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The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat.

I just finished “Pandora’s Star” by Peter F. Hamilton, the first book of his Commonwealth Saga. This was another recommendation by Steve Gibson (many times) on his Security Now! podcast that I finally got around to reading. It had been over a year since I last read some good hard SF so this was a pleasant return to the genre.

In the 24th century, mankind has spread out among the stars thanks to Compression Space Transport’s (CST) wormhole network. Much like the web of the airline routes of old, CST’s train system carries millions of passengers instantly across hundreds of light years to distant planets. The average Commonwealth citizen sports a myriad of optical inserts for heads-up-displays, an e-butler, and a connection to the ubiquitous unisphere (the intersolar internet on steroids). Memories are backed up constantly on insert chips. Killed in an accident? No problem, just spend a few weeks in rejuvenation and have your memories re-loaded into a newly cloned body. Body death no longer means complete death and people live for hundreds of years with many different re-lifes.

Lowly astronomer Dudley Bose has confirmed that the envelopment of the Dyson Alpha and Dyson Beta stars occurred instantaneously.  The only explanation is an unknown, superior alien species has constructed a Dyson sphere around both star systems. The Dyson system is too far away to reach by the existing wormhole network, so the Commonwealth government decides to build a wormhole-based FTL starship to go and investigate the envelopment. Did the inhabitants of the Dyson systems enclose themselves for protection, or did someone or something else imprison them? You’ll quickly understand the title reference when the Second Chance arrives at the Dyson Pair.

“Pandora’s Star” combines the astronomical engineering feats of “Ringworld” with the strange, blockaded alien species like “The Mote in God’s Eye” and the governmental/political themes of “Foundation” into a very enjoyable SF epic. Be warned, however, it ends abruptly and leads directly into “Judas Unchained,” which I’ve already started.