Judas Unchained

Commonwealth Saga, Book 2

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 40 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

In this incredible sequel to Pandora's Star, the Commonwealth Saga goes out with a bang. Judas Unchained is a stunning, expansive space opera from one of the world's bestselling science fiction writers, Peter F. Hamilton.

Our worlds are under invasion – and only the impossible can save us now . . .

Over hundreds of years, the human race has been manipulated into starting a war. And it's one that could destroy our entire civilization. Chief Investigator Paula Myo is nominated to hunt the creature behind this ploy, while our invasion continues and multiple worlds fall to the enemy. In response, Admiral Kime commands humanity's defense, marshaling war-ready super-weapons. Yet he discovers his adversaries wield equally powerful armaments.

The question is – where did these come from? Has the Commonwealth's top-secret defense project been compromised, or is the truth even worse than we can imagine?

The Commonwealth Saga duology starts with Pandora's Star.

©2005 Peter F Hamilton (P)2008 Tantor Media Inc

Critic reviews

'If Pandora’s Star represented a return to form, Judas Unchained is even better' - Guardian

fantastic story

other than a missing part, this book was great and the narrator also does voices to distinguish characters. Superb experience!

Good book, terrible editing

Great story and a great performance butchered by the editors. The audiobook skips entire chapters, and it is impossibly to tell when the viewpoints change because of the lack of pauses. Audio levels are also all over the place. Skip this and read it yourself instead, the story is worth it.

Great read

If you could sum up Judas Unchained in three words, what would they be?

Enthralling, gripping, brilliant

What was one of the most memorable moments of Judas Unchained?

all of it

Which character – as performed by John Lee – was your favorite?

All the characters are portrayed brilliantly

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Bought more

Any additional comments?

This was my first science fiction read, Pandora's Star being Part 1 of the story. Well written story line, paced nicely, all the elements, plots and sub-plots along with the characters brought together perfectly. I would highly recommend this book, and have just bought another, The Void Triology. Really great from start to finish.

The reading by John Lee is utterly brilliant, as usual. I lost count of the different characters, and John Lee gave each one a different distinguishable character and accent. Without being told which character was speaking, you knew.

After many books read by him, I am still in awe of his talent.

Overall great novel

Volume change kinda annoying at times, but overall great story and great narration. Worth every penny/credit

Fantastic story - terrible audio production

Somebody really screwed the pooch on the audio production here. Sound level uneven throughout many passages. No pauses between sub-chapters where POV changes.

I love this book, it’s my third reading of it, but whoever produced this audio, should be taken out back, and whooped thoroughly with a two by four.

Otherwise, the voice actor is terrific - he should be beyond mad at the producers, who destroyed his performance.

Lengthy & detailed - worth it

Where does Judas Unchained rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Quite highly

What did you like best about this story?

It managed the maintain a high degree of tension and suspense as the story unfolded, and managed a sci-fi setting that was interesting and consistent and not absurd.

Which scene was your favorite?

Towards the end there is an entertaining scene where the majority of the cast come together, with amusing dialogue

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I I doubt I would

Any additional comments?

this book and it's first instalment both suffer at times from being over long and heavily detailed. some descriptions seem necessary. The counter point to this is that by the end of the two books you have a very good picture of the characters and events involved that adds to the experience.

Amazing scale and scope

These stories are written in an incredible and enormous imagined universe

The only issue is a slightly mortifying thread of middle-aged phantasies involving “harems” and “sassy” young women with an interest in older men

Massive

Epic sciens fiction at it's best, the best and biggest book I have read.

Good but fluffy

The story and ideas are great, the character dialogues succinct and engaging but Hamilton spends too much time on exposition, describing stuff with too many adjectives. I can't remember the number of times I read "enzyme bonded concrete", I mean common, that is one too obvious strategy to fluff the page count. Still I would't recommend against getting the book because of it. Just know it if your focus start to were of track.

Satisfying end of this 2-part saga

Judas Unchained continues where Pandora's Star left off. It follows the story through to the end, with a neat, not-very-rollercoaster-yet-satisfying-nonetheless climax and ending. All the characters you loved (and loved to hate) from the first novel are there, and every single one of the storylines is solved. Which is how it's supposed to be, especially after two of those immensely long novels. No annoying cliffhangers or unresolved plot points.

The narrator is still fantastic, and the breaks between sentences and chapters are still confusingly absent - as they were with Pandora's Star. If you liked that first part, you will like this sequel as well. The quality is the same and the stories are truly two halves of one saga.

Not a five-star novel for me (too long and detailed for that, which slowed it down) but I liked it enough to have bought the second saga as well (a trilogy in the same universe, but far into the future), starting with The Dreaming Void.

Recommend.