Hacker News Reader

Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

I very much like the 2 part epic space opera "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained" by Peter F Hamilton.

In it, an Astronomer spots a star that disappears. This star is 1,500 light years away. He travels to another star system (Humanity is a multi-system species) and observes the star again, at just the right moment to see the light from its disappearance. It disappears within a couple of seconds, as does a nearby star. But its infrared output is undimmed.

This kicks off an epic, and I really do mean epic, space opera. Peter F Hamilton is really great at such stories, and I love this pair of books so much that I've read them about a dozen times each.

Highly recommended!

View on HN

I’ll echo this recommendation. Peter F. Hamilton is firmly my favourite sci-fi author, and that’s a hard spot to take.

The Commonwealth Saga (mentioned by the parent) is followed by The Void Trilogy and then The Chronicle of the Fallers, all set in the same Commonwealth universe. It’s some of the most evocative writing I’ve ever heard the pleasure to read, and the stories told are massive in scale but without seeming lacking as a result.

My e-reader says that my most recent read-through was my 9th, so add that to a number done with physical books and it should give some idea of how good I consider these books!

I read quite a lot of books thanks to suggestions on HN, so my thanks to all giving suggestions!

Yes, it’s a really fun space opera, with lots of silly figures of speech and cringy tropes/stereotypes. The story and world are great enough to recommend it even if you have a hard time with the writing.

And my favorite sci-fi authors are Heinlein and Lem, so calibrate accordingly.

Hi! On Wikipedia it says it‘s a trilogy [0], Misspent Youth being the one you didn‘t mention. Would you recommend starting with the 2nd book in the series?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton_bibliograp...

I've not read Misspent Youth. It's not really a part of the following 2 books, I don't know why Wikipedia includes them as a trilogy.

Misspent Youth apparently is set 300 years before the 2 other books, and establishes the setting. The author does a great job of creating the universe in Pandora's Star so I don't think you need to read Misspent Youth.

I'd be interested to hear if you enjoyed the books. If you want, email me at the address in my profile.

Thank you for responding. If I ever get far enough down in my book pile I will let you know :D

I love Hamilton's science fiction, consider this another recommendation folks!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com