4/5 Pandora's Star is like the The Fellowship of the Ring movie. It starts off really slow, introducing both characters and world, has a strong build up and really strong mid-story-climax. And then it just ends. This book is basically just the first part of the whole story and it certainly feels that way. It was split into two to make the huge story more accessible to mortals and makes it so you don’t feel like performing a biceps workout every time you physically lift it. Hamilton’s worldbuilding in this book usually works like this: The pov character starts at some place (A) at the beginning of the chapter and travels to place (B), which fills about a third of the whole chapter. Place (B) is where most of the truly relevant story-stuff starts happening, which means the whole getting-there part is just descriptions of surroundings and of how shit works in this futuristic world. This felt like a drag, especially at the beginning when you are waiting for the story to start rolling. The first time I tried reading this, I put it back down again because of this slow start. I am glad to say though, that after the rough start, stuff really starts getting spicy. When the story started rolling about 300 pages in, I was completely hooked. It’s interesting, engaging and knows how to set up the really hard hitting stuff. I liked every part of it. The mystery about a star that suddenly just vanishes, the whole detective plot and the political maneuvering, it all was excellent and I can't wait to see how Hamilton weaves it all together.