Book 1 - Pandora's Star

In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes.
With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately
four hundred light years across.When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes
a star 2000 light years distant - and then a neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth
to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict?
Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need
to build a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each 'vanished' star encased
in a giant force field -- and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.

Book 2 - Judas Unchained

Peter F. Hamilton's flair for huge, star-spanning SF adventures continues with Judas Unchained.
This concludes the single long novel--over 1,800 pages in all--whose first half is Pandora.s Star. Humanity's
interstellar Commonwealth is in serious trouble. Thirteen of its hundreds of worlds (linked by wormholes and
high-speed trains) were lost to a first mass attack by the insanely hostile alien Primes. The controlling
Prime intelligence, MorningLightMountain, can imagine no way of dealing with first contact but genocide - and
has the resources to do it.

Amid political and personal chaos, it's becoming clear that the war was arranged by a third party.
For centuries,only the fanatical, outlawed Guardians cult believed in this mysterious influence called the
Starflyer. New evidence emerges, only to vanish again. Key figures are destroyed by near-invincible assassins
crammed with inbuilt "wetwired" weaponry. One determined detective is on the track, but she faces massive
political opposition.

The multi-stranded action follows many criss-crossing human stories, with fights, pursuits, quests, deaths,
resurrections, exotic landscapes and armaments, good sex, and several interesting aliens. Betrayals are
frequent, thanks to brainwashed Starflyer agents in positions of trust. Only the Guardians have a scheme to
deal with the Starflyer itself--a grandiose strategy known as "the planet's revenge"--but no one trusts those
crazy cultists.

In space, the arms race becomes dizzying, with Prime doomsday weapons used against suns while frantic human
research leads to "quantumbusters" so appalling that there's serious moral debate about their use. Can we face
the guilt of total genocide, even against a horror like MorningLightMountain? Or is there some way to force
this psychopathic genie back into the bottle?

The action climaxes in a long, exhilarating chase sequence spiced with ultra-violent skirmishing as the
Starflyer comes into the open at last. Stormgliding, an extreme sport introduced in book one, becomes vital
to the race against time. Meanwhile, rival starships with different plans chase one another to the Prime system.
Hamilton delivers the expected multiple payoffs with suitable pyrotechnics and a satisfying scatter of happy
endings. A long, colourful, suspenseful example of modern British space opera. --David Langford

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