Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga) - Softcover

Hamilton, Peter F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447279670 ISBN 13: 9781447279679

Publisher: Pan, 2014

Synopsis

Judas Unchained is the high-action concluding novel of the Commonwealth Saga from Peter F. Hamilton, one of the world's bestselling science fiction writers.For hundreds of years the human race has been manipulated into starting a war that could destroy civilisation. As Chief Investigator Paula Myo hunts down the terrifying creature behind the ploy, the invasion continues and dozens of worlds fall to the enemy.Admiral Kime orders a defence with war-winning super-weapons, only to find that their adversaries have equally powerful armaments., How they got them is the question. Has the Commonwealth's top-secret defence project been compromised, or is the truth even worse?

About this title

Review:

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

Review:

Advance praise for Judas Unchained " For flat-out huge widescreen all-engines-at-full I-dare-you-not-to-believe-it space opera, there is no one quite like Peter F. Hamilton." - Richard K. Morgan, author of Altered Carbon and Market Forces Praise for Pandora's Star " Should be high on everyone's reading list . . . You won't be able to put it down." - Nancy Pearl, National Public Radio " An imaginative and stunning tale of the perfect future threatened . . . a book of epic proportions not unlike Frank Herbert's Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy." - SFRevu " Recommended . . . A large cast of characters, each with his own story, brings depth and variety to this far-future saga." - Library Journal " Complex and engaging." - Booklist "From the Hardcover edition."

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1447279670
• ISBN 13: 9781447279679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1264