Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Pandora's Star

  • Commonwealth Saga, Book 1
  • By: Peter F. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 37 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2,439 ratings)

$0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pandora's Star cover art

Pandora's Star

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
activate_primeday_promo_in_buybox_DT

Listeners also enjoyed...

Hyperion cover art
Revelation Space cover art
Children of Time cover art
Dune cover art
Bridging Infinity cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
Time's Eye cover art
New Spring cover art
Pushing Ice cover art
Sleeping Gods Boxed Set cover art
Elantris (1 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation] cover art
Veiled Alliances cover art
Reamde cover art

Summary

Pandora's Star is the first part of Peter F. Hamilton's epic Commonwealth Saga duology a fantastic galaxy-spanning novel from the master of space opera. For fans of Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds.

At the edge of the galaxy something awakens and it's coming for us . . .

Earth AD 2329: Humanity has colonized over four hundred planets, all interlinked by wormholes. For the first time in mankind's history there is peace. Then a star over a thousand light years away suddenly vanishes, imprisoned inside a force field of immense size. Yet who or what has that sort of technology? And what could this mean for us? Only a faster-than-light starship, captained by ex-NASA astronaut Wilson Kime, can reach that distance to investigate.

For Wilson, getting inside the force field could be easy. It may be harder to stop something else from getting out.

What if there was a very good reason to seal off an entire star system?

The Commonwealth Saga duology concludes with Judas Unchained.

©2004 Peter F Hamilton (P)2008 Tantor Media Inc

Critic reviews

The best book Hamilton has written in years (Guardian)
Anyone who begins this won’t be able to put it down (Publishers Weekly)
Compelling (SFX)

What listeners say about Pandora's Star

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,650
  • 4 Stars
    543
  • 3 Stars
    143
  • 2 Stars
    63
  • 1 Stars
    40
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,312
  • 4 Stars
    433
  • 3 Stars
    123
  • 2 Stars
    52
  • 1 Stars
    29
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,394
  • 4 Stars
    363
  • 3 Stars
    121
  • 2 Stars
    44
  • 1 Stars
    26

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A book as deep as the universe it's self!

This book is awesome!

However it is deep and complex, from the interpersonal relations shops of the mass of main characters, to the science under pinning the future tech in the series!

This book will need your focus, but I believe it's worth it.

Looking forward to the next book to find out what happens next!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Audio book well narrated!

Very good book, well narrated. Can't wait to get stuck into the second one. A good Scifi replacement now that I've finished all the Iain M Banks books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My First Foray Into Commonwealth Space

Just marvellous. Entirely epic in breadth and scale, as all truly timeless sci-fi should be. A great performance, as ever, that admirably brings 100 characters to life. Can't recommend this book highly enough. A bargain for a single credit that true sci-fi fans won't regret :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A little more production needed

Good story. Just needs a bit of a pause in between story breaks. A few times I was confused before I realised the story had changed to a different character. Apart from that a great listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very good

thus was a very good listen and I'm looking forward to listening to the next part.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sometimes its best to ignore reviews!!

I read this book when it first came out, loved it.
then thought what would it be like with someone telling the story.
I actually think that John Lee did an excellent job.
Fantastic story and well narrated, will be listening to it again in the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Cool story bro! Got another?

Really cool story with great drscriptions of the aliens. Technology is believable and the interpersonal interactions are realistic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing & imaginative sci-fi

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, or rather multiple strands of stories. After completing the significant length, I immediately ordered the sequential 40h title! My only criticism is the minimal transition time between sub-chapters, which lead to mild confusion until you realize that's what's just happened! Otherwise an excellent performance all around.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic storu

Great story and very well described, only negative is that there seems to be a too short a gap between sections in a chapter. Feels rushed at times and a little unnatural

That said, definitely recommend the audiobook and the paperback/hardback itself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The world building is top tier

The narrator is very bad at making distinct voices and accents between 2 conversing characters. This makes it hard to follow the conversations a lot of the time. There are some characters where it is very easy like osha the SI or Paula. But many others sound identical.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful