The Sword and Laser discussion

Hi,

I found the world building and style of Pandora's star very reminiscent of several authors I have read over the years.

The Prologue introduces us to Nigel and Ossie who could have walked out of the pages of one of E.E. "Doc" Smith's books (The Skylark of Space being the obvious candidate). This is especially true when Nigel (view spoiler)[starts building super space weapons on a whim, making starts go Nova is a very Smithian super weapon, see Skylark DuQuesne (hide spoiler)]. Int is a shame he wasn't influenced by the brevity of Smith's books. Morning Light Mountain even resembles a Chloron in some respects.

The other great influence is of course Robert A. Heinlein in multiple places from the space armour and the oversexed female protagonists (Melanie). This influence leads to a lot of the ice factor in the book. Dirty old men with stables of young attractive wives.

The big dumb objects could have come straight out of Niven's Ringworld or Clarks's Rendezvous with Rama. The more recent influences were of course Iain M. Banks the Culture.

The historical influence of the book is the American gilded age. The use of a new technology, the railroads, to expand into the west to generate obscene fortunes for several families is so glaringly obvious that the influence is not really concealed.

I am interested in any other influence or parallels that stand out to other readers.

I assume you mean “ick factor”? This was what caused me to Lem the book (that and the fact that the pacing is super slow, as discussed elsewhere).

I did like the idea of space trains though, and the Gilded Age in Space vibes.

Ruth wrote: "
I did like the idea of space trains though, and t..."

If you like trains in SPAACE... (though not Gilded Age), Night Train to Rigel is the first in a series of 4 novels (standalone but with an overall arc) and it pretty fun. OK it's hyperspace, but still...

Rick wrote: "Ruth wrote: "
I did like the idea of space trains though, and t..."

If you like trains in SPAACE... (though not Gilded Age), Night Train to Rigel is the first in a series of 4 novels..."

Looks like a fun series of books, thanks!

Not an influence as such, but Scavenger Alliance by Janet Edwards has a similar set up with the invention of interstellar portals - however this leads to a very different outcome for society.

Much better characters including a strong female lead.

This would be a good question for Peter F. Hamilton himself. Youtuber Media Death Cult is going to his house soon. These days I see some kind of epic fantasy influence with the length, level of description, and the amount of characters, a la Tolkien, Jordan, etc. I don't think he's a scientist, so the tech stuff comes from some really conscientious research. I think that his characters have a bit more heart than Reynolds or Banks. I like that he doesn't shy away from the sex like most other scifi authors, but some people don't like it. In some of the pyrotechnics, there's probably movie influences as well.

I was trying to assess how much of the world building was classic fantasy tropes dresses up in science fiction clothing - I mean the Silfen are obviously elves, in behavior, and there are magical portals that take you anywhere (with very little explanation of how), and of course the big bad aggressive armies …

I've just realized the Starflyer is Sauron!

The Void and Night's Dawn trilogies mix in fantasy with sf as well.