Was a fun read but I’m not here to ask any questions about the story itself, just curious where the titles come from because they aren’t referenced in any way in the narrative. Google search provides nothing since it isn’t the most popular series. My best guess is that Dyson Alpha was a “Pandora’s box” situation – an unknown that unleashed chaos across the universe. Judas Unchained, my best guess is a reference to the Biblical Judas as in the Starflyer agents that have infiltrated the Commonwealth?
If anyone can let me know so I can stop thinking about it lol
by marineman43
8 Comments
Someone from the Commonwealth opens the force field that imprisons the aliens, and this allows one of them to escape, and the aliens develop an FTL drive. It’s all explained towards the end of the second book. It’s rather tedious space opera, really, although I thoroughly enjoyed the books when I first read them. I still re-read Ozzie Isaacs’ adventures as he follows the Silfen paths with his friends. The titles are literary allusions to Pandora’s Box (of Greek legend) and Prometheus Unchained (I can’t recall who wrote that). Prometheus was an immortal who gave humans fire–something that he was not supposed to do. Naughty boy!
* _Prometheus Unbound_, by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Those books were decent overall, but man, the MorningLightMountain origin chapter remains one of the best descriptions of a truly alien species that I’ve ever read
There are good ideas sprinkled within Pandora’s Star but the book is obscenely long.
I’m re-reading these for about the 5th time. Welcome to the club. Now go read the rest of the Commonwealth books. So many great stories.
Fyi, the titles get weirder. Neutronium Alchemist anyone?
Well yeah, I thought that was obvious. The first book was about a shielded star system that gave rise to the question “*is it keeping something bad in or something bad out?*”
As it turns out, it was keeping something bad in and approaching it dropped the barrier. Human curiosity literally opened up Pandora’s box. Or in this case, Pandora’s star.
And the reason that happened was that there was a star flyer agent on the ship that investigated Pandora’s Star. With the original primes unleashed, the starflyer’s plans finally came to fruition. Judas was unleashed as his agents were set into motion all over the commonwealth.
If you really wanna get weird, check out Misspent Youth
If you enjoyed these books I recommend the Void trilogy! It’s set in the same universe and oh my it’s so good, am halfway through the first book and so happy there’s 2 more after this 😀
They are references to the narrative.
Pandora’s Star is the shield system that encloses the star system. As in Pandora’s box in sci-fi terms.
Judas Unchained is when the embedded enemies reveal themselves. They stop pretending and cut loose.