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A review by scottjp
Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
3.0
This novel concludes the story begun in [b:Pandora's Star|45252|Pandora's Star|Peter F. Hamilton|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1440699949s/45252.jpg|987015]. A human exploration mission has inadvertently unleashed a race of aliens whose only goal is the extermination of all other life, which it perceives as a threat to its own existence. After losing 23 colonized worlds to its onslaught, the decision is made to bring out the big guns, or bombs, and obliterate the aliens' home system.
It introduces a moral dilemma into the story which I didn't really feel the weight of properly. Genocide is obviously a bad thing, under normal conditions, but when you are dealing with an enemy that is of singular mind, which cannot be reasoned with, and which will utterly annihilate you and never give up, well...it's a bit like dealing with a virus, isn't it? And it's not about any other life that may exist within that solar system--there isn't any; the aliens, the Primes as they are called, have already destroyed it all.
My other problem with the book is that it's simply too long. I'm not sure that any story needs to be 2000 pages (paperback, small print) long. About halfway through the second book I started to become very anxious to see its end. If you've got the stamina it's worth the read, though. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here. And Hamilton has created a fascinating character in Paula Myo, the investigator who cannot lie and who never gives up on a case, because that's how she has been genetically engineered from before her birth. I'm glad to know she appears in later Commonwealth novels. (I checked.) 3.5 stars.
It introduces a moral dilemma into the story which I didn't really feel the weight of properly. Genocide is obviously a bad thing, under normal conditions, but when you are dealing with an enemy that is of singular mind, which cannot be reasoned with, and which will utterly annihilate you and never give up, well...it's a bit like dealing with a virus, isn't it? And it's not about any other life that may exist within that solar system--there isn't any; the aliens, the Primes as they are called, have already destroyed it all.
My other problem with the book is that it's simply too long. I'm not sure that any story needs to be 2000 pages (paperback, small print) long. About halfway through the second book I started to become very anxious to see its end. If you've got the stamina it's worth the read, though. There's a lot of interesting stuff in here. And Hamilton has created a fascinating character in Paula Myo, the investigator who cannot lie and who never gives up on a case, because that's how she has been genetically engineered from before her birth. I'm glad to know she appears in later Commonwealth novels. (I checked.) 3.5 stars.