EBOOK Pandora's Star

Critics have compared the engrossing space operas of Peter F. Hamilton to the classic  sagas of such sf giants as Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. But Hamilton&'s bestselling  fictionpowered by a fearless imagination and world-class storytelling skillshas  also earned him comparison to Tolstoy and Dickens. Hugely ambitious, wildly entertaining,  philosophically stimulating: the novels of Peter F. Hamilton will change the way  you think about science fiction. Now, with Pandora&'s Star, he begins a new multivolume  adventure, one that promises to be his most mind-blowing yet.  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. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose  glory days are centuries behind him. Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of  Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity  they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage,  fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship&'s mission for its own ends. Pursued  by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous,  Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders  if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand  light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose  unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself.   Could it be that Johansson was right? From the Hardcover edition.