Judas Unchained

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: John Lee

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)

worthy finish to a great story

if you havent read Pandora's Star for some reason and are going to read this then you have to read Pandora's Star first - they arent clearly labeled as book 1 and 2 - but after the "cliff hanger" that Pandora's Star left off on this finishes the story and WOW! what a story it is

Peter F. Hamilton is one of the best writers I have ever read and I love the really long sci-fi books so this is a must read


I only wish that Audible.com had The Nights Dawn Trilogy which Peter wrote earlier, the 3 books "The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God" are great and can be found in audio format read by Robbie McNab (I could only find them on bittorrent so I will buy them from audible.com if they get them but...) they are also long the naked god being like 52 hours long

thank you Audible.com for sponsoring the twit.tv network keep up the great work

E-butler

The Commonwealth series is the best sci-fi that I've read so far. I already read the first book (Pandora's Star) last month, and I was a bit reluctant to start on Judas Unchained because you have to invest so much time on this novel, but I didn't wanted the journey through galaxy to end.

Judas Unchained is even better than Pandora's Star because the foundation of the story has been already set in the first novel, where you start daydreaming on the sequel, like rocket ships, different worlds, fighting aliens and having an E-butler.

Like a hyperactive kid being sent to the principle's office for not paying attention, all of these fantasies comes true in Judas Unchained.

If there were action figures in the Commonwealth series, I would be ripping up the packages and playing with the toys, as if I was eight years old again.

The Best Sci-Fi ever for grown ups.

Great over the top social sci-fi

This series of books is long, huge, intricate, occasionally campy, and all over really great on audio. Listening to the books in order is a must.

I don't recall a book since Dune where I actually felt an emotional connection with so many characters simultaneously.

Highly recommended.

Great book, atrociously bad production.

This book was good enough to make me endure the narration. Inconsistent volume had me constantly rewinding to figure out what was said. The narrator has an awful style of ending sentences at a fraction of the volume at which they began. He also refused to make any sort of pause between scene changes, making following the story difficult.

great story, narration needs work

this was a great story and while it was well read the sound engineer needs to go back to school. once again there were places where the narrator luffed or spiked the mic, and unlike the previous book there were several places where it appeared that they used a different narrator or patched in something that was missed without matching the voice quality.

A Great end to a series (Steve Gibson was right)

In ‘Pandora’s Star’ we learned about the ‘Commonwealth’ and how it came to be and ultimately that it isn't much different from what we would call our society today. The author picks up right where he left off in the first book following the multiple story lines. The second book reads as if it was written with the first book and intended to be released as one book. In most series you can tell where the author wrote the first book and then waited to do a second book. Here you can’t see that gap. I enjoyed the whole story line and I can say that no one online saying they've read the book as accurately put the true ending online. I won’t spoil it for you. I will say that Steve Gibson was right and the story is worth the read. At no point does the author gloss over any part of the story. Each story line is played out to it’s fullest and its end. I will say that the author could take one part of the story and spawn a whole new series the would be worth reading.

Really enjoyed but the production is subpar

The same as everyone else. The oscillation and scene changes are frustrating. This needs to be 15 words, so there.

Amazing Adventures

I have to admit, I was very skeptical with a 41 hour audio book. But Mr. Hamilton came through with a fantastic story that was lots of fun to read.

This book is so good, every time.

This book gets better every time I listen to it. As a serial re-listener, I love the complexity of Hamilton's books. You can feel free to just lose yourself in the twisty plot lines the first time through, then over another few listens, focus on the masterful ways you and the full cast of characters were deceived. Love, love this two-book set (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained) and I love the follow-up Void trilogy just as much, maybe even more. Write more books, please, Mr. Hamilton! And make sure you always have the unparalleled Mr. John Lee to narrate them! Listening to anything read by Mr. Lee is a joy.

Better than the first and that was good

Good two book story. Granted the books are 1 million hours each. lol great value when you factor that way