• Judas Unchained

  • By: Peter F. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 40 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (7,473 ratings)

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Judas Unchained  By  cover art

Judas Unchained

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: John Lee
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Publisher's summary

Peter F. Hamilton's superbly imagined, cunningly plotted interstellar adventures are conceived on a staggeringly epic scale and filled with fully realized human and alien characters as complex as they are engaging. No mere world builder, Hamilton creates entire universes - and he does so with irresistible flair and intelligence.

His previous novel, the acclaimed Pandora's Star, introduced the Intersolar Commonwealth, a star-spanning civilization of the 24th century. Robust, peaceful, and confident, the Commonwealth dispatched a ship to investigate the mystery of a disappearing star, only to inadvertently unleash a predatory alien species that turned on its liberators, striking hard, fast, and utterly without mercy.

Coexistence is impossible with the technologically advanced aliens, who are genetically hardwired to exterminate all other forms of life. Twenty-three planets have already fallen to the invaders, with casualties in the hundreds of millions. And no one knows when or where the genocidal Prime will strike next.

Nor are the Prime the only threat. For more than 100 years, a shadowy cult, the Guardians of Selfhood, has warned that an alien with mind-control abilities impossible to detect or resist - the Starflyer - has secretly infiltrated the Commonwealth. Branded as terrorists, the Guardians and their leader, Bradley Johansson, have been hunted by relentless investigator Paula Myo. But now evidence suggests that the Guardians were right all along and that the Starflyer has placed agents in vital posts throughout the Commonwealth - agents who are now sabotaging the war effort. Is the Starflyer an ally of the Prime, or has it orchestrated a fight to the death between the two species for its own advantage?

Caught between two deadly enemies, one a brutal invader striking from without, the other a remorseless cancer killing from within, the fractious Commonwealth must unite as never before. This will be humanity's finest hour - or its last gasp.

©2006 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"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 Market Forces)
"Richly satisfying.... In more ways than one, this...work is monumental." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Judas Unchained

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,671
  • 4 Stars
    2,014
  • 3 Stars
    548
  • 2 Stars
    140
  • 1 Stars
    100
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,808
  • 4 Stars
    1,453
  • 3 Stars
    462
  • 2 Stars
    121
  • 1 Stars
    88
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,900
  • 4 Stars
    1,497
  • 3 Stars
    390
  • 2 Stars
    92
  • 1 Stars
    70

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptionally great book

This is essentially the second half of a single book - the first half is Pandora's Star. Judas Unchained begins where Pandora's Star left off, in the middle of a very exciting battle for survival. The writing is very descriptive, the action constant and intense. The author has a wonderful and consistent vision of other alien cultures, including philosophy, anatomy, and so on. There are enough threads of today's society that the descriptions of human culture in the future are quite believable and consistent. The narration adds to the quality, and is superb. You'll want to read Pandora's Star first, and download this one before you finish, so that you can go on listening to the end. The ending, of course, is quite satisfying.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Hard to follow

I didn't realize when I purhased this book that there was a prequil. I want to like this story but it has been hard to follow. This story takes up where the previous book, Pandora's Box, left off. Since I didn't read the first book I am having a hard time keeping characters straight, and the story line. I am lost much of the time because the story bounces around between groups of characters. I am about 10 hours into the 44, Im going to stop and wait for Pandora's box to become available so I can enjoy this book more fully.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Whew! What a ride!

I really liked Pandora's Box, and had high hopes for Judas Unchained - even though I'm wary of sequels. The end of Pandora's box leaves you hanging and I couldn't help myself. I was not disappointed. Broad in scope, varied in character, suspenseful, philosphical, humorous, riveting - I seldon rave about modern science fiction. I must say that after 80+ hours of listening, it felt like it was time for this tale to wrap up - but that was OK. The ending was quite good and appropriate to the characters and story. And what characters they were - intriguing, surprising, funny, scary, and more. Even though some of the physics was a stretch, Hamilton has the knack of getting you to suspend doubt and - after a while - you start to see how inspired some of it actually is! E.g., just tonight I read about a Washington university prof testing contact lenses that could quite likely receive microwatts of energy from an iphone transmitter and give you an output display on your eyeballs ... and the other day I saw something about wiring your body with circuits under the skin, not unlike the tattoos in this tale. Also, the aliens were varied, highly believable some terrifying and some quite likable - espcially Tow-Chee (spelling?). Often you come out of a really tense scene on the edge of your seat and are led into something totally different where a character likeTow-Chee makes you laugh out loud! And, John Lee's narration is FANTASTIC. It boggles my mind to go through 80+ hours and still find myself in awe of his story-telling skills and voices. I haven't had this much sheer fund since Snow Crash! I think you'll really like these two volumes.

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23 people found this helpful

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

Brilliant sequel

Any additional comments?

If you made it through Pandora's Star, you will definitely need to keep going with Judas Unchained. If they had tacked Chapter 1 of Judas Unchained onto the end of Pandora's Star, you wouldn't tell the difference. And in Judas Unchained, you get all the benefits of Pandora's Star without the confusing three hundred pages of introduction.

Judas Unchained continues the story of the Commonwealth as they battle against aliens both in and outside of their civilization. It basically felt like this entire book is one humongous climax as things start falling into place, you start discovering the enemies, and things come to a focal point. Things get exciting because no one is safe. Fear of killing of main characters? Nah... not this guy. There's enough of them to keep things going. So, when someone is in danger, you start to get nervous for them.

This was the end of a very interesting two part book and I would recommend it for anyone who has the time to listen. But, even at a total of 80 hours for both books, I would say it is worth it.

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22 people found this helpful

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

Long, Long, Long, and X-rated!

This story is way too long. It must be read with Pandora's Box as a prequel. The graphic sex could have been left out or reduced. The language is awful. Very hard to follow which is too bad.

It winds 3 (maybe 4) stories togethers which all come together at the end. That is masterful. That is why I gave it a rating of ★★ rather than ★! This book is too long, too confusing and unnecessarily vulgar. I will skip books by Peter Hamilton in the future. John Lee I thought did a good job with the screwy material.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Why did Audible release these in reverse order

I too began Judas Unchained and had a hard time getting into the book. Now that I am almost 30 hours into the book, I find that audible has now released "Pandora's Star" which is the second book in this series and the story in Judas Unchained continues the story from Pandora's Star. I guess Audible will probably wait a couple of months and then release "Misspent Youth" which is the first book in the series. I sure wish they had released them in the correct order. They have lost a sale because it is too late for me to go back now. I don't usually read sci-fi but the book itself, once you get the various charachters straight, is enjoyable and John Lee does his usual great job. The 3 stars could go to 4 depending on how he resolves the issues by the end of the book.

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21 people found this helpful

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

Bad narration !! no pauses and change in volume

Narrator keeps on switching scenes without a pause, really annoying when you find out last few lines were from different scene.
narrator keeps on changing the volume level sometimes so high that i had to lower the volume of my headsets and other times making it so low that i was forced to increase volume.
Story is not bad from top but useless explanations and details of non-relevant things and people were excruciatingly bad.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Wish it weren't so long winded.

Again. It's very very long and, while the story is sometimes engaging, I spent most of the book wishing that Hamilton would stop describing the color of the sky and the haze and the number of buttons on a uniform and just GET ON WITH THE STORY!

Anytime there's an opportunity to go off on a tangent, he does. Sometimes these weave back into the story, but more often than not they are just detailed descriptions of the repercussions of a specific event. (i.e. a nuke going off is followed by 20 minutes of description of the fires and melting rock and smoke and gases and etc that were caused by the nuke).

This 2nd book in the series is *much* longer-winded than the first - and there is less about the Primes and more about the Commonwealth's politics - which made it very difficult to wade through the hours of descriptions. Even the "end battle" between the Guardians and the Starflyer was more political than action-y and had about an hour of "wow they have great armor".

It's a darn good thing that I really really really wanted to know how the story turned out! (And it is all wrapped up in the end, don't worry.)

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Book = good - Narration = meh...

I've been a Audible member since 2006 and the narrator John Lee is the worst I've ever heard. I will never purchase an audio book narrated by this man again. One of his worst offenses is not even a breath of space between chapters and sections.

The story is good, albeit long. I'll listen to other books by Peter Hamilton only if he fired John Lee.

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18 people found this helpful

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

Different narrator would have made this infinitely better!

The narration was very poor...all female characters sounded breathy and seductive, even the tuff as nails detective (she just sounded pissed off and seductive). Most of the male characters had English/Scottish accents which made all those characters sound the same , to include the California surfer character who just sounded like the same Brit saying dude every other word....too many of the other american accents were of the Harvard jaw clencher variety...variances from whisper quiet to normal tones were equally irritating having to constantly adjust the volume on whatever listening device being used. The story and writing were also mediocre with very little character/plot/story line development. Some of the verbiage was so redundant it became comical...Dreaming heavens, I have learned my lesson and will never purchase another book from author or narrator. If u want a story to allow u to really climb into another world; feeling compelled by excellent characters, and a story that defines the environment and existence of those characters, this book is not for u! It's more comparable to a Danielle Steele novel, with aliens.

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17 people found this helpful