They are both wonderful and I strongly recommend both of them. If your not into space opera, I still recommend Grass. It's not ranked as a Gollancz SF masterwork for nothing. Even if you're not into space opera I still urge you to try Hamilton's book. It blew my mind!

Grass, written by Sheri Tepper, is, in comparison to Pandora's Star, a short tale with 550+ pages. The story is about a family that has been assigned as ambassadors, and unofficial investigators, to the isolated planet Grass in order to investigate why this planet, where only grass grows, is the only one not affected by a severe plague that the rest of human colonized space suffers from. Grass was once settled by families of European nobility who lives on big ranches, estancias, and whose lives are focused on fox hunting (although in a slightly different way than we are used to). The planet's aristocratic families refuse scientific investigations on the planet's rumored immunity (they also refuses almost everyone to immigrate or visit the planet). What follows is a story about the ambassador family's struggle to befriend the inhabitants of Grass and the struggles and problems within the family itself. The focus of the story is the investigation of the plague immunity, which leads to unexpected truths and discoveries and understanding about the mystery of Grass and it's very weird inhabitants. The book is so full of events and mysteries that I had to force myself to put it down at night.


Pandora's Star was also a pure delight and as hard to put down at night (and gigantic with it's 1000+ pages). I felt that this book, in a way, was like Grass but x100 bigger, it's so damn huge (and not only in page numbers)! It's the first of a duology in the Commonwealth Saga (thought there are a few more books that takes place in the same universe). It starts in a very confusing way with multiple characters and stories that do not make sense when put together. But slowly they interconnect and makes sense, a little like pieces of a puzzle; first a mess with no order or obvious connections, then the more pieces that you can put together the clearer the picture gets. The story starts with an astronomer observing the mysterious disappearance of a pair of stars, and follows with humankind setting together a space expedition to investigate said stars. But the machinations and struggles between CEO's of vast enterprises and politicians behind the scene of the space expedition is not the only thing happening since multiple small and big stories are told in a mix; stories about fanatic terrorists fighting something called “the Starflyer”, a family man who want to move to a better and less industrialized planet for his kids' sake, a man traveling and investigating the universe's mysteries, a police officer investigating a double murder.....etc. etc. As I said, many small and big stories that come together into a huge and complex story about humankind, human civilization and first contact. I'm amazed at Hamilton's ability to write such a complex and huge story and make it into such a page turner. It's an amazing book and definitely a must read. I look forward to read the second book (which also is 1000+ pages long )

Did that help at all? I'm not good at explaining why I like a book/story. For me, books usually are either bad, good or wonderful.