Misspent Youth

Rating:
Summary: Wokmanlike.
Review: In some senses a sad fable set in a similar universe as Hamilton's earlier Mindstorm/Nanoflower books, this almost Faustian tale of a man bring given his youth veers from wild descriptions of exactly what a non-Viagra enhanced 20- going on 80 year old man can get up to when the flesh as well as the spirit is willing, to a damning indictment of the future of the European union project, especially as visions of seccession of England from the EU are raised.

Less turgid than his Reality Disfunction, Hamilton manages to return to his roots and deliver a great story in a single book. Though some of its scenes will no doubt be be considered by some as voyeuristic, the plot has some deeply thought provoking moments.

Rating:
Summary: Wokmanlike.
Review: In some senses a sad fable set in a similar universe as Hamilton's earlier Mindstorm/Nanoflower books, this almost Faustian tale of a man bring given his youth veers from wild descriptions of exactly what a non-Viagra enhanced 20- going on 80 year old man can get up to when the flesh as well as the spirit is willing, to a damning indictment of the future of the European union project, especially as visions of seccession of England from the EU are raised.

Less turgid than his Reality Disfunction, Hamilton manages to return to his roots and deliver a great story in a single book. Though some of its scenes will no doubt be be considered by some as voyeuristic, the plot has some deeply thought provoking moments.

Rating:
Summary: How favorite authors can fail...
Review: Peter Hamilton has been one of my favorite authors, but this book is, I am sorry to say, an absolute waste of time.
Written around unrealistic teenagers sexual dreams (willing girls, very potent man) and ending like the author didn't knew how to end it. The theme of rejuvenation and the effects on personal life unsatisfactorily worked out.
The only good thing is that, like all his books, it is an easy read, because he absolutely knows how to write.
Please, mr. Hamilton, go back to space opera and hard SF.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but not what I've come to expect from Hamilton
Review: Peter Hamilton is probably my favorite author for his Night's Dawn Trilogy, Fallen Dragon, and the recent Pandora's Star, so I had high hopes for this book as well. While this book isn't bad, it just doesn't live up to the standard set in Hamilton's other books.

First of all, this book is much more driven by the characters than the story or the setting, which is somewhat different than the other books I mentioned where Hamilton does a great job of creating a complicated believable setting for the stories to take place. This story is set much closer to the present, so he does not have as much leeway to mold the setting which is what he really seems to excel at. Despite this, however, I really thought that it would be interesting to see one of the technologies Hamilton uses so well to shape his stories in its infant stages instead of when it is already perfected and widespread. And that part of the story was pretty good. But the characters, while likeable and interesting, just weren't all that believable, which is more important in this story as it is driven mainly by the characters.

The first part of the story is spent painting Jeff as one kind of person, then throughout the story we see that he isn't that at all, but is something much different than we have been led to believe, and that also is pretty well done. The problem comes in towards the end of the story when we're again led to believe that he is the kind of person that we started with, despite the bulk of the story which assures us that he isn't. It just isn't very well done.

If you're a fan of Hamilton, this is probably worth reading, but just don't expect the same quality, or the same epic feel of some of his other work.