter after chapter, of unnecessary filler material that could easily have been removed for the reader's benefit. In Pandora's Star, the

Executive Summary: An enjoyable conclusion to the Commonwealth Duology. I plan to check out the Void trilogy at some point in the future.Audio book: John Lee once again does a great job. He doesn't do voices, but he's got a great reading voice that I could listen to for hours and seems well suited to Space Opera. I'm excited to see he reads the Void series for Tantor as well as a few other books I plan to check out. Full Review This is a long one, but overall I enjoyed it. I think this works b...

A creative, innovative and imaginative sci fi setting make for a worthwhile saga albeit it with poor portrayal of women and overall unnecessarily steeped in sex.This is the conclusion to the duology starting with Pandora's Star. Hamilton does many things well, more than he does wrong. The short of it is that I've never read a sci fi series like this. The Commonwealth is totally immersive. There is an ecology of wormholes, star systems, and inscrutable alien life forms mixed with imminent interst...

6.0 stars. On my list of "All Time Favorite" Novels. As has been mentioned before, this book is really the second half of a much larger book began in Pandora's Star. When counting the first book, this story comes in at almost 2000 pages. As daunting as that may seem, I was amazed by how easy it was to stay focused on the story. All of the different plot lines were so interesting and well done that I was never waiting for the pace to quicken. No doubt, Hamilton spends considerable time on details...

Audiobook part 1, 5h 20min, pages 1-159, ★★★☆☆, nothing really stuck with me. It was ok, I guess. Nothing really memorable happened. Or it did, but it was indistinguishable from the end of the last book...Audiobook part 2, about 1 hour left, DNF on page 334 of the ebook. ★☆☆☆☆ “A ghost in the machine? How appropriate. It is certainly a machine’s ghost.” “Ah, right. So, what’s it doing?” The darkness within Dr. Friland’s hood lessened to reveal a row of smiling teeth. “Whatever it wants.” Boy,...

After reading the first book, Pandora's Star, I was slightly miffed at just how scattered and sometimes ... dull... it seemed. I only felt that way because the alien bits and the big spaceship stuff and the weird alien stuff simply SHONE for me. I didn't really cotton to all the human-only investigation stuff or the politics until it kinda snuck up on me and grabbed me by the neck because IT WAS IMPORTANT.Well. It became important eventually. But I should mention that each of these books is roug...

“Finally, this book is over!” That was my final thought. After an exhausting total of over 2,000 pages in this saga, I was ready for it to wrap up. I enjoyed the story overall but have a few gripes with Peter F. Hamilton.Hamilton did an excellent job creating the Commonwealth universe. I really enjoyed the technological advancements yet it was familiar and fun. There are more toys to play with and the concept of rejuvenation is really interesting. The progression from modern day to the 24th cent...

Don’t approach this book as a sequel to Pandora's Star. It is merely a continuation of the story. The two books form a cohesive whole, and are really just parts one and two of the same story. There is no way, really, that the two books can be read separate from one another.The war between the Commonwealth and the Prime was always going to reach critical mass in this novel, and this is more or less what happens. However, things didn’t pan out quite how I was expecting. In this novel there is a sl...

Characters unleashing their full potential and sci-fi capabilities, while the plot is accelerating towards a bombastic showdown in many different constellations, is one of Hamilton´s favorite style vehicles. The optimistic outlook on human society can´t just be seen in the civilizations and fractions, but even in the tycoons of the future. While they, in other sci-fi and reality, are mostly the purest manifestations of evil, immediately killing billions of humans, animals, or aliens for a permil...

Longer review appearing much later than I anticipated... ah well.This book picks up immediately after the end of Pandora's Star, and it distinctly benefits from not having to establish as much worldbuilding as its predecessor. Here, instead of introducing the reader to the numerous worlds and characters of the Commonwealth, Hamilton can simply jump right into their stories. With one major exception, the plot feels a lot tighter and less of it seems extraneous to the point. That said, the pacing

This is the second "half" of the 2,200 page Commonwealth Saga, started in book one "Pandora's Star". This is superb, hard sci-fi, space-faring, wormholes, technology galore and perhaps 100 characters. This saga has one of the most interesting alien species I have ever seen - truly creative imagination and design. I give these books Top Marks, and will continue to read Mr Hamilton's works.

Dreaming heavens, finished at last! Fascinating read. Hamilton's science is the kind I like to read and immerse myself in: realistic with a good sprinkling of sci-fi magic here and there to keep the reader wondering. In this book there are lots of these without becoming overwhelming. The story starts where it's left off in Pandora's Star, and one surprising thing I noticed was that it pretty much moved forward with only brief reminders of what had happened in the first book (which I liked becaus...

“The fact that it was he who in the end had underestimated the Starflyer gave his situation its wretched poignancy.” Good endings are are hard, great endings are Peter Hamilton. Oh, I had my doubts, my disagreements, a character I could have done without (Orion), but this blockbuster came through! Dreaming heavens, The Planets Revenge lived up to its name.I would read a whole book on Paula Myo and dearly hope she appears in subsequent books. Perhaps the Cat too?*audible note: The narrator i

Four and a half stars.The rereading just as well as the first time. In my opinion, the best space opera.

I have a love/hate relationship with Peter Hamilton's books. He's very adept at introducing interesting technology and making a faster-than-light society plausible but, as with a lot of these hard-science, libertarian SF authors, he badly needs an editor. I was skipping over multiple pages of irrelevance in both this book and its prequel, Pandora's Star. He also has far too many "main characters" who (despite 800+ pages) never seem to come alive. They all speak with essentially the same voice. A...

Wow! What a ride. This is Space Opera at its finest. This second book in the Commonwealth Saga can’t really be described as a sequel as much as a continuation of the same story. If you put both books together you would be unable to discern where the break between the two would be. As such, a lot of my comments made in my review of the first book still apply http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...Some of our characters have decided the mythical Starflyer Alien is a real entity who has been subve...