Rating: 
Summary: A thoroughly engaging read
Review: I just finished it, and it is quite a project to read. I just don't understand the gripers in other reviews complaining about everything from using wormholes (please, its science FICTION, fer crissakes) to too many boring subplots.
Yes, there is a lot going on in this novel. I personally enjoy the complexity of all the subplots, and what others consider bloat and 300 pages of excess, I enjoy as the kind of detail and narrative you need to flesh out a complete world, or universe in this case. Of course its not perfect and there are places it drags a bit for me. But that does not detract much from the overall experience. And several complained that the story didn't "resolve" and that they had to wait for the next novel to find out what happens. One can only pity such an attitude. Go play video games if you want quick resolution. It gives me something to look forward to.
So, if you like short punchy, no-nonsense stories that include just the nuggets and not the whole complex panorama of the story, by all means avoid this one. I just happen to think it is one of the most engrossing SF efforts I have read in a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick! Get an editor in here! We need to cut 300 pages!
Review: I own and love Peter F.Hamilton's every book up to and including the Fallen Dragon. I'm very disappointed with this one. Usually I read Mr.Hamilton's books in one sleepless marathon. This one was a two week long struggle and I had no problem falling asleep. In fact falling asleep is quite easy with this book. It's full of boring filler. It seems the success of the author's earlier books enables him to bypass the editors and common sense. This book could have been great if about 300 of its 760 pages had been left out. Or it could have stayed the same size and contained the whole story and not end with a cheap, abrupt cliff-hanger.I give one star for ruining a book that could have been great. I will not buy any additional books in this series. First the author has to prove me that he can write an honest, tight book.
Rating:
Summary: A Magna Opus
Review: I thought nothing could top Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy for modern science fiction. Pandora's Star exceeds his previous series, if by just a little. The action and plot get off to a much faster start and things keep chugging along though some of the plot lines seem mostly for description of the world and not an advancement in plot. That might change in the second novel...
As well there are a ton of characters that the reader follows and for the most part they are all interesting though some are clearly doing much more plot advancement than others...each chapter could have several plot line advanced with is good as the point of view keeps changing...and maddening when the reader is left wanting more...and staying up sinfully late satisfying their appetite.
If you like smart science fiction this is a book well worth pickign up. If you are a fan of Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy either you have it already or SERIOUSLY need to get out from under that literary rock you are hiding under.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtakingly inventive
Review: I'll keep this short, since the book isn't. If you like science fiction, you have to read Pandora's Star. Hamilton weaves a dizzying number of seemingly unconnected strands into a uniquely cohesive whole, then caps it off with the most literal "cliff hanger" I've seen in my 30-odd years of reading. I simultaneously bless Peter Hamilton for gifting us with this masterwork, and curse him for making us wait a year for the finale.
Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes "more" is NOT "better" --
Review: I'm about 400 pages into this big book, and normally I would not review until I finish a book. But I am not sure I am going to make it to the end. A different reviewer praised "many separate plot threads" but I find them chaotic and distracting. It is as though there are at least 6 or 8 separate novels. One reads 20 or 30 pages involving one setting and one group of characters, then one gets an "installment" of a totally different story . . . and on, and on. This can be very frustrating. I discovered I was really interested in several of the plot threads, but bored or impatient with others. So -- understandably -- when one of the threads that interest me is interrupted by some irrelevant narrative -- I try to race past it, skimming, I suppose you could say. Overall, this writer has great talent but is very self indulgent and undisciplined. Anything he feels like tossing into the sack, so to speak -- in it goes. If the book were written tighter and structured in a more integrated way, I think it would be much better. There are a few scenes in the book, also, that are just too silly. In one instance, a group of raiders attack an armed convoy. The convoy has all the lasers, missiles, and ion weapons of the 24th century. But the raiders are riding war horses. We are told these animals have multiple hearts and other organic features that make them very hard to kill. The riders attack into automatic weapons fire, and we are treated to the butchery of these horses-- although, to be sure, because of their bio-engineering, the horses take terrific damage before they finally collapse. As an animal lover, I found this pretty awful. And more to the point, as a reviewer, I found the whole concept just simply preposterous. The odds that I will make it to the last page are no better than even. Perhaps the author should take a creative writing class.
Rating:
Summary: No Differences between UK and US versions
Review: I'm not sure this passes the Amazon review guidelines, but I wanted to respond to the April 30 review from Frankfort, Indiana, I emailed the person in charge of Peter Hamilton's official website and he confirmed the only difference between the US and UK versions is the typesetting. Both books have the same text (spelling excepted).
Rating:
Summary: Too much filler and written too quickly with shallow plot
Review: I've decided to avoid PF Hamilton novels after a few bad experiences with his later works. Esp that last novel in the Nights Dawn Trilogy. He spent hundreds of pages setting up the excitement for it to be all neatly tidied up by using a "God" like machine that was in no way different than a big Genie granting your every wish. Nothing science fiction about it. This novel introduces some interesting science but does not use any of it in an interesting way. Devices are used and created without effort or exploration of their effects. The many many characters are too numerous for them all to become worth worring about. The aliens are too alien and thus hardly require any moral qualms about their inevitable demise. Peter in fact tries too hard to make them unlovable. His normal anti social tendencies of giving everyone in power the lowest morals is dreary and unsuprising. In summary this novel is a drag. Stay clear.
Rating: 
Summary: Downhill after the first 300 pages
Review: If I had been asked to rate this work after the first 300 pages, I would have been hard pressed not to award 5 stars. However, the last half was a real slog. In fact, I had to skip a 100 or so pages near the end just to say I finished it - only to find that almost nothing had been resolved after all this effort. I don't mind (and sometimes really enjoy) multi book series but not this one. An editor with a liberal red pen would have improved this book considerably.
Rating:
Summary: Epix sci-fi
Review: It is the golden age of humanity thanks to Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaac, the two scientists who developed the math that made wormhole technology possible. Mankind travels between the six hundred colonized worlds by using wormhole generated vessels. Rejuvenation is available to all so everyone can live as long as they want. If they are killed, a clone is created of that person and their stored memory chips are inserted into the neural network so they can be the same person they were before they died. When the Second Chance spaceship travels the solar system Dyson Alpha to observe the force field that surrounds it, the barrier suddenly disappears. The crew sees hundreds of ships using nuclear missiles on each other. The Second Chance leaves before it is spotted even though they have to leave two crew men behind. A second expedition to Dyson Alpha discovers that the warfighters have wormhole technology and will launch an invasion into commonwealth territory. The government authorities authorize the creation of a navy but to find out if it will be effective, readers will have to wait for JUDAS UNCHAINED to be published. Imagine using a train to travel to a different world, living for as long as you want and picking the planet of your choice to make a home. It sounds like heaven, so when hostile aliens threaten the peace, humanity, who has not known war for three centuries, has a lot of catching up to do but they are hindered in their quest by unknown enemies who have the powers-that-be in their pocket. Peter F. Hamilton has written a powerfully compelling space opera in the tradition of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: This book takes space opera to a whole new level!
Review: Its vast expanse of humanity-occupying-space alone earns such a high praise, not to mention its believable characters and intriguing storyline that seems to reach beyond the 24th Century setting. Being an avid sci-fi and space opera reader for nearly thirty years, I know what I love and I loved this book. It's definitely as good as others of its kind, both past and present: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, "Advent of the Corps" and others.
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