Pandora's Star cast -- spoilers of sorts

[il...@rcn.com]

"Pandora's Star" is a thousand-page brick of a book with so many
subplots you feel like you are reading a collection of unrelated
stories set in the same universe -- although they all come together at
the end. This book really should be read at least twice -- the first
time many little details and clues will go over your head. Some slight
detail may have significance 200 pages later, by which time most
readers will have forgotten it. And IMO "Pandora's Star" could really
benefit from a list of characters so many sprawling SF epics are fond
of nowadays. So here is the list of every named character in the book,
in order of appearance. I put a + in front of key "point of view"
characters, and a * in front of seemingly insignificant characters who
only appear on 1-2 pages and do little. I say "seemingly" because
second book is coming (actually, already came out in Britain), and some
of these "insignificant" characters may yet play a role. For example,
Tiger Pansy would definitely deserve a *, except I found out she
appears in the second book. Page numbers refer to the paperback
edition:

+Wilson Kime, p.1 - astronaut on first Mars mission, later starship
captain
+Nigel Sheldon, p.9 - co-inventor of wormhole technology, co-owner of
CST (Compression Space Transport)
+Dudley Bose, p.11 - astronomer, discoverer of Dyson Alpha's secret
LionWalker Eyre, p.24 - amateur astronomer, co-discoverer of Dyson
Alpha's secret
+Adam Elvin, p.32 - terrorist and undercover agent extraordinaire
*Nigel Murphy, p.36 - socialist and wannabe revolutionary
Sabbah, p.36 - petty criminal and wannabe revolutionary
+Paula Myo, p.41 - Chief Investigator of Intersolar Serious Crimes
Directorate
Rachael Lancier, p.45 - underground arms dealer
Don Mares, p.47 - senior detective on planet Velaines
Maggie Lindsey, p.47 - senior detective on planet Velaines
Tarlo, p.48 - investigator of Serious Crimes Directorate
Renne Kempasa, p.48 - investigator of Serious Crimes Directorate
*Simon Kavanagh, p.58 - Rachael Lancier's bodyguard
Daniel Alster, p.71 - Nigel Sheldon's chief executive aide
Rafael Columbia, p.71 - director of Intersolar Serious Crimes
Directorate
Elaine Doi, p.72 - Commonwealth vice-president, later president
Thompson Burnelli, p.72 - Commonwealth senator
Crispin Goldreich, p.74 - Commonwealth senator
Brewster Kumar, p.74 - president's science advisor
Gabrielle Else, p.74 - director of Commonwealth industry and trade
commission
*Lee Ki, p.74 - Commonwealth senator
*Eugene Cinzoul, p.74 - chief attorney of Commonwealth law commission
+Ozzie Fernandez Isaac, p.74 - co-inventor of wormhole technology,
co-owner of CST
SI, p.76 - Sentient Intelligence, a gigantic self-aware computer
network
Tara Jennifer Shaheef, p.84 - idle rich wife
Wyobie Cotal, p.87 - Tara Shaheef's lover
+Justine Burnelli, p.89 - Thompson Burnelli's sister, power broker,
later Commonwealth senator
Estella Fenton, p.90 - Justine Burnelli's best friend
+Kazimir McFoster, p.113 - member of Guardians of Selfhood terrorist
organization, Justine Burnelli's lover
*Emily, p.128 - Wilson Kime's great-great-great-great-granddaughter
*Victor, p.128 - Wilson Kime's great-something-nephew
Mel Rees, p.148 - deputy director of Serious Crimes Directorate,
Paula Myo's boss
Hoshe Finn, p.150 - detective on planet Oaktier
+Mark Vernon, p.159 - engineer on planet Augusta, later garage owner
on Elan
Liz, p.163 - Mark Vernon's much older wife
*Marty Vernon, p.164 - Mark Vernon's just-rejuvenated father
Barry, p.164 - Mark Vernon's son
*Amanda, p.165 - Marty Vernon's also just-rejuvenated girlfriend
*Kyle, p.166 - Mark Vernon's brother
*Antonio, p.166 - Kyle's boyfriend
*Joanne, p.166 - Liz's grand-niece
Carys Panther, p.166 - Marty Vernon's sister and writer of VR
dramas
April Gallar Halgarth, p.178 - college student, trust fund airhead
*Marianna, *Anjelia, *Laura, p.178 - April Halgarth's classmates
Oscar Monroe, p.184 - director of CST Exploratory Division, later
starship executive officer
McClain Gilbert, p.193 - crew chief of CST Exploratory Division,
later starship excursion chief
Wendy Bose, p.210 - Dudley Bose's wife, publicity hound
Bradley Johansson, p.211 - head of Guardians of Selfhood, Adam
Elvin's employer
*Brampton, p.215 - constable on planet Gralmond
*Moonshimmer, p.232 - little girl on Silvergalde (artificial planet
of alien Silfen)
Orion, p.235 - orphan boy on Silvergalde, later Ozzie Isaac's
travel companion
*Matthew deSavoel, p.265 - Tara Shaheef's husband
Morton, p.276 - businessman, playboy, Tara Shaheef's ex-husband
+Mellanie Rescorai, p.280 - Morton's girlfriend, later reporter and
agent of SI
High Angel, p.290 - sentient alien starship
*Soolina Depfor, p.293 - Toniea Gall's assistant
Toniea Gall, p.294 - chairwoman on High Angel residents'
association
Qatux, p.305 - alien Raiel, in a mutual arrangement with Paula Myo
Rob Tannie, p.309 - mercenary employed by Guardians of Selfhood
*Joanne Bilheimer, p.313 - CST chief of operations
Anna Hober, p.317 - starship navigator, Wilson Kime's lover
*Lennie Al Husan, p.318 - reporter from Kabul
Alessandra Baron, p.326 - news anchor
Sara Bush, p.363 - spokeswoman for humans at Silfen Ice Citadel
Bill, p.363 - alien Korrok-hi
Bruce McFoster, p.378 - Guardian of Selfhood, Kazimir McFoster's
best friend
Harvey McFoster, p.383 - Guardian of Selfhood, Kazimir and Bruce's
teacher
Scott McFoster, p.397 - Guardian of Selfhood
*Elene Castle, p.398 - deputy manager of a rejuvenation clinic
Truten, p.399 - law professor, Wendy Bose's lover, later her
husband
*Iusha, p.407 - alien Korrok-hi
Gilda Princess Marden, p.411 - first speaker of planet Anshun
Tu Lee, p.413 - starship hyperspace officer, Nigel Sheldon's
great-great-great-granddaughter
Jean Douvoir, p.419 - starship pilot, later starship captain
*Samantha McFoster, p.427 - Guardian of Selfhood, Bruce McFoster's
girlfriend
*Lennox McFoster, p.427 - Bruce and Samantha's son
Stig McSobel, p.428 - Guardian of Selfhood undercover agent
Ivor Chessel, p.433 - prosecutor on planet Oaktier
Carmichael, p.434 - judge on planet Oaktier
Howard Madoc, p.434 - defense lawyer on planet Oaktier
Tunde Sutton, p.447 - astrophysicist
Bruno Seymore, p.447 - starship science officer
Russell Sall, p.447 - starship science officer
Sandy Lanier, p.477 - starship sensor officer
Antonia, p.479 - starship hyperspace engine officer
Emmanuelle Verbeke, p.494 - starship excursion team member
Francis Rawlins, p.495 - starship excursion team chief
Rishon, p.514 - reporter on planet Oaktier
Tiger Pansy, p.515 - porn actress
Jaycee, p.517 - porn producer
*Joseph, p.517 - porn actor
Mandy, p.525 - waitress on planet Elan
*Julie, p.525 - waitress on planet Elan
*Olivia, p.531 - Mark Vernon's sales assistant
Simon Rand, p.533 - environmental crusader on Elan
Sandy, p.542 - Mark and Liz Vernon'd daughter
George Parkin, p.565 - foreman of Ice Citadel
Tochee, p.569 - alien, no species name, Ozzie and Orion's companion
Gore Burnelli, p.576 - patriarch of Burnelli financial empire,
Thompson and Justine's father
Campbell Sheldon, p.578 - CST director of advanced projects, Nigel
Sheldon's great-great-grandson
Patricia Kantil, p.580 - Elaine Doi's political advisor
Isabells Helena Halgarth, p.581 - trust fund airhead, Patricia
Kantil's girlfriend
Gerhard Utreth, p.582 - ex-Commonwealth senator
Larry Frederick Halgarth, p.582 - financier
Natasha Kersley, p.582 - director of Commonwealth exotic weapons
research
Ramon DB, p.583 - Justine Burnelli's ex-husband, Commonwealth
senator
Valtare Rigin, p.689 - underground arms dealer
*Roberto, p.689 - Valtare Rigin's bodyguard
*Kareem, p.755 - software hacker
Dimitri Leopoldovich, p.760 - military tactical analyst
*Napo Langsal, p. 773 - tour boat operator
Yuri and Olga Conant, p.780 - Mark Vernon's neighbors
Kieran McSobel, p.793 - Guardian of Selfhood
Marisa McFoster, p.793 - Guardian of Selfhood
Bjou and Jenny, p.797 - Guardians of Selfhood
Alic Hogan, p.818 - Lieutenant in Intersolar Serious Crimes
Directorate
Leonard Denken, p.836 - "freethinker," genetically engineered
philosopher
Matilda, p.837 - Leonard Denken's girlfriend
Murielle Burnelli, p. 847 - trust fund airhead
Starral Konstantin, p.849 - Murielle's fiancé
Bicklu, p.868 - Commonwealth vice-president
Laroch, p.897 - starship pilot
Lindsay Sanson, p.899 - starship hyperspace engine officer
Alan Hutchinson, p.902 - founder of planet Wessex
*Bunny, p.921 - news analyst, Alessandra Baron's assistant
*Ainge, p.922 - military tactical analyst
*Don Lantra, p.952 - starship sensor officer

[Esa Perkio]

il...@rcn.com wrote:
: "Pandora's Star" is a thousand-page brick of a book with so many

: subplots you feel like you are reading a collection of unrelated
: stories set in the same universe -- although they all come together at
: the end. This book really should be read at least twice --

Personally I found I should not have read it even once. I really liked
Night's Dawn. I found Misspent Youth mostly enjoyable. Fallen Dragon was
rather nice.

Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained however.. Well. Strangely enough the
best thing I can say about them is that I refrained from throwing either
away in disgust and read them to the end. Hamilton writes well, but along
the two books there were numerous occasions where it seemed he was writing
to a specific segment of the US market and being rather obvious about it.

Some examples of my problems with the books, not too spoilerish:

- Current US culture is a common point of reference 200 years in the
future.

- The entire Commonwealth is (mostly positively) portrayed as a plutocracy
amazingly successfully keeping up the appearance of democracy. All the
billions of humanity form a monoculture heavily influenced by a Big
Benevolent Company, aside from a very few, poor, miserable exceptions.

- Beating neurowired hardened criminal prisoners is a source of usable
information.

- "He was experienced enough to know that a conservative was just a
liberal who'd been mugged."

- Hamilton telegraphs coming events way, way ahead. For example, there was
a planet on which it was immediately obvious that these people were
really, really going to get it.

The worldbuilding I liked in Night's Dawn just wasn't there. The society
was not credible: I was simply unable to believe the Commonwealth could
possibly be the way it was with the technology it had.

Having commended Hamilton about his writing, I'd like to state that,
nevertheless, Judas Unchained suffers heavily from bloat: the book loses
momentum about halfway in and never really regains it.

Oh, one more thing, very much of a spoiler:

SPOILER SPACE

SOME MORE SPOILER SPACE

STILL MORE SPOILER SPACE

Am I the only person who started to have a queasy feeling that the
discussion of novabombing MorlingLightMountain was actually about nuking
Iran?

Consider: The ruthless people on top of the Dynasties are faced with a
completely hostile alien creature utterly _unable_ to even consider
negotiation. They know this. They also know that any technological edge
they may have is going to be transient and that, without it, all of
humanity will be ashes. Yet they entertain frequent comparisons to the
enemy as a group of religious fanatics and seem to suffer incomprehensible
angst and moral qualms about the matter, for pages and pages and pages.

Made me wonder what was it that we were really considering.

--
Esa Perkiö

[Keith Soltys]

On 16 Feb 2006 18:50:28 -0800, il...@rcn.com wrote:

>"Pandora's Star" is a thousand-page brick of a book with so many
>subplots you feel like you are reading a collection of unrelated
>stories set in the same universe -- although they all come together at
>the end. This book really should be read at least twice -- the first
>time many little details and clues will go over your head. Some slight
>detail may have significance 200 pages later, by which time most
>readers will have forgotten it. And IMO "Pandora's Star" could really
>benefit from a list of characters so many sprawling SF epics are fond
>of nowadays. So here is the list of every named character in the book,
>in order of appearance. I put a + in front of key "point of view"
>characters, and a * in front of seemingly insignificant characters who
>only appear on 1-2 pages and do little. I say "seemingly" because
>second book is coming (actually, already came out in Britain), and some
>of these "insignificant" characters may yet play a role. For example,
>Tiger Pansy would definitely deserve a *, except I found out she
>appears in the second book. Page numbers refer to the paperback
>edition:
>

<snip />

Thanks. I wish I'd had this when I read the book (and I did read it twice, the
second time, just before I read Judas Unchained).

Judas Unchained, BTW, does include a cast of characters at the beginning of
the book.

Keith

[Keith Soltys]

I think the idea was that rejuvenation and longer lives lead to a more
conservative stable society, along the frontier effect, where people who
needed more adventure in their lives would head off to new planets.

>
>Having commended Hamilton about his writing, I'd like to state that,
>nevertheless, Judas Unchained suffers heavily from bloat: the book loses
>momentum about halfway in and never really regains it.
>
>

Yes, this is true. I think both books would have benefitted from some
judicious cutting - the whole thing could have been cut down by about 25
pecent and would have been a much tighter, more exciting read.

Keith

[Peter D. Tillman]

In article <juhbv11hmdefmt3vc...@4ax.com>,
Keith Soltys <ksoltys@-NOSPAM-rogers.com> wrote:

[re Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained}

>
> Yes, this is true. I think both books would have benefitted from some
> judicious cutting - the whole thing could have been cut down by about 25
> pecent and would have been a much tighter, more exciting read.

Well, you could say this about just about any Peter Hamilton novel --
but his prolixity is part of the fun (well, up to a point <g>). and
clearly it isn't going away....

Note that I haven't yet read JUDAS, but enjoyed PANDORA, despite it
being long, windy, and full of logic holes. So basically I agree with
Keith, but don't expect it to happen.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

[il...@rcn.com]

> I think the idea was that rejuvenation and longer lives lead to a more
> conservative stable society, along the frontier effect, where people who
> needed more adventure in their lives would head off to new planets.

I found the society as depicted entirely plausible -- in part because
longer lives would make people more conservative in general, but mostly
for another reason. At any human skill you care to name, some people
are bad, some are good, and very very few are EXTREMELY good.
Accumulating money and/or influence (two often go together, but not
always) is a skill, and some few are exceptionally good at it. They are
the people who build industrial and financial empires, but eventually
they die, and their successors, however well trained for the job are
not always as good at it. But if these extremely skilled people DO NOT
die, and go on for centuries accumulating money and influence, AND
getting even better at it with experience, AND training their children,
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. to be their most effective
assistants possible, -- then you really will end up with more pervasive
and effective plutocracy than any that existed before. Gore Burnelli is
a financial genius with four hundred years of experience, and with
thousands of descendants (many of them centuries old themselves)
dedicated to running his empire, each trained to utilize his or her
abilities to the maximum. No wonder Burnellis, Sheldons, Halgarths, and
similar families run the world.

[William December Starr]

In article <dt465k$n79$1...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>,
Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> said:

> Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained however.. Well. Strangely
> enough the best thing I can say about them is that I refrained
> from throwing either away in disgust

Wouldn't you have had to build a launcher first?

--
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>

[William December Starr]

In article <dt465k$n79$1...@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>,
Esa Perkio <epe...@cc.helsinki.fi> said:

> - Hamilton telegraphs coming events way, way ahead. For example,
> there was a planet on which it was immediately obvious that these
> people were really, really going to get it.

"Welcome, traveler, to beautiful Targetia, the only known planet
where the two major land masses join to form a giant X!"

[Steve Brooks]

Esa Perkio wrote:

<snip>

> Oh, one more thing, very much of a spoiler:
>
>
> SPOILER SPACE
>
>
>
>
>
>
> SOME MORE SPOILER SPACE
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> STILL MORE SPOILER SPACE
>
>
>
>
>
> Am I the only person who started to have a queasy feeling that the
> discussion of novabombing MorlingLightMountain was actually about
> nuking Iran?

I'd have thought the book was written before that particular case was such
an urgent question. It applies to any conflict where one side has a "killer
punch" weapon.

--

SB

[Steve Brooks]

So does my paperback edition of PS. I guess they recognised the necessity
after the first edition.

--

SB

[David T. Bilek]

The hardcover edition of _PS_ also has a cast of characters. I'm
confused... which edition doesn't?

-David

[il...@rcn.com]

2005 US paperback edition does not. Neither does the one currently in
stores.

[Mike Dworetsky]

<il...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:1140220542.5...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

> 2005 US paperback edition does not. Neither does the one currently in
> stores.
>

Ah. The UK editions of both books contained "cast of characters" listings
at the front. Not wishing to permanently endanger my floors with extreme
weights on my shelves, I borrowed these from the library and returned them.

Why an American edition would omit these essentials is completely beyond my
imaginings. I found myself frequently referring to them, especially when
reading _Judas_, as some characters were not what they at first seemed to
be.

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove "pants" spamblock to send e-mail)

[Chuk Goodin]

On 16 Feb 2006 18:50:28 -0800, il...@rcn.com wrote:

>readers will have forgotten it. And IMO "Pandora's Star" could really
>benefit from a list of characters so many sprawling SF epics are fond
>of nowadays. So here is the list of every named character in the book,
>in order of appearance. I put a + in front of key "point of view"
>characters, and a * in front of seemingly insignificant characters who
>only appear on 1-2 pages and do little.

[list snipped]

Thanks, that looks like a lot of work.

--
chuk

[il...@rcn.com]

It only took me a few hours. Once you read a book twice, you more or
less know where the characters first appear.